Israel’s emptying of West Bank refugee camps amounts to war crimes: HRW

The Israeli military’s forced displacement of Palestinians from three refugee camps in the occupied West Bank earlier this year amounts to war crimes and a crime against humanity, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has said.

In a 105-page report released on Thursday, the rights group said the Israeli military forced 32,000 Palestinians out of their homes in the Jenin, Tulkarem, and Nur Shams refugee camps, starting in January of this year.
The forced evictions were carried out “without regard to international legal protections”, and Israel has not allowed residents to return, said Nadia Hardman, a senior refugee and migrant rights researcher at HRW.

Satellite images also showed that more than 850 homes and other buildings were destroyed or heavily damaged across the three refugee camps that were targeted by the Israeli military, the report said.

“With global attention focused on Gaza, Israeli forces have carried out war crimes, crimes against humanity, and ethnic cleansing in the West Bank that should be investigated and prosecuted,” Hardman said.

The report comes as Palestinians across the West Bank have faced a wave of intensified Israeli military and settler violence in the shadow of Israel’s Gaza war, which has killed more than 69,000 people in the coastal enclave since October 2023.