Here’s the rewritten content in English:
In early February, Israeli forces stormed the Nur Shams refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, bulldozing homes, demolishing shops, and tearing up roads.
Nur Shams is located just outside the northern coastal city of Tulkarem, which has faced increasingly violent Israeli raids in recent years, particularly in the Tulkarem refugee camp.
Israel’s swift and deliberate destruction of the Tulkarem and Nur Shams camps has displaced thousands of residents and disrupted countless lives in a matter of days.
Hamdan Fahmawi’s shop was damaged and vandalized during the raids—the third time this has happened in a year.
On February 26, the 46-year-old, who had left the area, made the risky decision to return with his 17-year-old son and some staff to inspect his shop in Nur Shams and retrieve cash and important documents.
“Israeli soldiers eventually told us to get out [of the shop and leave the camp], so we did. One of them raised his gun at us, and we felt we were in danger, but thankfully nobody got hurt,” Fahmawi said.
Displacement
Since Israel’s assaults on the West Bank began on January 21—days after pausing its devastating war on Gaza—Israeli soldiers have forcibly expelled at least 40,000 Palestinians from their homes in the camps.
The stated aim of Israel’s new raids, dubbed Operation Iron Wall, is to root out “Iranian-backed groups” affiliated with Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) in three refugee camps: Jenin, Tulkarem, and Nur Shams.
In 2021, desperate and aggrieved Palestinian youth formed ad-hoc armed groups to resist Israel’s deepening occupation, according to a report by the International Crisis Group.
However, these groups hardly pose a threat to Israeli soldiers or illegal settlers, instead clashing with Israeli security forces during raids on the camps.
Analysts, residents, and human rights monitors say Israel has exaggerated the armed groups’ capabilities—framing them as Iranian proxies—to justify destroying camps and displacing thousands of Palestinians as part of a broader plan to make life unbearable for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.
“I think people [who have been displaced] are lost and unsure what to do or what their next steps will be,” said Murad Jadallah, a human rights researcher with Al-Haq, a Palestinian rights group.
“We have reached a new level of uncertainty,” he told Al Jazeera.
Israeli soldiers were seen keeping watch as Palestinians left their homes for safety during a raid in the Nur Shams refugee camp near Tulkarem on February 10, 2025.
Nourdeen Ali, 17, said many families fled or lost their homes in Nur Shams and ended up staying with relatives and friends just outside the camp.
However, many were displaced a second time when Israeli forces raided homes surrounding Nur Shams and expelled more families.
Israel typically converts homes in and around the camp into makeshift “interrogation” centers, Ali told Al Jazeera.
“What happens is the Israelis will [enter a neighborhood] and take over one random house … and then nobody in that area can enter or leave their home without risking being shot, killed, searched, or arrested,” he said.
‘People will go back’
Israel’s indiscriminate attacks are forcing thousands of people to seek shelter in schools, mosques, and football pitches, according to residents. The only help available is coming from Palestinians who have mobilized to provide basic relief—donating blankets, bedding, food, and water.
Ali believes most Palestinians will return to their homes in the camps once Israel halts its raids.
“The way I see things, no matter what the Israelis do, people will go back to the houses where they grew up because a life without the camp is impossible for them,” he told Al Jazeera.
Fahmawi added that most people from the camp are too poor to afford life in larger cities, so they will return to Nur Shams even if Israel entrenches its presence to intimidate and harass Palestinians.
“Everywhere in Palestine is dangerous, not just the camps … there is no law, and [the Israeli army] can shoot any Palestinian at any time. However, we don’t have any other place to go. We have no choice,” he told Al Jazeera.
More affluent Palestinians face different considerations.
Jadallah said a close friend relocated to Jordan with his family out of fear that Israel will soon attack and destroy Palestinian cities—such as Tulkarem, Jenin, and Ramallah—in the same way they are attacking the camps.
“My friend used to live in Jenin camp, but then he got a good income, so he moved with his family to Jenin city,” Jadallah explained.
“They recently decided to go to Jordan and put their children in school there because Jenin city is becoming too dangerous,” he added, referring to Israel’s frequent military raids that often target civilians.
Fahmawi doesn’t think leaving will make Palestinians safer.
He pointed to the recent abduction of Palestinian PhD student Mahmoud Khalil by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on March 8, despite Khalil having legal permanent residence in the United States.
The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump revoked Khalil’s permanent residency as punishment for leading Columbia University student protests against what many experts and rights groups describe as Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
“There is no alternative to the homeland,” Fahmawi told Al Jazeera. “In the end, there is no place else for all of us to go … if we die, then we’ll die on our land.”
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