  {"id":305654,"date":"2025-02-10T16:15:19","date_gmt":"2025-02-10T21:15:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/?post_type=document&#038;p=305654"},"modified":"2025-02-10T16:15:19","modified_gmt":"2025-02-10T21:15:19","slug":"unrwa-large-scale-forced-displacement-unrwa-press-release-10feb25","status":"publish","type":"document","link":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/document\/unrwa-large-scale-forced-displacement-unrwa-press-release-10feb25\/","title":{"rendered":"UNRWA: Large-scale forced displacement in the West Bank impacts 40,000 people"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>10 February 2025<\/p>\n<div>\n<p><span xml:lang=\"EN-US\" data-contrast=\"auto\">The forced displacement of Palestinian communities in the northern West Bank is escalating at an alarming pace.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p><span xml:lang=\"EN-US\" data-contrast=\"auto\">Since the start of operation \u201cIron Wall\u201d by the Israeli Forces on 21 January, several refugee camps have been nearly emptied of their residents. The operation,\u00a0<\/span>ongoing for nearly three weeks, is now the single longest in the West Bank since the second intifada.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p><span xml:lang=\"EN-US\" data-contrast=\"auto\">Starting in Jenin Camp, the operation has expanded to Tulkarm, Nur Shams, and El\u00a0<\/span>Far\u2019a refugee camps and led to the displacement of 40,000\u00a0Palestine Refugees.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p><span xml:lang=\"EN-US\" data-contrast=\"auto\">The Israeli Forces began carrying out large-scale operations in the occupied West Bank in mid-2023. Since then, thousands of families have been forcibly displaced.\u202f Repeated and destructive operations have\u00a0<\/span>rendered the northern refugee camps uninhabitable, trapping residents in cyclical displacement. In 2024, more than 60 per cent of displacement was a result of Israeli Forces operations, absent any judicial orders.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p><span xml:lang=\"EN-US\" data-contrast=\"auto\">Forced displacement in the occupied West Bank is the result of an increasingly dangerous and\u00a0coercive environment. The use of air strikes,\u00a0<\/span>armoured bulldozers, controlled detonations, and advanced weaponry by the Israeli Forces has become commonplace \u2013 a spillover of the war in Gaza. Such militarised approaches are inconsistent with the law enforcement context of the occupied West Bank, where there have been at least 38 airstrikes in 2025 alone.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p><span xml:lang=\"EN-US\" data-contrast=\"auto\">Palestinian<\/span>\u00a0armed groups are also increasingly active in the northern West Bank, deploying improvised explosive devices inside refugee camps, including near UNRWA facilities and civilian infrastructure. They have engaged in violent clashes with both Israeli and Palestinian Forces. From December 2024 onwards, Palestinian Forces operations further exacerbated displacement from Jenin camp.<\/p>\n<p>UNRWA reiterates that civilians and civilian infrastructure must be protected at all times and that collective punishment is never acceptable.<\/p>\n<p><span data-olk-copy-source=\"MessageBody\">Jenin Camp stands empty today, evoking memories of the second intifada. This scene stands to be repeated in other camps.\u00a0 Under the Knesset laws implemented on 30 January, UNRWA no longer has any contact with the Israeli authorities, making it impossible to raise concerns about civilian suffering or the urgent need for the delivery of humanitarian assistance. This puts at grave risk the lives of Palestine Refugees and the UNRWA staff that serve them.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; 10 February 2025 The forced displacement of Palestinian communities in the northern West Bank is escalating at an alarming pace. Since the start of operation \u201cIron Wall\u201d by the Israeli Forces on 21 January, several refugee camps have been nearly emptied of their residents. The operation,\u00a0ongoing for nearly three weeks, is now the single <a href=\"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/document\/unrwa-large-scale-forced-displacement-unrwa-press-release-10feb25\/\"> [&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":299,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"country":[],"document-category":[1329],"document-source":[1817],"committee-meeting":[],"document-subject":[1769,1945,1741,1745,6251],"entity":[1729],"document-language":[6542],"class_list":["post-305654","document","type-document","status-publish","hentry","document-category-press-release","document-source-united-nations-relief-and-works-agency-for-palestine-refugees-in-the-near-east-unrwa","document-subject-armed-conflict","document-subject-assistance","document-subject-human-rights-and-international-humanitarian-law","document-subject-refugees-and-displaced-persons","document-subject-west-bank","entity-united-nations-system","document-language-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/305654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/document"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/299"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/305654\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":305656,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/305654\/revisions\/305656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=305654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"country","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/country?post=305654"},{"taxonomy":"document-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-category?post=305654"},{"taxonomy":"document-source","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-source?post=305654"},{"taxonomy":"committee-meeting","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/committee-meeting?post=305654"},{"taxonomy":"document-subject","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-subject?post=305654"},{"taxonomy":"entity","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/entity?post=305654"},{"taxonomy":"document-language","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-language?post=305654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}