Eyewitnesses reported that Israeli military bulldozers began demolishing homes in the Abdullah Azzam neighborhood within the camp, noting that two homes had been demolished so far. The witnesses added that on Thursday, the Israeli army allowed several families to enter their homes to remove their belongings before the demolition began.
Earlier on Friday, the occupation army announced its intention to demolish 24 buildings inside the Jenin camp, claiming that there was a danger, and claimed in a statement that "the clear and necessary operational need requires the demolition of buildings inside the Jenin camp," as it put it.
On November 12, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that satellite images showed that some 1,460 buildings had been destroyed or severely and moderately damaged in the Jenin, Nur Shams and Tulkarm camps in the northern West Bank.
The demolitions are part of an ongoing Israeli offensive that began on Wednesday in the Jenin and Tubas governorates in the northern West Bank.
Geographic reshaping
Meanwhile, the occupation army began deploying heavy machinery inside the Tulkarm and Nur Shams camps in the northern West Bank, in a move that is considered a prelude to a geographical reshaping of the camps, aimed at facilitating the army’s movement in the camps for military purposes.
Tulkarm Deputy Governor Faisal Salameh told Anadolu Agency that "the Israeli side began on Friday deploying machinery and trucks in the Tulkarm and Nur Shams camps to pave and rehabilitate roads at the expense of houses that were demolished during recent months."
He stated that the Israeli occupation army “completely demolished about two thousand housing units in the two camps, leaving thousands of families homeless, while about four thousand other units were partially damaged,” indicating that these roads are being built and paved to facilitate the movement of the occupation army inside the camps and for purely military purposes.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said on Thursday that “about 32,000 people are still forcibly displaced from camps in the northern West Bank, as a result of the ongoing Israeli military operations since January 21, which included the Jenin, Tulkarm and Nur Shams camps.”
UNRWA stated that the Israeli operation turned the Palestinian camps into "ghost towns" after they had previously been "vibrant." The director of UNRWA affairs in the occupied West Bank, Roland Friedrich, pointed out that the Israeli occupation army continues to issue new demolition orders under the pretext of "military purposes."
Frederick explained that the Israeli orders recently included the complete demolition of 12 buildings in the Jenin camp and the partial demolition of 11 buildings. The months of March and June witnessed mass demolitions of more than 190 buildings, in addition to the controlled demolition of 20 buildings last February.
The UN official stressed that this "systematic destruction is contrary to international law" and reinforces the occupation's long-term control over the camps, emphasizing that the areas need rebuilding, not further destruction, and that their residents must be allowed to return to their homes and resume their lives.
The Israeli occupation army and settlers have continued their attacks in the West Bank for more than two years through raids, arrests and assassinations, in conjunction with the ongoing genocidal war in the Gaza Strip since October 8, 2023 until today.
According to official Palestinian data, Israeli attacks in the West Bank have resulted in the martyrdom of more than 1,085 Palestinians, the injury of about 11,000, and the arrest of more than 20,500 people since the start of the genocide committed by Tel Aviv in Gaza.
