Israel’s Expulsion of West Bank Camps is ‘War Crime, Ethnic Cleansing’ – HRW

November 20, 2025 News
Israeli army forcibly displace Palestinians from Tulkarm. (Photo: Wahaj Bani Moufleh, via Media Committee in Tulkarem Camp.)

By Palestine Chronicle Staff  

Since January, at least 32,000 people reportedly displaced from the camps have not been permitted to return to their homes, many of which Israel forces have deliberately demolished, according to HRW.

Israel’s forced displacement of the populations of three West Bank refugee camps in January and February 2025 amounts to war crimes and crimes against humanity, Human Rights Watch (HRW) announced in a new report on Thursday.

At least 32,000 people reportedly displaced from the camps have not been permitted to return to their homes, many of which Israel forces have deliberately demolished, HRW stated.

The 105-page report, “‘All My Dreams Have Been Erased’: Israel’s Forced Displacement of Palestinians in the West Bank,” details the Israeli military operation dubbed Operation Iron Wall. Launched across Jenin, Tulkarem, and Nur Shams refugee camps, the operation began on January 21, 2025, days after a temporary ceasefire was announced in Gaza.

Israeli forces issued abrupt orders to civilians to leave their homes, including with loudspeakers mounted on drones, the report stated. Witnesses said soldiers moved methodically through the camps, storming homes, ransacking properties, interrogating residents, and eventually forcing all families out.

“With global attention focused on Gaza, Israeli forces have carried out war crimes, crimes against humanity, and ethnic cleansing in the West Bank that should be investigated and prosecuted,” Nadia Hardman, senior refugee and migrant rights researcher at HRW said.

Refugees’ Testimonies

The rights group interviewed 31 displaced Palestinian refugees from the three camps analyzed satellite imagery and Israeli military demolition orders “confirming the widespread destruction.” At the same time, researchers also analyzed and verified videos and photographs of the Israeli military operations.

Israeli forces stormed Jenin refugee camp on January 21, deploying Apache helicopters, drones, bulldozers, and armored vehicles to support hundreds of ground troops who forced people from their homes, the report stated.

Some residents told HRW that they saw bulldozers demolishing buildings as they were being expelled. The military provided no shelter or humanitarian assistance to displaced residents, it noted.

Similar operations took place in Tulkarem refugee camp on January 27 and in nearby Nur Shams camp on February 9.

Israeli soldiers “were yelling and throwing things everywhere…. It was like a movie scene – some had masks and they were carrying all kinds of weapons. One of the soldiers said, ‘You don’t have a house here anymore. You need to leave,’” a 54-year-old said.

Denied ‘Right to Return’

Since the raids, Israeli authorities “have denied residents the right to return to the camps, even with no active military operations in the vicinity,” the report emphasized.

Those trying to reach their homes have been fired upon by Israeli soldiers, and only a few have been allowed to collect their belongings. The military “has bulldozed, razed, and cleared spaces for apparently wider access routes inside the camps, and have blocked all entrances,” the report stated.

Satellite Imagery of Destruction

Six months later, more than 850 homes and other buildings had been destroyed or heavily damaged across the three camps, according to HRW analysis of satellite imagery.

A preliminary satellite imagery assessment by the United Nations Satellite Center from October 2025, “found that 1,460 buildings sustained damage in the three camps, including 652 that showed signs of moderate damage,” the report revealed.

Refugees since 1948

It also highlighted that the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) established the three camps in the early 1950s to house Palestinians who were expelled from their homes or forced to flee following Israel’s creation in 1948.

“Those refugees—those displaced and their descendants—had resided there ever since,” HRW said.

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The rights group said Israeli officials have not responded to its queries about when, “if ever”, Israel will allow the Palestinians to return.

The Israeli authorities’ “forced removal of Palestinians from the camps also amounted to ethnic cleansing, a non-legal term to describe the unlawful removal one ethnic or religious group from an area by another ethnic or religious group,” HRW warned.

“The raids were carried out while the spotlight has been on Gaza, where Israeli authorities have committed war crimes, ethnic cleansing, crimes against humanity—including forced displacement and extermination—and acts of genocide,” it added.

Call for ICC Probe

HRW urged the International Criminal Court (ICC) “to investigate Israeli officials credibly implicated, including as a matter of command responsibility, in atrocity crimes in the West Bank.”

Those who should be investigated include Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth, the Central Command commander who was in charge of West Bank military operations, and oversaw camp raids and demolition orders; Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi and Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, who each served as Chief of the General Staff of the Israeli military; Minister in the Defense Ministry, Bezalel Smotrich, who sits on the security cabinet and also serves as Finance Minister; Defense Minister Israel Katz; and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Israel’s Silent War: State-Sanctioned Jewish-mob Terror in the West Bank

The group also called on governments to impose targeted sanctions against Bluth, Zamir, Smotrich, Katz, Netanyahu, and other Israeli officials implicated in ongoing grave abuses in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

They should also press Israeli authorities to end their repressive policies and to impose an arms embargo, suspend preferential trade agreements with Israel, ban trade with illegal settlements, and enforce ICC arrest warrants, HRW added.

Call for Targeted Sanctions

“Israel’s escalating abuses in the West Bank underscore why governments, despite the fragile ceasefire in Gaza, should urgently act to prevent Israeli authorities from escalating their repression of Palestinians,” Hardman stated.

“They should impose targeted sanctions on Prime Minister Netanyahu, Defense Minister Katz, and other senior officials responsible for grave crimes against Palestinians and enforce all International Criminal Court warrants,” the HRW official emphasized.

Israel Raids Dozens of Homes in West Bank Town, Hundreds Detained

The Israeli army has escalated its attacks in the occupied West Bank since the launch of its genocidal assault on Gaza in October 2023. Since then, more than 1,076 Palestinians have since been killed, and 10,700 others injured in attacks by the army and illegal settlers in the occupied territory, according to figures cited by the Anadolu news agency. In addition, more than 20,500 Palestinians have been detained.

In a landmark advisory opinion last July, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) declared that Israel’s continued presence in the occupied Palestinian territory was unlawful and that Tel Aviv was under obligation to immediately cease all new illegal settlement activities and evacuate all settlers from the occupied territory.

(The Palestine Chronicle)

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