Tens of thousands of Palestinians living in refugee camps in the occupied West Bank have fled their homes because of a weeks-long Israeli offensive that has demolished homes and destroyed vital infrastructure in densely built-up towns, Palestinian authorities said.

According to Reuters, Israeli forces began their operation in the refugee camp in the northern West Bank city of Jenin on January 21, deploying hundreds of soldiers and bulldozers that demolished homes and razed streets, displacing almost all of the camp's residents.

“We do not know what is happening inside the camp, but there are ongoing demolitions and street widening,” Mohammad al-Sabbagh, head of the Jenin camp services committee, told Reuters.

The operation has since spread to other refugee camps, notably Tulkarm and nearby Nur Shams, both of which were also destroyed. Israel says its goal is to suppress Iranian-backed militant groups in the West Bank.

The camps have long been a stronghold for armed groups, and are home to descendants of Palestinian refugees who left or were expelled from their homes in the 1948 war during the creation of the state of Israel.

The camps have been repeatedly raided by the Israeli army, but the current operation is on an unusually large scale, and began after the ceasefire agreement in Gaza.

According to Palestinian Authority data, about 17,000 people left Jenin refugee camp, leaving it almost completely empty. About 6,000 people left Nour Shams camp, about two-thirds of the total number in the camp, and another 10,000 left Tulkarm camp.

Nihad Al-Shawish, head of the Nour Shams Camp Services Committee, told Reuters: “The camp is home to 9,000 people, approximately 70 percent of whom have been displaced, and those who remain are trapped inside the camp.”

He added: "The Civil Defense, the Red Crescent, and the Palestinian security services brought them some food aid yesterday. The occupation army continues the bulldozing and destruction operations inside the camp."

The Israeli attacks led to the demolition of dozens of homes and the destruction of large areas of roads, in addition to the cutting off of water and electricity, but the Israeli army denied forcing residents to leave their homes.

"People certainly have the possibility to move or go wherever they want, but if they don't want to, they are allowed to stay," Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, an Israeli military spokesman, told reporters.

The operation began when Israel moved to ban the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) from its headquarters in East Jerusalem and cut off all contact with Israeli officials.

The ban, which came into effect at the end of January, has affected UNRWA's work in the West Bank and Gaza, where it provides aid to millions of Palestinians in refugee camps.

Israel accused UNRWA of collaborating with the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), and said that some of its employees participated in the movement's attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, which sparked a 15-month war on Gaza.