In January 2025, the army launched a military operation in the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank, an operation that was later expanded to additional refugee camps. The operation resulted in extensive destruction of buildings, roads, and infrastructure; the blocking of access routes; and the closure of businesses, institutions providing essential services, as well as pharmacies and medical clinics. Electricity and telephone services were disabled, and damage was done to the water and sewage systems. About 40,000 residents of the refugee camps were displaced from their homes, either due to evacuation orders given by the army or as a result of the extensive destruction, blocked access routes, and mortal danger for those remaining. Only a few thousand were allowed to return to their homes in the Al-Far'ah refugee camp, while the rest were not even permitted to return and retrieve their belongings.
On March 2, 2025, we appealed to the Minister of Defense and the Commander of the Central Command demanding that residents be allowed to return to their homes, to rebuild the buildings and essential infrastructure that were damaged or destroyed during the operation, and to restore the refugee camps to a condition suitable for human habitation. Until then, we demanded that the displaced residents be provided with shelter, access to essential supplies and services including food and water, as well as medical and educational services.
In the appeal, Attorney Reut Shaer, ACRI’s Director of the Department for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, noted that according to international law, the Palestinian residents of the West Bank are protected residents, and the military commander is obligated to protect their rights, which includes access to essential services such as healthcare and education. She argued that the prohibition on the return of displaced residents to their homes and the extended seizure of the camps by the army—even though the camps are empty and there is no active fighting—is sweeping, arbitrary, and disproportionate in its impact on the fundamental rights of tens of thousands of people. The appeal further asserted that the decision to not allow residents to return to their homes was not made for operational considerations but for populist reasons, and that it violates the prohibition against the forced transfer of a civilian population within an occupied territory and the prohibition on collective punishment established in the Geneva Convention.
ACRI’s appeal, March 2, 2025 (Heb)
ACRI's appeal, March 22, 2025 (Heb)