UN warns West Bank displacement of 33,000 Palestinians raises ethnic-cleansing concerns

Israeli forces forcibly displaced the entire Palestinian populations of three refugee camps in the northern West Bank during a 2025 military operation and have continued to prevent their return, a UN Human Rights Office report said Friday.

The report said more than 33,000 Palestinians were displaced from the Jenin, Tulkarm and Nur Shams refugee camps during Israel's Operation Iron Wall, which began on January 21, 2025. It said the scale and duration of the displacement raised serious concerns over the crime against humanity of forcible transfer and possible ethnic cleansing.

According to the report, Israeli military and security forces used airstrikes, armoured bulldozers and controlled demolitions that left large parts of the camps uninhabitable. By October 2025, about 52% of structures in Jenin camp, 48% in Nur Shams and 36% in Tulkarm had been destroyed or damaged, the report said.

The UN said the operation also damaged roads and other infrastructure, disrupted water and electricity supplies and restricted humanitarian access. It said residents were forced to leave through door-to-door operations and that those displaced had subsequently been prevented from returning.

As of July 2026, 33,362 displaced Palestinian refugees from the three camps remained unable to return, according to UNRWA figures cited in the report.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said the way the operation was conducted suggested that its aim was to expel Palestinians and make way for further Israeli settlement expansion. The report also said some displaced Palestinians told UN investigators that Israeli officers had told them there would be no more refugee camps and that they should “all go to Jordan”.

Israel has rejected accusations of unlawful displacement and ethnic cleansing, arguing that its military operations are aimed at armed Palestinian groups. Israeli officials have previously said the operation was intended to dismantle militant infrastructure in the northern West Bank.

On February 23, 2025, then-Defence Minister Israel Katz said around 40,000 Palestinians had left the Jenin, Tulkarm and Nur Shams camps and ordered troops to remain in the area for an extended period while preventing residents from returning.

The UN report said the use of force to render entire camps uninhabitable, combined with preventing residents from returning in the absence of imperative military necessity, was not permitted under international law and appeared to amount to collective punishment.