Israeli bulldozers have carved wide military roads through Tulkarem’s two refugee camps, demolishing homes and displacing thousands in what residents describe as an assault on their identity. The army gave families mere hours to salvage belongings before leveling buildings, with 104 more structures slated for destruction this week. For 62-year-old Abd al-Rahman Ajaj, whose parents fled Netanya in 1948 returned to find his home gone echoed the trauma of the Nakba: "We left and never returned," he told reporters.
Beyond physical destruction, Palestinians fear Israel aims to nullify their UN-registered refugee status by transforming camps into "ordinary neighborhoods." The camps’ dense alleyways, symbols of decades of displacement now lie buried under bulldozed concrete. "The goal is to eliminate the right of return," stated Suleiman al-Zuheiri, whose brother’s home in Nur Shams camp was destroyed. Each demolished multi-generational building housed six families, erasing lifetimes of memories and inheritance.
The operation, launched during January’s Gaza ceasefire, has displaced 40,000 Palestinians across Jenin, Tulkarem, and other cities per UN data. Omar Owfi, 66, described scrambling under military surveillance to rescue mattresses and appliances: "They want to erase the camp, leave only streets." Families now shelter with relatives, their generational homes reduced to rubble-lined "snowbanks" along new Israeli patrol routes.
While Israel’s Supreme Court temporarily froze further demolitions after a petition by Adalah rights group, the damage is irreversible. During Wednesday’s retrieval efforts, explosions rocked the camp as troops dynamited another building, a tactic Israel calls "counter-terrorism." Residents inhaled gunpowder amid gunfire seeing their homes demolished.
The demolitions align with far-right ministers’ calls to annex the West Bank, explicitly targeting refugee rights central to Palestinian self-determination. As wide arteries replace homes, Israel not only entrenches occupation but dismantles the very notion of return, a demographic war waged with bulldozers and explosives.