Human Rights Watch accuses Israel of war crimes in West Bank expulsions

HRW says Israeli forces expelled around 32,000 Palestinians from three West Bank refugee camps during Operation Iron Wall, citing destroyed homes and a ban on residents returning.

Israel’s expulsion of tens of thousands of Palestinians from three West Bank refugee camps in early 2025 amounts to war crimes and crimes against humanity, Human Rights Watch said Thursday, calling for urgent international action to hold Israeli officials accountable and stop further abuses.

The human rights organization said around 32,000 residents of the Jenin, Tulkarm and Nur Shams camps were forcibly displaced by Israeli forces during “Operation Iron Wall” in January and February. The displaced were unable to return home and hundreds of homes were demolished, said the group’s 105-page report, titled “All My Dreams Have Been Erased.”

“Ten months after their displacement, no family member has been able to return home,” said Milena Ansari, a researcher for Human Rights Watch who worked on the report, speaking to Reuters on Wednesday.

NGO Monitor has previously commented on Human Rights Watch, stating that its publications reflect a lack of professional standards, research methodologies, military and legal expertise, as well as significant ideological bias against Israel.

The Israeli military said in a statement to Reuters on Wednesday that it must demolish civilian infrastructure so it cannot be exploited by militants. It was not clear when residents might return.

“We live a very hard life”

The Geneva Conventions prohibit the movement of civilians from occupied territories, except temporarily for imperative military reasons or for their security. HRW said the senior officials responsible should be prosecuted for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The report describes soldiers storming homes, ransacking property and ordering families out via loudspeakers mounted on drones. He said residents reported bulldozers destroyed buildings as they fled and that Israeli forces offered no shelter or aid, leaving families crowding into relatives’ homes or seeking refuge in mosques, schools and charities.

Hisham Abu Tabeekh, who was expelled from the Jenin refugee camp, said his family was unable to take anything with them when they were expelled.

“We are talking about having no food, no drink, no medicine, no expenses… we live a very hard life,” Tabeekh said, speaking to Reuters on Wednesday.

Human Rights Watch said it interviewed 31 displaced Palestinians from the three camps and analyzed satellite images, demolition orders and verified videos. The survey found more than 850 structures destroyed or seriously damaged, while a UN assessment puts the figure at 1,460 buildings. The camps, established in the 1950s for Palestinians displaced since the creation of Israel in 1948, had housed generations of refugees.

Human Rights Watch said that in response, Israeli officials wrote that the operation targeted what they called terrorist elements, but gave no reason for mass expulsions or a ban on returns.

HRW said the expulsions, carried out while global attention was focused on Gaza, are part of the crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution.

Increase in violence in the West Bank

Since attacks by Hamas in southern Israel on October 7, 2023, Israeli forces have killed nearly 1,000 Palestinians in the West Bank, expanded detentions without trial, demolished homes and accelerated settlement construction, while settler violence and torture of detainees have increased, the report said.

Settler violence increased in October, when Israeli settlers carried out at least 264 attacks against Palestinians, the UN reported, the highest monthly total since UN officials began tracking such incidents in 2006.

Israel cites historical and biblical ties to the West Bank, which it conquered in the 1967 war, and says the settlements provide strategic depth and security.

Most of the world community considers all settlements illegal under international law. Israel rejects this proposal, saying the West Bank is “disputed” rather than “occupied” territory.

HRW urged governments to impose targeted sanctions on Israeli officials and commanders, suspend arms sales and commercial benefits, ban settlement products, and enforce arrest warrants from the International Criminal Court.

The group called the expulsions ethnic cleansing, a non-legal term commonly used to describe the illegal removal of an ethnic or religious population from a specific area by another group.