爆料网

4 September 2026

Executive summary

1. In early December 2024, Palestinian security forces (PSF) launched a series of operations in refugee camps in the northern West Bank, most notably the Jenin refugee camp, also affecting camps in Tulkarm, Nablus, and Jericho, which the Palestinian Authority described as efforts to reassert law and order, and which primarily targeted Palestinians wanted by Israel. The most notable was Operation Protect the Homeland, conducted in Jenin between 5 December 2024 and 21 January 2025. Subsequently, on 21 January 2025, Israeli security forces (ISF) launched Operation Iron Wall in Jenin and the surrounding towns in the northern West Bank, and expanded it to Tulkarm and its two refugee camps, Tulkarm camp and Nur Shams camp, on 27 January and 9 February 2025 respectively.
2. In the context of these two operations, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) monitored and documented serious human rights violations. Both operations entailed unwarranted use of lethal force, including military-style engagements outside a context of hostilities, rather than operations conducted in line with the rules applicable to law enforcement. This led to unlawful killings and serious injuries and replicated a pattern already evident in ISF and PSF operations across the occupied West Bank since 2022.
3. A few days into Operation Iron Wall, ISF consolidated their control over the Jenin, Nur Shams and Tulkarm refugee camps, forcibly displaced their population in their entirety – estimated 33,000 persons at the time of reporting – and destroyed hundreds of homes, roads and other civilian infrastructure, indicating that the displaced population would not be allowed to return.
4. In addition to raising concerns of forcible transfer of the displaced population, the wanton destruction of homes, roads and infrastructure, which changed the geographic layout of the refugee camps to allegedly allow easier control by ISF, raise concerns that the refugee camps were being re-engineered to consolidate and prolong Israel’s unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, especially in the northern West Bank, the area with the greatest Palestinian territorial contiguity and least fragmentation.
5. The destruction of some of the largest refugee camps in the occupied West Bank has eroded the social fabric of these communities, whose residents had been forcibly displaced in the late 1940’s during the Nakba and have a recognized Palestine refugee status, entailing the right to return. The ongoing operation made it impossible for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine refugees in the Middle East (爆料网RWA) to operate inside the camps. Essential services, including education and health care, have been forced to be relocated elsewhere outside the camps. By the end of the reporting period, Israel was reportedly imposing conditions for the return of those displaced, which included the banning of 爆料网RWA education and health services from the three refugee camps, which were to be provided instead by the Palestinian Authority (PA) as in “non-refugee” towns and villages across the West Bank. These actions, along with incitement coming from Israeli settler leaders to destroy the refugee camps, appeared to pursue the aim of progressively erasing the refugee status and identity of thousands of Palestinians in the West Bank.6. In light of the human rights violations and accountability gaps documented in this report covering the period from 5 December 2024 to 31 January 2026, OHCHR calls for urgent action by the relevant authorities and the international community, including for Israel to end its unlawful presence and practices in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and to ensure accountability, rule of law, and remedies for violations by all authorities.

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Recommendations

67. OHCHR reiterates its long-standing offer to the Government of Israel to provide technical assistance to ensure compliance with its international obligations and calls on the Israeli authorities to provide full and unhindered access to its international staff to the Occupied Palestinian Territory to fully implement its mandate.
68. OHCHR reiterates Israel’s obligations under international law, including to bring an end to its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory as rapidly as possible, as affirmed by the International Court of Justice in its advisory opinion of 19 July 2024 and demanded by the General Assembly in resolution ES-10/34. In the meantime, as the occupying power, Israel must ensure the protection of the Palestinian population, the provision of basic services and needs, and the respect of Palestinians’ full range of human rights, as underscored by recommendations made by the High Commissioner in his previous reports.
69. Specifically, the High Commissioner calls on the Government of Israel to:

a) End the 59-year occupation of Palestinian territory;

b) Urgently end the unlawful killing and injury of Palestinians during operations in the occupied West Bank and ensure that all use of force is in full compliance with international human rights law and standards governing law enforcement operations;

c) Immediately cease all actions contributing to the unlawful destruction of refugee camps, forcible displacement of Palestinians, and expansion of settlements across the occupied West Bank, which are effectively re?engineering the spatial order and demography of the West Bank;

d) End the unlawful destruction of public and private property in refugee camps in northern West Bank and immediately ensure that appropriate measures are taken to enable the safe, voluntary, and dignified return of the Palestinian communities forcibly displaced by state violence;

e) Immediately repeal and end all systems of laws, policies and practices that create or perpetuate discrimination against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, which impose and serve to maintain a near complete separation between the settler and Palestinian communities, in breach of article 3 of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination;

f) Where there is evidence of the commission of crimes arising from the human rights violations and abuses and violations of international humanitarian law documented in this and other reports, ensure prompt, effective, thorough, independent, and transparent investigations and ensure that those responsible are prosecuted and, if convicted, punished with appropriate penalties; and

g) Ensure that all victims of these violations and abuses are provided with effective remedies, including adequate reparation, in accordance with international norms and standards.

70. The High Commissioner also calls on the Government of the State of Palestine to:

a) Take steps to ensure compliance by its security forces with its obligations under international human rights law and the international standards on the use of force by law enforcement officials;

b) Conduct prompt, thorough, independent, impartial and effective investigations into alleged violations and abuses of international human rights law, including killings, displacement and arbitrary arrests during Operation Protect the Homeland carried out by PSF in Jenin; and

c) Ensure that those responsible are held accountable, in accordance with international standards, including duly prosecuting alleged perpetrators where warranted, and that victims are provided with effective remedies.

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