Displacement across the occupied West Bank has surged to record levels as Israeli policies mirror the destruction carried out in the Gaza Strip.
A report released last week by Human Rights Watch said Israeli forces expelled 32,000 Palestinians from just three refugee camps this year.
HRW found that Israeli operations in the Jenin, Nur Shams, and Tulkarem camps, launched in January, produced the largest forced displacement in the West Bank since 1967.
Senior figures within the Israeli regime have been explicit about their objective: full annexation of the West Bank.
In October, the Israeli parliament advanced a bill to extend Israeli sovereignty over the occupied territory, a move widely condemned as an unlawful land grab.
Hardline finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, who resides in an illegal settlement, has repeatedly outlined his intentions for the occupied land.
Addressing his Religious Zionism party last year, Smotrich said he was “establish(ing) facts on the ground in order to make Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) an integral part of the "state" of Israel”.
“We will establish sovereignty … first on the ground, and then, through legislation,” he said, according to Haaretz.
Smotrich added, “I intend to legalise the young settlements (illegal outposts),” declaring that “My life’s mission is to thwart the establishment of a Palestinian state.”
More than 700,000 Israelis now live in illegal settlements built on occupied Palestinian land in the West Bank and East Jerusalem al-Quds.
In August, Smotrich announced a new “E1” settlement, a plan for 3,000 settler housing units designed to sever Palestinian East Jerusalem al-Quds from the rest of the West Bank, a move he said would “bury the idea of a Palestinian state”.
Israeli authorities attempt to justify the mass displacement by invoking planning laws or designating Palestinian homes as located in “closed military zones,” areas seized for regime use, security forces, or settlers.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says it is “almost impossible” for Palestinians to obtain building permits under Israeli control.
In Jenin, Nur Shams, and Tulkarem, the regime claimed the expulsions were part of “Operation Iron Wall,” a campaign allegedly aimed at eliminating resistance inside the camps.
Months after Israeli forces entered the camps in late January, Palestinians remain barred from returning, while bulldozers have already razed large numbers of homes.
Israeli military spokespeople described the demolitions as “operational necessity,” saying residents could file objections or petitions to Israel’s Supreme Court.
Every petition — including those alleging clear violations of international humanitarian law — was rejected.
At the same time, violence by Israeli settlers has escalated, emboldened by their allies occupying senior positions in the regime.
In October, OCHA recorded more than 260 settler attacks causing injuries, property destruction, or both — an average of eight attacks per day, the highest level since reporting began in 2006.
During the olive harvest, Israeli settlers have launched coordinated assaults on Palestinian farmers while Israeli soldiers look on.
The Palestinian Farmers’ Union stated that these attacks are “not random, but deliberate efforts to undermine Palestinian rural life”.
Palestinian communities say the wave of settler aggression is part of a broader strategy to make life unlivable for the indigenous population and force them off their land.