Ten months after the 'Iron Wall' operation began, thousands of Palestinians remain displaced from West Bank refugee camps, with many fearing they will never return. Human Rights Watch reports about 32,000 people displaced and more than 850 homes demolished across three camps, and has accused the campaign of potential violations of international law. Israeli forces say the campaign has reduced militant activity but have not announced an end date. Displaced families are sheltering in schools and improvised communal spaces while protests for the right to return have been met with checkpoints and gunfire.
'No Way Back': West Bank Camp Residents Fear Permanent Displacement After 'Iron Wall' Operation
Ten months after the 'Iron Wall' operation began, thousands of Palestinians remain displaced from West Bank refugee camps, with many fearing they will never return. Human Rights Watch reports about 32,000 people displaced and more than 850 homes demolished across three camps, and has accused the campaign of potential violations of international law. Israeli forces say the campaign has reduced militant activity but have not announced an end date. Displaced families are sheltering in schools and improvised communal spaces while protests for the right to return have been met with checkpoints and gunfire.
05:57 AM, 11/21/2025Conflict
Ten months after he was forced out of Tulkarem refugee camp, 41-year-old Hakam Irhil remains uncertain he will ever return home. His house was demolished during a large-scale military operation launched in mid-January across several northern West Bank refugee camps. Irhil, a father of four, now lives with other displaced families in a nearby school and worries that temporary shelter will become permanent.
Human Rights Watch findings
The human rights group Human Rights Watch reports that roughly 32,000 Palestinians remain forcibly displaced as a result of the operation known as 'Iron Wall'. Over the past ten months the military has demolished more than 850 homes and other structures across three camps, cutting broad access routes through narrow alleyways to allow military vehicles to pass. HRW concluded that the removals and demolitions involved 'violations of international law, including war crimes and crimes against humanity', and said preventing returns and razing homes could amount to ethnic cleansing.
The Israeli military says the camps in Tulkarem and Jenin had become 'terror hubs, where terrorists operated from within civilian neighbourhoods', and it has reported a significant decrease in militant activity since the campaign began. The military has not provided a timetable for the operation's end.
Daily life under displacement
Irhil's family is one of 19 households now sheltering in a single school. 'There is no privacy at all,' he says. 'I'm living in a room that's actually a classroom — me and the five with me.' Families have improvised to survive: curtains for privacy, planters on ledges, classroom sinks used for washing dishes and clotheslines strung between columns.
Protests and restricted access
Near the Nur Shams camp, dozens of displaced residents staged a demonstration to demand the right to return. A new gate and checkpoints restrict access to camp roads, and protesters stopped to chant at the camp entrance amid rubble from damaged homes. Tensions escalated when gunfire erupted from inside the camp, where soldiers are stationed; a journalist covering the scene was wounded in the leg and the crowd dispersed. The military said demonstrators had entered a closed military zone and that soldiers fired at a person they described as a 'key disturber' who would not comply with orders.
Memory and uncertainty
Refugee camps in the West Bank, Gaza and neighbouring Arab countries were established after the 1948 Arab-Israeli war to shelter Palestinians who fled or were expelled during the creation of Israel. That event, known as the Nakba, remains central to Palestinian collective memory, and many camp residents fear history is repeating itself: they were told displacement would be temporary in 1948, and now again hope for a quick return.
'They say in January you will return. So in January we prepare ourselves, thinking we'll return to the camp, return to normal life,' Irhil says. 'Then another decision comes — February, March, April...'
The situation remains fluid: families live in cramped communal spaces while advocacy groups call for protections and the international community watches for developments that will determine whether displaced residents can ever go home.