Israeli West Bank offensives displace thousands: officials

Arab News

04-02-2025

Jonathan Fowler, UNRWA spokesman, said an estimated 2,450 to 3,000 families have been displaced from the Tulkarem refugee campFaisal Salama, head of the camp's popular committee, estimated that 80 percent of the camp's 15,000 residents have been displacedRAMALLAH: Israeli military offensives in two West Bank refugee camps have displaced nearly 5,500 Palestinian families since December, local and UN officials said Tuesday, amid escalating violence in the occupied territory.The Israeli military describes its ongoing operations as 'counterterrorism' efforts aimed at rooting out Palestinian militancy.Jonathan Fowler, spokesman for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), said an estimated 2,450 to 3,000 families have been displaced from the Tulkarem refugee camp.Faisal Salama, head of the camp's popular committee, estimated that 80 percent of the camp's 15,000 residents have been displaced.Both Salama and Fowler said that obtaining precise figures is challenging because of the security situation within the camp and its fluctuating population.'The displaced people from the camp are scattered in the suburbs and in the city of Tulkarem itself,' Salama told AFP.He said that six people had been killed and dozens wounded since the offensive began on January 25.'The bombing of residential homes in the camp continues, along with destruction and bulldozing of everything.'Salama also reported that the violence has severely restricted the movement of goods into the camp.'There is a shortage of water, no electricity, no communication and a lack of essential supplies such as milk for children, diapers, and medicine,' he added.Displacement has also been severe in Jenin, also in the northern West Bank, where the military launched an intensive assault it dubbed 'Iron Wall' on January 21.Fowler reported that 3,000 families — around 15,000 people — have fled Jenin refugee camp since December, initially when Palestinian security forces staged their own operation against militants and then later because of the Israeli offensive.Displacement has surged in recent days after the military assault inflicted further destruction on the camp.On Sunday, Israeli media and the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that Israeli forces had demolished 20 buildings in a single coordinated detonation in the camp.Both the Tulkarem and Jenin refugee camps are known strongholds of Palestinian militancy.A gunman attacked an Israeli military checkpoint in the northern West Bank at Tayasir on Tuesday, fatally wounding two soldiers before troops shot him dead, the military said.The Palestinian health ministry reported on Tuesday that 70 people had been killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank this year, 38 of them in Jenin.Israel's military says its forces had killed 'approximately 55 terrorists' across the West Bank in January, without specifying the locations.Its West Bank operations intensified following a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip on January 19.The Palestinian health ministry says Israeli troops and settlers have killed at least 884 Palestinians, including many militants, in the West Bank since the Gaza war began on October 7, 2023.Over the same period, at least 32 Israelis have been killed in Palestinian attacks or during Israeli military raids in the territory, official Israeli figures show.