{"id":3307,"date":"2025-10-15T11:36:40","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T11:36:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2025\/10\/15\/israeli-arson-bulldozers-and-forced-labour-in-the-west-banks-tulkarem\/"},"modified":"2025-10-15T11:36:40","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T11:36:40","slug":"israeli-arson-bulldozers-and-forced-labour-in-the-west-banks-tulkarem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2025\/10\/15\/israeli-arson-bulldozers-and-forced-labour-in-the-west-banks-tulkarem\/","title":{"rendered":"Israeli arson, bulldozers and forced labour in the West Bank\u2019s Tulkarem"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Occupied West Bank, Palestine \u2013<\/strong> Close to Tulkarem, on the outskirts of the Nur Shams refugee camp, grey apartment blocks sit empty. Abandoned cars are strewn amid rubble where homes once stood. Shops are silent, streaked black where flames licked against the windows.<\/p>\n

Amid escalating violence by settlers from illegal Israeli settlements across the occupied West Bank, the Israeli military has intensified its efforts to forcibly displace the tens of thousands of Palestinians who live in the Nur Shams and Tulkarem refugee camps.<\/p>\n

An unprecedented ground assault, replete with bulldozers, arson, and sniper fire, has made life impossible for the people there, most of whom have been pushed out to shelters or other villages.<\/p>\n

In the nearly empty Nur Shams camp, Israeli soldiers stand on rooftops, aim their sniper rifles from windows, and patrol empty streets with searchlights.<\/p>\n

Sometimes, the green dot from a weapon\u2019s laser sight dances across the bodies of the few remaining, unarmed residents as they walk by.<\/p>\n

Since January, the Israeli military\u2019s violent \u201cOperation Iron Wall\u201d has displaced some 32,000 residents of the Tulkarem, Nur Shams and Jenin refugee camps, according to the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA).<\/p>\n

The Israeli army, which has designated both camps as closed military areas, is likely to stay there for months and fire on anyone who enters.<\/p>\n

Palestinian families have submitted more than 400 requests to Israel to retrieve their belongings from their homes, but none have been approved, according to the UN.<\/p>\n

\u2018I am your lord, you are here to serve me\u2019<\/h2>\n

Abdel\u2019s* family is one of the few that Israeli soldiers have allowed to remain.<\/p>\n

He, his wife, and his mother sit tensely in their front room; his three daughters are at school. They are permanently on edge because the soldiers have established a temporary barracks next to their home.<\/p>\n

Since early February, the soldiers have forced him to work for them without pay, fixing their electricity, internet or air conditioning, and bringing them food, any time of day or night, usually at his own expense.<\/p>\n

He is constantly afraid that the soldiers will burst into their home at any moment. \u201cWe don\u2019t want anything. Just a safe life,\u201d he tells Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t go out with my children,\u201d says Abdel. \u201cI can\u2019t even go out with my wife. We\u2019re deprived of \u2026 even the simplest necessities of life.\u201d<\/p>\n

In late January, soldiers raided Abdel\u2019s house, destroying furniture and possessions and forcing the family out of their home, which is just outside the Tulkarem refugee camp, for 10 days.<\/p>\n

\"Delaney
Scorch marks on a building burned by Israeli forces on the outskirts of Tulkarem refugee camp [Delaney Nolan\/Al Jazeera]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When they returned, Abdel says he was told: \u201cWe won\u2019t throw you out of the house as long as you help us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of them even said, \u2018I am your lord, you are here to serve me.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Since then, Abdel has obeyed their orders to keep his family safe. He estimates he is forced to spend 1,500 shekels ($440) a month on the soldiers.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I don\u2019t do what they tell me, they will destroy the house,\u201d he frets.<\/p>\n

He says he knows the soldiers\u2019 threats are real because, as he speaks, a house in the camp just 500 metres (about 550 yards) away is burning, sending up clouds of smoke.<\/p>\n

All his neighbours have been displaced, and some of their homes have been burned or trashed to the point of being uninhabitable.<\/p>\n

Abdel walks around the corner to his neighbour Nihad\u2019s home, which was also taken over by soldiers for a while but sits empty now, surrounded by half-burned possessions, including personal documents, set alight by Israeli soldiers.<\/p>\n

In April, Israeli soldiers stormed into Nihad\u2019s home at 3am, and ordered him, his wife, and three children at gunpoint to leave within five minutes. The soldiers moved in for the following 75 days, using it as a barracks.<\/p>\n

Nihad, who refused to give his family name for fear of reprisals from Israel, says he was ordered to stay away but came back anyway to survey the damage.<\/p>\n

Together, the two men pick through the wreckage. Nihad tells Abdel the home he loves is unrecognisable, that he and his family have lost everything.<\/p>\n

Soldiers smashed everything they could find, even the washing machine\u2019s circuits, tore up electrical boxes, broke toilets and knocked down doors.<\/p>\n

The soldiers slept in his children\u2019s beds and scattered infants\u2019 clothing across the floor. Rubbish and debris are strewn through every room; a bird has nested in the shower.<\/p>\n

The soldiers set up a sniper outpost in the stairwell ringed with sandbags, and left the walls daubed with the names of Israeli soldiers and their patrol schedules in Hebrew. The words \u201cF*** Hamas\u201d in English are scrawled in lipstick across a dresser mirror.<\/p>\n

This kind of damage, Abdel says, shows the consequences of defying the soldiers\u2019 demands.<\/p>\n

An atmosphere of terror<\/h2>\n

Nihad is far from the only victim. The Israeli military has destroyed hundreds of homes in the camps and adjoining neighbourhoods during its raids.<\/p>\n

It also damaged critical infrastructure, including water and electricity networks.<\/p>\n

\"Delaney
The Israeli army carved \u2018roads\u2019 through Tulkarem camp by demolishing homes. Forcibly displaced residents who re-enter the camp risk being shot [Delaney Nolan\/Al Jazeera]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In July, Israel\u2019s High Court froze a military order for the demolition of 104 residential buildings, comprising some 400 homes, in Tulkarem.<\/p>\n

But the next day, it amended its ruling to permit the army to demolish for \u201coverriding security considerations\u201d \u2013 effectively giving it broad discretion to continue.<\/p>\n

Adalah, an Israel-based legal centre for Arab minority rights, has been petitioning against the demolitions.<\/p>\n

In July, the centre submitted an expert opinion from the Israeli human rights organisation Bimkom \u2013 Planners for Planning Rights to the Supreme Court, showing that 162 buildings had been demolished \u2013 far more than the number in the order.<\/p>\n

Adalah\u2019s investigation found that the demolitions had so far \u201cerased\u201d about one-third of the built-up area in the northern sector of Tulkarem, and made other areas unlivable, according to Miriam Azem, Adalah\u2019s international advocacy coordinator.<\/p>\n

The court rejected Adalah\u2019s petition on July 25, asserting that \u201cthe demolition order was lawful and necessary, upholding the military commander\u2019s broad discretion and limited judicial review\u201d, Azem tells Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n

Abdel has no means to object \u2013 angering the soldiers would mean putting himself at the mercy of a military force with a long history of demolishing, detaining and killing.<\/p>\n

Accelerating demolitions, adding arson to the destruction<\/h2>\n

Israel is now demolishing homes in the West Bank<\/a> at the fastest rate since the 1967 War, partly thanks to equipment from the United States.<\/p>\n

At the beginning of the year, the Israeli army had just two or three Caterpillar bulldozers, which are produced in Texas.<\/p>\n

Now they have 10, according to Suleiman Suhairi, a member of Tulkarem\u2019s Popular Committee, which acts as a liaison between the refugee camp and external bodies, such as the UN.<\/p>\n

Residents say the Israeli army is also increasingly committing arson, burning residential homes rather than bulldozing them.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery day, they burn two or three houses,\u201d Suhairi said, speaking in early July.<\/p>\n

The burnings increased in June, but the soldiers claim they have nothing to do with it, Suhairi says.<\/p>\n

To prevent arson, residents now try to remove or cut off their cookers, which are often used to start fires, says Suhairi, explaining that firefighters and homeowners say soldiers light all the burners and throw a blanket on them to start the blaze.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe patterns of exploitation Palestinians face today in the West Bank represent an intensification of an ongoing strategy designed to make life unbearable,\u201d says Ihab Maharmeh, a researcher at the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies, which focuses on Palestinian workers and displacement.<\/p>\n

\"Delaney
A former Palestinian Authority-run school is now a shelter for 17 families displaced from Nur Shams camp [Delaney Nolan\/Al Jazeera]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cIsraeli authorities are effectively transforming everyday life and livelihoods in the West Bank into a form of warfare.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nur Arafeh, a fellow with the Malcolm H Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center, says Abdel\u2019s story \u201cexemplifies the colonial mentality that underpins Israel\u2019s occupation \u2013 one rooted in supremacy, domination, oppression and the systematic dehumanisation of Palestinians\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe soldier\u2019s language\u201d, referring to himself as Abdel\u2019s \u201clord\u201d, \u201creveals the profound power asymmetries at play, whereby the threat of expulsion is used as a coercive and exploitative tool to force compliance and free labour\u201d, Arafeh says.<\/p>\n

Al Jazeera contacted the Israeli army and the Government Press Office for comment on the allegations of arson and coerced labour, but received no response.<\/p>\n

\u2018Israel doesn\u2019t respect international law\u2019<\/h2>\n

On a hill above Nur Shams, more than 130 members of 17 families have taken shelter in a government-run school-turned refugee camp. Each family occupies one room, and all share one toilet.<\/p>\n

The shelter is privately funded, which helps fill the gaps left as local humanitarian agencies struggle to meet needs with limited funding.<\/p>\n

In the shelter, life continues: families hang laundry on lines; they grow chilli peppers and herbs in pots. Those who have fled there are just a short walk from their old homes, but a world away from their former lives.<\/p>\n

Standing on the third-floor balcony, a man draped in a keffiyeh looks at his former home, just visible between two apartment buildings but unreachable now, empty. Those who try to go back to their homes in the camp risk being shot at and possibly killed.<\/p>\n

Most families displaced from the camps end up renting temporary accommodation in the area \u2013 Mohamed Kamel, his wife, and their four children are now living in a rented home.<\/p>\n

Israeli soldiers forced Kamel and his family out of their home at gunpoint five months and two days before he spoke to Al Jazeera in July. He knows because he counts the days.<\/p>\n

The day they left, it was pouring with rain, and they were given just two minutes to leave. They lost everything: every piece of clothing, every toy, even their young daughter\u2019s teddy bear. They walked for hours to a neighbouring village, carrying Kamel\u2019s injured mother on a stretcher as she had recently broken her leg in a fall.<\/p>\n

Kamel had lived all 40 years of his life in the family home. Now, the family is renting an apartment in the neighbouring village.<\/p>\n

\"West
The bicycle of Saddam Rajab, a 10-year-old who was killed by an Israeli soldier, sits outside his mother\u2019s house in Tulkarem city, March 17, 2025 [Leo Correa\/AP Photo]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When Kamel tried to return to fetch his car, which he needed for work, he was shot at by soldiers and barely escaped with his life.<\/p>\n

Many people here have lost loved ones. Of the 198 Palestinians who were killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank since the start of the year, 78 are from Jenin and Tulkarem.<\/p>\n

Even Abdel is not safe.<\/p>\n

The fires largely stopped by early August, and in mid-August, the soldiers near his home moved to a different barracks, and he briefly found relief from their demands and harassment.<\/p>\n

But 10 days later, Abdel was arrested and detained for a month. While he was being held, his wife, kids and mother were expelled from their home.<\/p>\n

About a week after that, Israel rounded up about 1,500 residents of Tulkarem, including children. Abdel was released days later.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were difficult days, as I was brutally beaten. I\u2019m still in pain.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m exhausted and sad,\u201d Abdel says of not being able to return to their home. The family is renting an apartment nearby now.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t know what the future will hold,\u201d he says. \u201cThings are getting worse.\u201d<\/p>\n

*Name changed for the subject\u2019s safety<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Occupied West Bank, Palestine \u2013 Close to Tulkarem, on the outskirts of the Nur Shams refugee camp, grey apartment blocks sit empty. Abandoned cars are strewn amid rubble where homes once stood. Shops are silent, streaked black where flames licked against the windows. Amid escalating violence by settlers from illegal Israeli settlements across the occupied … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3308,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3307"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3307\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3308"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}