October 16, 2025 – Union for Justice Foundation
Palestinian refugees in the Jenin and Tulkarem camps in the northern occupied West Bank continue to face destruction and forced displacement. The three refugee camps — Jenin, Tulkarem, and Nur Shams — have been emptied of their residents, who are being prevented from returning to their homes, according to Roland Friedrich, Director of UNRWA Operations in the West Bank.
Friedrich stated in a press release that the increasing settler violence and settlement expansion are pushing vulnerable Palestinian communities to leave their lands under intensifying coercive conditions, paving the way for what is known as the “annexation project” — the Israeli takeover of the West Bank.
He pointed out that Israeli laws targeting UNRWA have led to the closure of UN schools and the expulsion of international staff. Friedrich emphasized that the futures of Gaza and the West Bank are interconnected and that a reduction of escalation in Gaza should not be met with a tightening of the occupation’s grip elsewhere.
Despite these challenges, UNRWA continues to maintain its field presence to provide services and defend the rights of refugees, as it has done during previous crises, according to the UN official.
Serious Violations in the West Bank During the Two Years of the Gaza Genocide
According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), between October 7, 2023, and October 2, 2025, 999 Palestinians were killed in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem — among them at least 212 children. Since the beginning of this year alone, 193 Palestinians, including 39 children, have been killed.
As the 2025 olive harvest season began on October 9, settler violence against Palestinians and their agriculture persisted, with olive trees uprooted and destroyed in Kafr Qaddum, Abu Falah, Al-Mughayyir, and Umm al-Kheir.
Additionally, a Palestinian detainee from Hebron Governorate died under Israeli administrative detention on October 7, bringing the total number of Palestinians who have died in Israeli custody since October 7, 2023, to 77 individuals.
Israeli forces have also intensified movement restrictions across the West Bank, deploying mobile checkpoints, closing road gates, and erecting concrete barriers and other obstacles — severely limiting Palestinians’ access to essential services.
Despite these harsh conditions, UNRWA celebrated on October 5 the graduation of 226 young Palestinian refugees from its summer vocational training courses across the West Bank. These included programs in creative and technical fields, according to agency reports.
The Director of UNRWA Affairs in the West Bank Regional Office affirmed that such courses enhance young people’s employability and improve their chances of finding decent work, stressing the importance of continuing support for refugees under these difficult circumstances.
Legal Assessment and International Obligations
In light of the ongoing forced displacement and escalating violations in northern West Bank refugee camps, these actions constitute a flagrant breach of international humanitarian law and international human rights law, particularly the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, which obliges the occupying power to protect civilians in occupied territories and prohibits their forcible transfer or the destruction of their property except for imperative and temporary military necessity.
The organized settler attacks, restrictions on UNRWA’s operations, and closures of schools and humanitarian facilities also violate the obligations of the occupying power under Articles 55 and 56 of the same convention, which require it to ensure the provision of relief and basic services to the population.
The continued policies of expulsion, annexation, and settlement expansion constitute a form of forcible transfer, prohibited under Article 7(1)(d) of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, as a crime against humanity.
Therefore, the international community, particularly the United Nations and the States Parties to the Geneva Conventions, must assume their legal and moral responsibilities to stop these violations, ensure accountability, and safeguard the right of Palestinian refugees to return and enjoy full protection from all forms of oppression and colonization.
