Operation "Iron Wall": They are doing here what they did in Gaza

Since January 21, 2025, the Israeli occupation army has launched a large-scale military campaign, supported by armored vehicles, bulldozers and drones, called “Iron Wall,” targeting Palestinian refugee camps in the northern occupied West Bank, namely Jenin, Tulkarm, Nur Shams and Far’a. According to some estimates, 42 Palestinians, including 12 children, have been killed during this operation so far, while at least 45,000 refugees have been forcibly displaced from their homes.

Why the "iron wall"?

It has become clear that the Israeli war government led by Benjamin Netanyahu wants to subjugate the Palestinians by force, and make them feel like a "defeated people", in order to deter them from continuing their resistance to the occupation, and to eliminate the foundations of their lives in order to force them to emigrate if possible. It has also become known that the names given by the Israeli occupation army to its military operations, which target the Palestinian people, or other Arab peoples, always contain certain political connotations. “The Iron Wall” is the title of an article published in 1923 by Ze’ev Vladimir Jabotinsky, the spiritual mentor of Benjamin Netanyahu, in which he mocked those Zionists who were betting on reaching an agreement with the Arab inhabitants of Palestine that would allow the Zionist settlement project in Palestine to be implemented, stressing that this project should not remain dependent on the acceptance of the Arab inhabitants, but should develop in spite of them “behind an iron wall that these inhabitants cannot remove,” and estimating that “the only way that can lead us to an agreement [with the Arabs] is the way of the iron wall, that is, the presence of a force in Palestine that is not subject in any way to Arab influence; in other words: the only way to reach a future agreement is to abandon the attempt to reach an agreement today.”

Regarding the “morality” of this iron wall, Jabotinsky stressed that when the Arabs seek to prevent “the victory of a just cause,” the Jews will have to “use public force and means of self-defense to thwart their attempts,” especially after “the entire civilized world has recognized the right of the Jews to return to Palestine” from which they were “expelled.” He added: “It is said that there are between 15 and 16 million Jews, half of whom live a miserable life, and are persecuted without a homeland in the strict sense of the word, while the number of Arabs is about 38 million, and they occupy Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Tripoli, Barqa, Egypt, Syria, Mesopotamia, and the Arabian Peninsula, an area equivalent, if we exclude the desert, to half the area of Europe.” He concluded that “the expropriation of land from a people who own large areas of land, in order to establish a homeland for a people who are wandering around, is an act of justice; and if the owner objects (which is quite natural), he must be forced to accept, for a sacred truth requires…” The use of force to establish it remains a sacred truth; and on this is based our only position in confronting the Arab opposition.”

UNRWA confirms Jenin camp emptied of its residents

In the spring of 2002, during the events of the second intifada, the occupation forces occupied the Jenin camp after ten days of heroic Palestinian resistance, destroyed more than 400 homes, caused severe damage to hundreds of others, and displaced more than a quarter of the camp's population. At that time, UNRWA was responsible for the reconstruction operations. In recent years, the occupation army has been launching regular military operations on the camp under the pretext of eliminating the resistance there.

On February 4, UNRWA confirmed that the Jenin refugee camp had been emptied of its 30,000 residents following Israeli military operations since January 21, estimating that the camp was heading “towards catastrophe” as “large parts of it were completely destroyed by a series of Israeli bombings.” “According to our information, all camp residents have left the camp this morning,” said Juliette Touma, UNRWA’s director of public information. She added that the new escalation occurred on the day “children were supposed to return to school in the camp,” leaving “13 schools in and around the camp closed, affecting 5,000 children in the area.” One resident described the “tragic situation” in the camp: “On Tuesday evening, 4 February, a drone bombed our house, and a neighbor who wanted to go back to his house to check on his condition was killed by an Israeli army sniper.” He added: “The drones, which no one hears but can see, are constantly flying in the sky; “There are planes that bomb, others that monitor, and finally there are planes that send messages to the population,” he said. “A few days ago, I received a message via a drone telling me that I had a few hours to leave my house, and that if I stayed, it would be at my own risk.”

Palestinian families flee attack on Nour Shams camp

“They are doing here what they did in Gaza,” Ahmed Ezzat told AFP after fleeing the Nour Shams refugee camp on Monday, February 10, with dozens of Palestinian families as bulldozers began to demolish homes and infrastructure. Ahmed Abu Zahra, another resident of the camp who was forced to leave his home, said: “The army came and forced us to leave after they started to destroy our homes.” According to Murad Alian, a member of the camp’s popular committee, “more than half of the camp’s 13,000 residents fled in fear for their lives.” Tubas Governor Ahmed al-Asaad described what the camp’s residents are experiencing as “unprecedented,” stressing that “the Israeli operations today did not target fighters but civilians, women and children, and blew up homes to force residents to leave.” Abdullah Kamil, governor of Tulkarm, said that “the goal of the Israeli operations is political, not security-related… they are destroying everything and seeking to change the demographic composition of the area.”

“Before we had to leave our home with my husband and children, we spent two days without water because the occupation forces had cut off water to all parts of the camp,” Nihaya al-Jundi, a resident of Nour Shams refugee camp and director of the Nour Shams Association for the Rehabilitation of the Disabled, told Mendawys. “The occupation forces were moving from house to house forcing people out, while my family and I had been waiting for our turn for two days.” “They searched and interrogated us, then made us move in a specific direction,” she recalled. “We walked through the destroyed streets, between puddles of rainwater. Some stumbled and fell, men and women, children and elderly people, and some were crying. It was very humiliating and painful.” Nihaya al-Jundi recounts what happened to her neighbor, Sondos Shalabi, who was eight months pregnant. She says that her neighbor, “decided with her husband to go out on Sunday for fear of giving birth during the siege of the camp. While her husband was driving his car on the road leading to the town of Bal’a outside the refugee camp, the occupation soldiers opened fire on the car. He was injured and lost control of it, which led to the car overturning and killing Sondos and her fetus. Her husband is still in intensive care at Tulkarm Hospital.”

Palestinians return to their camp destroyed by the occupation army

“Piles of shattered asphalt and twisted metal, left behind by Israeli army bulldozers, line what remains of a street in the Fara’a refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, where residents were able to return this week.” “Above the rubble, excavators have torn away the facades of some buildings,” one Fara’a resident described the situation in his camp after the Israeli army attacked it.

“When we returned, we found the whole house turned upside down,” Ahmed Abu Sreis, 86, who returned home on Wednesday, February 12, told AFP. The elderly man, who “walks with a cane, had left the camp for four days with his children to escape Israeli raids,” and soldiers “looted his house while he was away.” Forced to leave, he recalled painful memories. “He was nine years old when his family was expelled from Haifa,” he said. “This is our third Nakba; the first was when I was a child, the second when I was a young man [in 1967], and now, as an old man, I am living it all over again.” “I don’t even feel safe in my house; if I stay, Israeli soldiers can come and attack me and arrest me.” Ahmed Abdullah, in his thirties, and his wife decided to stay at home despite the Israeli attack on the camp. “There was no water or electricity, and we were afraid to venture out to look for food,” he said. His home was “raided by occupation soldiers three times and they vandalized it.” He “cannot remember an Israeli operation of this magnitude against the camp.” Standing in front of some of the rubble that had been removed, he said: “It was the hardest attack,” and “it will go down in the history of the camp.”

“When the soldiers stormed the camp, they cut off water and electricity to parts of it with the help of armored bulldozers,” said Ahmad al-Asaad, the governor of Tubas, where the Far’a camp is located. “We were unable to evacuate patients with kidney problems or deliver them medicine.” The camp’s popular committee building was also severely damaged during the attack, and “in one of the offices, a large picture of the Dome of the Rock overlooking the courtyard of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem was torn up with a knife for no reason.”

What is happening in the West Bank is similar to what happened in Gaza

Many observers see the very existence of Palestinians in the occupied territories as “threatened” following the Israeli campaign against refugee camps in the north, where “Israeli tanks and bulldozers are destroying homes and infrastructure,” and Israeli settlers are “escalating their attacks on Palestinian communities throughout Area C of the West Bank, in parallel with the military operations.” According to Diana Al-Zeer, Vice President of the International Federation for Human Rights and representative of the Palestinian organization Al-Haq, “What we are witnessing in the West Bank is the worst situation since the Second Intifada, and some aspects of the military campaign are even worse; the methods used are similar to those we witnessed during Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza,” adding: “The Israeli occupation forces have been extremely brutal in their methods of emptying refugee camps, searching Palestinian homes, destroying infrastructure and housing, using airstrikes to kill Palestinians, and obstructing medical care in population centers.”

“Despite the fact that this situation is outrageous and completely contrary to international law,” “no one is reacting, as if this violence is approved by the international community,” and “the European Union is once again avoiding taking a stand in favor of Palestinian rights.” The Palestinian human rights activist concludes that “at a time when Israel is already threatening the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), the prospect of ending the Palestinians’ right to return and their right to self-determination is looming,” calling on the international community “in line with the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice in July, to work together to end Israel’s illegal occupation and colonization,” considering that it is time “for the international community to uphold international law and put an end to impunity, starting with Israel.”

UNRWA confirms its determination to continue its humanitarian work

The Israeli occupation army's "Iron Wall" operation coincided with the entry into force of the decision taken by the Israeli Knesset to ban the activities of the UNRWA and force it to evacuate its headquarters in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in occupied East Jerusalem, where it has now become an "undesirable persona."

Commenting on this arbitrary measure, UNRWA confirmed on Wednesday, January 29, its determination to continue providing essential assistance to the residents of the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, in accordance with the mandate granted to it by the United Nations. Its spokesman, Jonathan Fowler, said in an interview with the United Nations Information website: “We have to continue working,” adding that the agency’s international staff had been temporarily transferred to Jordan, while most of UNRWA’s local staff remained on site. Addressing the consequences for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, the agency’s spokesman estimated that the cessation of UNRWA’s activities would affect tens of thousands of patients and students who “benefit from the health care and education services provided by the agency.”

For his part, the spokesman for the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Stephane Dujarric, confirmed at the daily UN press briefing in New York on Thursday, January 30, that the agency "will continue its activities on the ground", and that its employees are still in their work sites, continuing "to provide assistance and services to the communities they serve", adding that "UNRWA clinics throughout the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, remain open". However, he stopped at the second law passed by the Knesset, which prohibits Israeli officials from dealing with UNRWA and its employees, and asked: "What does this mean for the work of our school system in the West Bank? And for our health system? And in the areas where we provide street sweeping and garbage collection and all these public health services; will our employees be able to move? Will we be able to resupply our clinics with medicines?" He expected that this second law would complicate the agency's activities in the Gaza Strip, "where Israel controls all humanitarian aid deliveries to the Strip."

UNRWA spokesman Jonathan Fowler concluded that "no other agency has a mandate from the UN General Assembly to assist Palestinian refugees," calling for "every effort to be made to persuade the Israeli authorities to freeze the implementation of the two laws that have come into effect, or even to cancel them completely."

conclusion

The United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese, described the Israeli practices in the West Bank as "criminal practices", warning that "the intent of genocide is clear in the way Israel targets the Palestinians". On Sunday, February 2, she called on the international community, via her account on the "X" platform, to intervene and stop the destruction that "extended to all the occupied territories, not just Gaza".

As for the Palestinian people, they have no choice but to continue their resistance and steadfastness on their homeland, to prove to their occupiers that they are a people who will not feel defeated, no matter how severe their suffering is and no matter how great their disasters are.