The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) issued a stark warning about escalating Israeli military operations in the northern West Bank, which have led to widespread destruction and forced displacement of Palestinian civilians.
In a statement released Wednesday, UNRWA confirmed that refugee camps in Jenin, Tulkarem, and Nur Shams have been forcibly emptied, with residents barred from returning.
The agency described the situation as a “cyclical displacement crisis,” driven by military incursions, settler violence, and the expansion of illegal paramilitary Israeli colonies.
These actions, UNRWA warned, are laying the groundwork for formal annexation of Palestinian land.
The agency also condemned recent Israeli legislation targeting UNRWA’s operations. As a result of these laws, six UNRWA schools in East Jerusalem were forcibly shut down in May 2025, affecting nearly 800 children.
In addition, ten schools in Jenin, Tulkarem, and Nur Shams remain closed due to ongoing military offensive under Israel’s so-called “Operation Iron Wall”.
More than 4,000 children have been displaced from their classrooms and are now relying on remote learning and temporary education programs.
UNRWA further reported that international staff have been expelled from their posts, and the agency has lost all formal contact with Israeli authorities—making it impossible to coordinate humanitarian aid or raise concerns about civilian safety.
The agency emphasized that over 30,000 Palestinians remain displaced in the northern West Bank, one-third of whom are children.
The use of airstrikes, armored bulldozers, and advanced weaponry in densely populated civilian areas has rendered many refugee camps uninhabitable.
UNRWA reiterated its call for the protection of civilians and civilian infrastructure, warning that the current trajectory threatens to replicate the devastation seen during the second intifada.
Israeli occupation forces and illegal paramilitary colonizers have killed 220 Palestinian citizens in the occupied West Bank, including 40 children and 6 women, since the beginning of this year.
Occupation forces have killed 74 Palestinians in Jenin, 39 in Nablus, 29 in Tubas, 17 in Tulkarem, 18 in Hebron, 17 in Ramallah, 9 in Bethlehem, 7 in Jerusalem, 6 in Qalqilia, 3 in Salfit, and 1 in Jericho, according to the Shireen Observatory.
Since October 7, 2023, Israeli soldiers and paramilitary colonizers have killed 1,056 Palestinians, including 213 children, 22 women, 1 journalist and 2 medics in the West Bank, and still refuses to release the bodies of 263 slain Palestinians.
In the Gaza Strip, Israel has killed at least 67,252 Palestinians, including 20,178 children, 12,236 women, 4,820 elders and 301 journalists, and injured more than 170,203, the majority of whom are children, women and elderly, since October 7, 2023.
