Israel orders demolition of 25 residential buildings in West Bank refugee camp

Israeli occupation forces have issued a military order to demolish 25 residential buildings at the Nur Shams refugee camp on the edge of Tulkarm in the northern West Bank, as the Tel Aviv regime is alarmingly expanding its illegal settlement construction activities.

Tulkarm Governor Abdullah Kamil, in response, urged the international community, human rights institutions, diplomatic missions, and embassies to intervene immediately and urgently halt the decision.

He stressed that the measure reflects a continuation of Israeli arrogance and occupation crimes against Palestinians residing in the Tulkarm and Nur Shams refugee camps.

Kamil described the move as a systematic campaign of destruction and vandalism targeting civilians and their property, resulting in the forced displacement of residents from the two camps.

The governor noted that such actions constitute a flagrant violation of international law, humanitarian principles, and human rights conventions. 

He renewed his appeal for immediate international action to cease the ongoing aggression against Tulkarm and its surrounding communities.

Israeli media reported on Friday that Israel’s so-called security cabinet has signed off on plans to formalize 19 illegal settlements across the occupied West Bank, in a move Palestinian officials say deepens a decades-long project of land theft and demographic engineering.

The report also indicated that the decision also revives two northern West Bank outposts dismantled during the 2005 “disengagement.”

The Israeli press outlet Ynet says the plan “was coordinated with the US in advance,” while Channel 14 said the push came from Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a settler himself and one of the most hardline figures in Israel’s cabinet.

Hamas slams Israeli decision to legalize 19 settlements in occupied West Bank

The Palestinian group has strongly condemned an Israeli plan on legalizing at least 19 Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank,

The approval comes as Israeli forces and settlers escalate violence across the West Bank, against the backdrop of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, where over 70,000 Palestinians have been killed since the war began in October 2023.

According to the UN humanitarian office (OCHA), at least 232 Palestinians – including 52 children – have been killed in West Bank by Israeli troops and settlers since the start of the year.

OCHA has also recorded more than 1,700 settler attacks causing casualties or property damage, averaging five assaults per day across more than 270 communities.

Most attacks were clustered around Ramallah, Nablus and al-Khalil, areas long targeted by settlement expansion.

Meanwhile, more than 1,000 Palestinians have been forcibly displaced this year in Area C, which makes up roughly 60 percent of the West Bank and remains under full Israeli military control.

Homes have been demolished, seized or sealed, leaving entire communities without shelter as Israel entrenches an apartheid system across the territory.

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