UNRWA Calls Israel's Tulkarm Camp Demolition Order for Long-Term Control

Tulkarm, West Bank, Palestine. (Wikimedia Commons/Mohammad Hijjawi)

JAKARTA - The Director of UNRWA Affairs in the West Bank, Roland Friedrich, highlighted the latest demolition order issued by Israel and targeted the Nur Shams refugee camp, Tulkarm.

Friedrich explained that the new demolition order placed about 25 buildings in the camp under imminent demolition threat, effective from December 18, which would affect hundreds of Palestinian refugees who had been forcibly displaced.

He noted that based on satellite images, almost 48 percent of the total buildings in the Nur Shams camp had been damaged or destroyed even before the latest demolition order was issued.

Friedrich said the order "is part of a repeated pattern witnessed in the area this year, in which Israeli forces destroy houses with the aim of establishing long-term control over camps in the northern West Bank, which will lead to permanent changes in the geographical character of these camps," reported WAFA (17/12).

He added that this demolition was justified with the pretext of the so-called "military needs," and stressed that it did not make anyone safer.

Frederick warned that the forced expulsion of more than 32,000 Palestinian refugees in the northern West Bank should not be permanent, noting that residents had anxiously waited for eleven months to return to their homes, but that hope was extinguished every time a bulldozer was in action.

Earlier, Israeli occupation forces on Sunday issued a military order to demolish 25 buildings in the Nur Shams refugee camp, east of Tulkarm.

Tulkarm Governor Abdullah Kmail urged the international community, human rights institutions, diplomatic missions, and embassies to immediately and urgently intervene to stop the decision, stressing that it reflects the continuation of Israel's arrogance and the occupation's crimes against the Palestinian people in the Tulkarm and Nur Shams refugee camps.

He said the decision was part of a systematic campaign of destruction and vandalism targeting civilians and their property, which had led to the forced expulsion of residents from both camps.

Kmail said this action was a flagrant violation of international law, international norms and conventions, as well as international human rights law and international humanitarian law.