The Palestinian Center for Human Rights stated that the occupation has escalated the pace of home demolitions, displacement of residents, and destruction of Palestinian facilities in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, as part of a systematic policy of ethnic cleansing. This comes at a time when Israeli settlement activity and efforts to annex the West Bank and impose Israeli sovereignty over it are accelerating.

The center explained in a statement that, according to data collected by its field team, the occupation forces have carried out 15 demolition operations in the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem, since the beginning of this month (April 2025), affecting 24 homes and 58 facilities and tents.

He pointed out that these demolitions have displaced hundreds of citizens, including women and children, leaving them homeless. He explained that the demolitions were mainly concentrated in Salfit, Bethlehem, Nablus, and occupied Jerusalem, while the crimes of demolishing homes and civilian facilities in Jenin camp and in Tulkarm and its two camps, in the northern West Bank, which has been witnessing a widespread and ongoing military offensive for several weeks, during which these forces have destroyed hundreds of homes and forcibly displaced nearly 40,000 citizens.

The center noted that in Hebron, on Wednesday, April 9, 2025, the occupation forces demolished two houses south of the town of As-Samu, south of Hebron. The first house, owned by Ahmed Ismail Abu Al-Qi'an, was a two-story building with an area of 100 square meters. It was intended to be inhabited by his family of five. The other house, owned by Fathi Ismail Abu Al-Qi'an, was a one-story building with an area of 120 square meters. It was intended to be inhabited by his family of ten, including eight children. Citizen Ahmed Abu Al-Qi'an told the Center's researcher: "My brother and I built two houses in the Twal Muhammad area in the As-Samu' area, south of Hebron, in 2019. The cost of building the two houses amounted to more than one million shekels. We were served notices by the occupation authorities in 2023, and I hired an Israeli lawyer to object to the case. I was surprised by the arrival of the machinery and the commencement of the demolition without us being informed that the case had been rejected."

On the same day, in East Jerusalem, the occupation authorities forced Alaa Abdel-Alian to demolish part of his home and the foundations of an adjacent building under construction, in implementation of a decision by the Israeli municipality on the grounds that he was building without a permit.

Citizen Alaa Alian said that in 2010, he began building a 100-square-meter extension to his old house, which had been standing for decades. The original area was 70 square meters. Alian explained that he was forced to build an extension to expand so he could live in it with his wife and six children. He added that the occupation municipality pursued him after 2020, imposing a fine of 70,000 shekels on him. He subsequently tried to obtain a license for the house, but to no avail. Last month, the occupation municipality notified him that he had to vacate the extension added to the house, in addition to the foundations of the adjacent building, and carry out the demolition himself, otherwise he would be fined huge sums of money, which forced him to carry out the demolition himself.

The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) reported that in Salfit, at dawn on Tuesday, April 8, 2025, the occupation forces demolished two homes inhabited by citizens Muhammad Khaled Sabra and Alaa Mahmoud, in the town of Bruqin, west of Salfit Governorate, under the pretext of building in Area C. It is noteworthy that the occupation authorities have delivered dozens of citizens in the town notices to demolish their homes during the past period, as part of an ongoing policy targeting the Palestinian presence in Area C.

Citizen Mohammed Raja Khaled Sabra told the center's researcher: "The occupation forces stormed the house at dawn and informed us that they were going to demolish it. I quickly evacuated my family members from the house and distributed them to my brothers' homes. I was unable to remove any of the contents of the house. My house consists of two floors, two apartments, and a farm with about 50 sheep that are now scattered in the wilderness."

In Ramallah, the occupation forces demolished, on the same morning, a building used as a wedding hall (Al-Na'mah Wedding Hall), with an area of approximately 500 square meters, in the western area of the village of Beit Liqya, west of the Ramallah governorate. During their withdrawal, the occupation forces fired sound and tear gas bombs from the town, amidst the outbreak of clashes with young men and boys, resulting in one of them being injured. The bulldozers also penetrated the village of Beit Nuba, adjacent to the town of Shuqba, and proceeded to demolish a 60-square-meter agricultural room belonging to the citizen Rabhi Mustafa Asi. The two demolitions came under the pretext of the buildings' proximity to the annexation wall in Area C.

In Nablus, occupation forces demolished the home of Nasser Ezz El-Din Reda Masrouja, inhabited by a family of five, in the Upper Taawon area south of Nablus, on the pretext of illegal construction in Area C. In the same area, they also demolished the home of Ali Salah Mihrab, inhabited by a family of seven, including three children.

In the northern Jordan Valley, on Sunday, April 6, 2025, the occupation forces demolished 45 residential tents and sheep pens, demolished and confiscated five sheep pens, and destroyed numerous properties owned by five families from the Abu Aram clan in the Ras al-Ahmar community.

In Bethlehem, on the same day, the occupation forces demolished two inhabited residential houses in the village of Wadi Fukin, southwest of Bethlehem, belonging to citizens Asem Basem Mufreh Manasra and Muhammad Nasser Mufreh Manasra, under the pretext of building without a license on confiscated land. This resulted in the displacement of 7 individuals, including 2 women and 3 children. Citizen Asem Basem Manasra told a PCHR researcher that he started building the house in 2021 in the Sarbala area, west of Wadi Fukin village. The house has an area of 150 square meters and he lives in it with his wife and child. Manasra explained that the occupation authorities delivered him several demolition notices without appealing, under the pretext of building on Israeli land. He was notified of the demolition of the house 6 months ago, but in the morning he was surprised by forces and bulldozers surrounding his house and proceeding to demolish it without allowing him to remove its contents.

The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) noted that since the beginning of the year, the occupying forces have demolished hundreds of homes and facilities in the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem, displacing thousands of citizens. Demolitions are occurring at an accelerating pace, particularly as the genocidal war in the Gaza Strip continues, whether during military operations deep within areas under the jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority, in Area C, which is under Israeli control, and in occupied East Jerusalem, or through demolitions as a punitive measure.

In its statement, the Center condemned the occupying state's policy of demolishing Palestinian homes and facilities in the occupied West Bank, displacing Palestinian residents, and confiscating land. It noted that the occupying state has intensified its aggression throughout the West Bank, following the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, to impose a new fait accompli in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.

He stressed that the policy of home demolitions and forced displacement amounts to war crimes under the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits collective punishment and the unlawful destruction of property of the occupied population. He recalled the July 2024 ruling by the International Court of Justice that the Israeli occupation of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, is illegal, and that Israel is obligated to end this illegal presence as soon as possible, immediately cease its settlement activities, and evacuate all settlers from the occupied Palestinian territory.