Israel’s war on homes: From Hebron to Gaza and southern Lebanon

Roland Friedrich, UNRWA’s West Bank director, said the recent scenes in Hebron recall the mass displacement that occurred in the northern occupied West Bank in early 2025, when Israeli military operations emptied the Jenin, Tulkarem and Nur Shams refugee camps.

More than 34,000 Palestinian refugees from those three camps remain displaced, according to UNRWA, over a year after Israel launched its “Iron Wall” operation in January 2025. The offensive has destroyed more than half of the camps’ residential buildings.

OCHA’s demolition records capture only a fraction of the destruction. Between 2009 and October 2026 the agency logged 1,399 buildings demolished in the Jenin and Tulkarem governorates, displacing 4,139 people. These records track demolitions carried out for lack of permits or as punitive measures, not those destroyed during military raids.

A study by the research group Forensic Architecture uncovered evidence of deliberate, systematic destruction. Investigators verified more than 200 incidents involving the demolition of buildings and streets across four refugee camps, using armoured bulldozers, controlled explosions and air strikes. The team found that roads were widened through homes and gardens to create routes for military vehicles, concluding that Israel is applying tactics in the occupied West Bank similar to those employed in Gaza.

In February 2025, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said that Tulkarem and Jenin would come to resemble Jabalia and Shujayea, two of Gaza’s most devastated areas.

The raids have continued unabated. Last week Israeli forces detained four Palestinians in Tulkarem, and in the village of Burin, south of Nablus, troops converted several homes into military barracks, mirroring actions observed in Hebron.

Near Jenin, the army ordered the residents of an entire village to leave permanently. “I have sheep and cows. Our entire lives are tied to this land,” said farmer Jabri Yahya. “Last year they uprooted our olive trees, and this year they want to force us to leave. We don’t know where to go.”

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