The number of people evacuating in the northern part of the occupied West Bank has reached 40, 000 since January, according to UNRWA, which is responsible for the forced displacement of Palestinians.
As Israeli forces continued their extensive raids on Tuesday, storming Jenin, arresting three people, and destroying more than a dozen homes in two neighborhoods close to Hebron, UNRWA issued a warning.
The raids have spread to other areas of the occupied territory since an Israeli operation began on January 21 that targeted the Jenin refugee camp and its neighboring city, according to UNRWA.
It said several refugee camps, including Jenin, Tulkarem, Nur Shams and Far’a, have been “nearly emptied of their residents”, describing the nearly three-week military operation as “the single longest in the West Bank” since the second Intifada.
According to UNRWA, the four camps were collectively home to some 76, 600 Palestinian refugees.
UNRWA said the “repeated and destructive operations” carried out by Israeli forces “have rendered the northern refugee camps uninhabitable, trapping residents in cyclical displacement”.
“In 2024, more than 60 percent of displacement was a result of” Israeli forces ‘ operations, “absent any judicial orders”, it added.
In 2025 so far, UNRWA noted, Israel has carried out 38 air raids targeting the West Bank.
Nearly 70 people have died as a result of the Israeli operations in the West Bank, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data (ACLED), a crisis monitoring organization based in the US. At least 44 of those deaths were related to Israeli operations in Jenin, Tulkarem, and Tubas. The Palestinian Health Ministry backs these figures.
UNRWA reiterated its call to Israeli citizens to always defend civilians and civilian infrastructure, stressing that “collective punishment is never acceptable.”
UNRWA hasn’t spoken to the Israeli government since January 30; therefore, the organization hasn’t been able to raise concerns about the suffering of civilians in the Palestinian territory.
Source: Aljazeera
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