The Israeli occupation forces have issued demolition notices targeting more than 100 homes in the Jenin refugee camp in the northern West Bank. This marks a significant escalation in what appears to be a deliberate policy of collective punishment and urban cleansing in Palestinian refugee camps — actions that may constitute mass atrocities under international law.
According to local sources, Israeli forces distributed detailed maps indicating the specific houses slated for demolition across several neighbourhoods in the camp. Residents were given 72 hours to evacuate before the demolitions commence.
The homes house hundreds of Palestinians, including families who have lived there for decades. The majority of the residents are women and children.
This latest escalation is part of a broader campaign waged by Israeli authorities throughout the West Bank, particularly targeting refugee camps. In March alone, over 66 homes were demolished in Jenin camp.
Estimates suggest that the ongoing assault, now into its sixth month, has resulted in partial or total destruction of approximately 600 homes and structures in the camp — highlighting the vast scale of civilian infrastructure being targeted.
Simultaneously, the Israeli military continues large-scale demolitions in Tulkarm refugee camp for the fourth consecutive day. Dozens of buildings have already been destroyed in the neighbourhoods of Balawna and Al-Okasha, part of a plan targeting 106 residential structures in Tulkarm and Nour Shams camps — comprising over 250 housing units and numerous commercial and public service facilities.
This systematic policy cannot be divorced from the broader practice of collective punishment against the Palestinian people. These demolitions are carried out with no legal justification, in flagrant disregard for fair trial guarantees or due process required by international law.
The resulting forced displacement amounts to a war crime and a crime against humanity under the Geneva Conventions and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
Thousands of Palestinians now face the threat of being forcibly uprooted — many of whom are already refugees expelled from their original villages during the 1948 Nakba. The destruction of their current homes represents a renewed attack on their identity and existence, as part of a sustained effort to depopulate the land of its indigenous inhabitants and fragment the Palestinian social fabric.
The ongoing silence and inaction of the international community only emboldens the occupation to continue these blatant violations. These demolitions are not mere military operations; they are a strategic weapon in a broader war to uproot Palestinians from their land and erase their presence through force and destruction.
What is happening in Jenin, Tulkarm, and across the West Bank is nothing short of a systematic ethnic cleansing campaign in service of a colonial settlement project — aimed at dismantling Palestinian life and imposing new facts on the ground by brute force.
