Israel expands the demolitions of west coast refugee homes

At night, the Israeli forces entered the camp of Repan-Janin of the occupied West coast and began ordering their 20,000 Palestinian residents to leave their homes, 66-year-old Dzhumaa Zaway said he would refuse.

“My family all left, but I told them I had to stay if the Israeli forces came to attack our house, I wanted to be there to stop damaging.”

What followed were three days of fear, with the constant sound of firing, explosions and drones flying through the neighborhood, and the issuance of orders that Juma could not express among the noise. Then the water and electricity were cut off, his phone ran out of the battery and Juma felt he could no longer stay.

Now, three months later, Jumaya stands on a hill in the town of Jenin, looking over the city city of the refugee camp, where he and the other residents are still prevented from returning from the Israeli military.

He tries to see if his home was one of the many destroyed by the Israeli forces during their operations against the Palestinian armed groups that were present in the camp. The sound of current explosions can be heard below.

“Some people told me that they thought our building was demolished, but we don't know for sure,” Jumaa says, struggling to express himself through his emotion.

The father of the nine who worked in construction remained three months in a distance, turned into a school for the displaced residents of the camp. He has now moved to accommodation for students he shares with his brother.

Prior to the outbreak of the Gaza war in October 2023, Israel was already involved in a military campaign against armed groups on the West Coast.

A number of groups appeared in densely populated city refugee camps created for Palestinians, fled or were expelled from their homes during the war, followed by the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948.

The main groups in Jenin Camp are related to Palestinian Islamic jihad and Hamas. Their fighters have mostly attacked Israeli military forces, along with sporadic attacks against Israeli settlers on the west coast.

The number of fighters is unknown, but local journalists estimate that there were about 150 fighters in the camp of Jenin, both from Israel and the Palestinian power.

The Palestinian Administration, which runs parts of the west coast, began its own repression at the Jenin camp in December 2024, and its forces withdrew only when the Israeli military began their main operation there in January.

The Israeli Defense Minister called the Terror Nests Camps, and in January he intensified his campaign against armed groups operating inside them – entering and blocking a number of refugee camps on the northern west coast, which is home to tens of thousands of Palestinians.

He ordered the residents to leave and a wave of demolition buildings began, while giving some residents brief opportunities to collect things.

But since Israel almost completely blocks access to the camps and does not publicly announce which buildings have destroyed, many Palestinians are distracted whether they have a home to return to.

UN UN Refugee Refugee Agency says its best estimate is that Israel destroyed at least 260 buildings containing about 800 apartments during Operation Iron Wall, focusing on three refugee camps in the northern part of the west coast: Jenin, Tulkarem. UNRWA estimates that 42,000 Palestinians have been displaced from January camps.

In February, the Israeli military announced that they had killed 60 fighters in their operations and arrested 280 others. In the meantime, Palestinian health officials say 100 people have been killed on the west coast since the start of the operation in January to Israel to the present.

Defense Minister Israel Katz said the army was destroying weapons and infrastructure “on a rich scale” and stated that he had instructed the military to stay in the refugee camps for one year and prevent residents from returning there.

The Israeli military told the BBC that militias “operate the civilian population as human shields and threaten them by planting explosive devices and hiding weapons.”

On May 1, Israel gave the Palestinian staff on the West Coast a new map of 106 buildings, which is said to be demolished in Tulkarem and Nur Shams Refugee camps in the next 24 hours for “military purposes”. It says residents can apply for a short window to return home to extract basic things.

Assistance agencies say that Israel's campaign has caused the most forced displacement of the Palestinians on the West Bank for decades.

“What is happening is unprecedented,” says Roland Friedrich, Director of the Western Bank of UNRWA.

“With regard to the number of displaced people and the level of destruction, we have never seen anything similar since 1967,” he added, referring to the year when Israel began its military occupation on the West Coast.

While shooting an interview with Jenin's mayor, the BBC witness the Israeli forces detained several Palestinians, including workers in the municipality trying to enter the camp to clear the route to a nearby hospital. They were kept for three hours before being released.

“There are big challenges in providing citizens' services. As everyone knows, the infrastructure in the Jenin camp is completely demolished,” says Mayor Mohammed Jarar.

“Israel's goal is to try to make Jenin Camp completely unfit to live and I tell you that it has become completely unchanging now.”

The Israeli blockade of refugee camps on the west coast has created information about what is happening in almost impossible, says Roland Friedrich, including the exact degree of destruction.

Jumaa is among some of the displaced Palestinians to whom he received a short visit from the Israeli forces to extract things. He was able to just take his UN card and the family dog. Then two months later, in March, Israel issued a map of over 90 buildings, which he identified for destruction in Jenin. Juma's residence looked among them.

The Israeli military told the BBC that it was necessary to demolish these buildings in order to improve the “freedom of movement” for its forces, but did not confirm whether Juma's home was indeed destroyed.

The BBC compared the March map of Israel with satellite images of Jenin, a week later. We were able to confirm that by March 27, at least 33 buildings on the list, including Jumaa, were destroyed. Satellite images reveal that much larger destruction has been carried out since January, including the construction of new roads by the Israeli forces, where buildings have previously stood.

“Why did they demolish my house? I want to know. I want the Israeli army to give me a justification. I had no ties with fighters. I am a peaceful man,” says Jumaa.

“I worked at work for 50 years to build my home.”

Although he learned that his house had been demolished, Jumaya remains insistent that she would return home.

“I will not leave the camp. If they do not allow me to restore my house, I will put a tent in its place,” he said.

“Isn't it enough that my family was displaced in 1948, now we have to face displacement again?”

Additional reporting by Lina Shahoni and Daniele Palumbbo.