DaysofPal – Alongside the destruction in the Gaza Strip, thousands of Palestinians are being forcibly removed from their homes in the occupied West Bank due to Israeli policies that openly violate international law.
A report released last week by Human Rights Watch (HRW) revealed that 32,000 Palestinians have been expelled from just three refugee camps, Jenin, Nur Shams, and Tulkarem, since the beginning of the year. The large-scale Israeli military operations in these camps, which began in January, constitute the largest mass displacement in the West Bank since 1967, according to HRW.
This wave of expulsions is occurring amid a sharp escalation in violence across the West Bank. Since October 7, 2023, and alongside Israel’s ongoing war on Gaza, more than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces and settlers, while residents of illegal settlements carry out increasingly frequent and violent attacks on Palestinian communities.
Forced Evictions and Home Demolitions Surge
In Area C, the 60 percent of the occupied West Bank where Israel maintains full authority, the United Nations reported in November that over 1,000 Palestinians were displaced due to home demolitions. An additional 500 Palestinians lost their homes in occupied East Jerusalem.
Israel routinely cites the lack of building permits to justify demolitions, even though obtaining such permits is, as UN agencies note, “almost impossible” for Palestinians.
With demolitions, raids, and expulsions accelerating, Israel continues to face little international accountability, even as rights groups urge investigations into Israeli military and political officials for the destruction of refugee camps and the forced displacement of civilians.
“We are witnessing the total abandonment of Palestinian lives,” said Yuli Novak, executive director of the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem. “The situation in the West Bank is deteriorating by the day because there is no mechanism, internal or external, to restrain Israel or halt its policy of ethnic cleansing. The international community must act to end Israel’s impunity.”
Israel’s Endgame: Annexation of the West Bank
Numerous Israeli officials have openly declared that their objective is the annexation of the West Bank.
In October, Israel’s parliament advanced a bill granting preliminary approval for extending Israeli sovereignty over the occupied territory, an act considered a serious violation of international law.
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a hardline settler who lives in an illegal settlement, has repeatedly articulated his vision for the West Bank: absorbing it into Israel and preventing any possibility of a Palestinian state.
At a party gathering, Smotrich said his mission was to “establish facts on the ground” to ensure that “Judea and Samaria [the West Bank] become an integral part of the state of Israel.” He vowed to legalize illegal settler outposts, saying, “My life’s mission is to thwart the establishment of a Palestinian state.”
More than 700,000 Israeli settlers now live on Palestinian land in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. In August, Smotrich announced the creation of the new “E1” settlement, involving 3,000 housing units designed to sever East Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank, which he described as a project meant to “bury the idea of a Palestinian state.”
Israel typically justifies demolitions and expulsions by invoking planning regulations or declaring Palestinian communities to be located in “closed military zones.” The UN’s humanitarian office, OCHA, notes that these justifications mask an underlying reality: Palestinians are effectively prevented from building legally in much of the West Bank.
In Jenin, Nur Shams, and Tulkarem camps, Israel claimed the mass displacement was part of “Operation Iron Wall,” aimed at eliminating armed resistance. But months after the military first entered the camps, residents remain barred from returning, and bulldozers have destroyed large sections of the camps.
Israel’s military described the demolitions as an “operational necessity,” adding that residents could petition the Supreme Court. All petitions, including those citing violations of international humanitarian law, were rejected.
Settler Violence Reaches Record Levels
Violence from Israeli settlers, who live illegally on occupied Palestinian land, has surged dramatically. In October alone, OCHA recorded over 260 settler attacks, averaging eight incidents per day, the highest rate since record-keeping began in 2006.
During the olive harvest, settlers carried out widespread assaults on farmers, often under the protection or watch of Israeli soldiers. The Palestinian Farmers’ Union reported that these attacks are strategic, not random: deliberate attempts to destroy rural livelihoods and pressure Palestinians to abandon their land.
Palestinians say that settler groups, emboldened by the presence of settlers in senior cabinet positions, are working hand-in-hand with the state to make Palestinian life unlivable, ultimately seeking to push communities out of their ancestral lands.
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