Israeli army to demolish 25 residential buildings in West Bank camp

OCCUPIED WEST BANK — The Israeli army is planning to demolish 25 residential buildings in the Nur Shams refugee camp in the north of the Israeli-occupied West Bank later this week, local authorities told AFP on Monday

Abdallah Kamil, governor of the Tulkarem governorate where Nur Shams is located, told AFP he was informed of the planned demolition by the Israeli defence ministry body COGAT, which is in charge of coordinating "civilian affairs" in the Palestinian territories Israeli occupies.

Around 100 families will see their homes destroyed should the Israeli army follow through, according to Faisal Salama, head of the popular committee for Tulkarem camp, which is near Nur Shams.

"We were informed by the military and civil coordination that the occupation will carry out the demolition of 25 buildings on Dec. 18, Thursday," he told AFP.

Contacted by AFP, the Israeli military said it was "looking into it."

Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967. In early 2025, Israel's military launched a wide-ranging and still ongoing operation it claims is aimed at rooting out Palestinian armed groups from refugee camps in the northern West Bank — including the Nur Shams, Tulkarem and Jenin camps.

The operation forced the displacement of all of the camps' residents and more than 30,000 have yet to return home.

During the operation, Israel has destroyed hundreds of houses in the dense network of alleys that make up the camps to create easy access for its troops stationed inside.

Nur Shams, along with other refugee camps in the West Bank, was established after the creation of Israel in 1948, when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were forced from their homes with the establishment of what is now the state of Israel.

With time, the camps they established inside the West Bank became dense neighbourhoods not under their adjacent cities' authority. Their residents pass on their refugee status from one generation to the next.