When Mutawakil al-Mohamad and his family woke up on June 25th, Israeli soldiers were gunning down on their front doors.
In occupied East Jerusalem, they would have to wake up at their family home for the last time.
Al-Mohamad was concerned that the soldiers would raid his home and arrest him or his loved ones when the Israeli forces arrived at 7am in military convoys with two heavy bulldozers.
Instead, the soldiers informed the family that their home was in a “military zone” and that they should leave right away to prevent bulldozing it.
“My young children are scared,” I said to the soldiers as I opened the door. I requested ten minutes from them, and then we would all leave the house,” al-Mohamed said. He recalled the soldiers as having complied from Ramallah, the now-domicile of the occupied West Bank.
displacement and demolition
More Palestinian homes being destroyed by Israel in the occupied West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem, in 2025 than in any other year since the occupation first started in 1967.
According to the United Nations, Israeli authorities have already destroyed 783 structures, which does not include the extensive destruction in refugee camps. This has resulted in the forced displacement of 1, 119 people.
As part of the military raids it launched at the start of this year, Israel has destroyed about 600 structures in the Jenin camp and a total of 300 in the Tulkarem and Nur Shams camps, according to information Al Jazeera obtained from the Palestinian human rights organization Al-Haq.
According to human rights organizations, civilians, and analysts, Israel’s real goal is to force Palestinians to flee if they can, as evidenced by its systematic home demolitions and forced displacement.
“Israel’s objectives in Gaza and the West Bank are the same.” It wants to take aim at all Palestinians, according to Al-Haq’s Murad Jadallah, a researcher into human rights.
Jadallah argued that the West Bank’s unprecedented destruction of Gaza has been stifled by Israel’s war in the region, which many experts have referred to as a genocide.
He told Al Jazeera, “Israel is profiting from the images of destruction it has created in Gaza to advance its agenda in the West Bank.”
little assistance
About 40, 000 Palestinians have fled Israeli military operations in West Bank refugee camps since the start of the year.
Many people have had trouble finding affordable alternative lodging, according to Jadallah, renting in whatever villages where they can find it, staying with relatives in overcrowded homes, or languishing in public buildings that have been converted into shelters for displaced people.
Ahmed Gaeem, 60, recalls Israeli soldiers removing his, his wife, five children, grandchildren, siblings, nieces, and nephews from their Tulkarem refugee camp building in March.
Israeli soldiers informed the family that Tulkarem had been designated a “military zone” and that they would not be permitted to return there for some time.
We left with nothing but the clothes on our backs. We didn’t have enough time to pack anything, Gaeem told Al Jazeera.
One of Gaeem’s sons managed to make a brief return from a distance to assess the damage to their home a few weeks into Israel’s military campaign.
Their house was destroyed, just like countless others. Its walls caved in, the door hinges were blown off, and its windows were shattered.
For a family that relys on mediocre savings, Gaeem’s family is currently renting three homes in Iktaba village, just a few kilometers from Tulkarem city, for a total rent of about $1,300.
Gaeem noted that despite receiving $500 per month as a Palestinian Authority (PA) civil servant, the PA’s ongoing economic crisis has prevented him from receiving any pay in months.
Due to diminishing donor support and Israel’s refusal to hand over tax revenue collected on its behalf, a practice described in the Oslo Accords, the PA has struggled to pay its staff for the past few years.
The Oslo peace agreements, which were signed by the Israeli and Palestinian leaders, gave birth to the Palestinian Authority itself. In the years that followed, the agreements purportedly aimed for the establishment of a Palestinian state.
unprecedented crisis
The West Bank was divided into three zones by the Oslo Agreements.
While Israel remained in complete control of Area C, the PA was tasked with directing security, executive, and security operations in Area A and Area B.
After encircling and then destroying Palestinian homes and communities in Area C, a largely agricultural region that makes up about 60% of the West Bank, this control allowed Israel to quietly and gradually expand illegal settlements.
The Israeli army issued two orders in July, giving it the authority previously held by the PA only under the Oslo Accords to destroy homes in Area B. With the orders, Israel was able to control building and planning regulations as well as those governing agricultural sites.
Prior to these measures, Areas A and B were most frequently destroyed as reprisals for Palestinians who opposed the occupation. Palestinian residents who claim owners do not have building permits now have a legal basis to demolish them.
Human rights organizations claim that as part of a wider strategy of seizing Palestinian homes and land, Israel consistently denies Palestinians the right to build buildings.
The UN documented the destruction of 49 structures in Areas A and B among the record number of demolitions carried out in the West Bank this year.
Israel is prohibited from establishing settlements or outposts anywhere in occupied Palestinian territory under international law.
Tahani Mustafa, a West Bank expert with the International Crisis Group, noted that the expansion of demolitions in Areas A and B and the implementation of Israel’s changes to Area B are unprecedented.
She added that Area A appears to be where Palestinians are confined to ever smaller parcels of land. Israel’s ultimate goal, she said, is to make Palestinians in urban centers live more inhospitably, likely through more checkpoints and barriers to encroach on people’s lives, and by conducting more raids.
People like al-Mohamed are already worried that his family may be evicted as a result of Israel’s continued assault on Palestinians in the West Bank.
He claimed that most Palestinians believe Israel will focus its energies on the West Bank cities once its military operations in nearby camps are over.
He told Al Jazeera, “It’s difficult for us to travel anywhere else besides the West Bank.”
Source: Aljazeera
Leave a Reply