Residents look on in Nur Shams as Israeli bulldozers destroy over a dozen homes in the camp [Getty/file photo]
Israeli forces have begun a large-scale demolition process of at least 17 residential buildings in the Nur Shams refugee camp near Tulkarem on Thursday, the second operation of its kind this week.
The demolitions will result in the destruction of at least 50 housing units which comprise the buildings, leaving scores of Palestinian families homeless.
Videos and images shared online showed large bulldozers demolishing the homes in the occupied camp, which has been the target of Israel’s large-scale military operation in the West Bank ongoing since late January this year.
Activist Nihad Al-Shawish told The New Arab’s Arabic-language sister site Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that Israeli forces fired live bullets at some Palestinian families attempting to salvage some of their belongings from the camp on Wednesday evening. One woman was also briefly detained during the ordeal.
Some other families, however, were allowed to retrieve some of their possessions.
The Israeli authorities claim that they are destroying the homes in a bid to pave a road in the Manshiya neighbourhood, located in the camp. Israel has a track record of justifying its destruction of Palestinian homes in the West Bank and East Jerusalem on similar grounds.
Around 40,000 Palestinians have been displaced from their homes in Nur Shams and other refugee camps in the West Bank as a result of Israel’s deadly attacks.
Earlier this week, Israeli bulldozers had destroyed 11 homes in the camp.
Al-Shawish told the Anadolu news agency that the demolitions were a “collective punishment” which “aim to change the geographical environment of the camp under flimsy security pretexts”.
One resident, Rabie Khalifa told Anadolu: “Five families live in this house, including my mother, the house in which we were born and raised. Today, Israel intends to demolish all the surrounding houses, and we are taking what we can.”
“What does the occupation want from us? It wants to displace Palestinian people again. We are here and we will not leave. We will stay in our homes and amp, and no force can expel us.”
Israeli authorities also destroyed a number of homes in the east Jerusalem area earlier this week, despite Palestinian Muslims currently observing the fasting month of Ramadan.
Israeli officials tend to refrain from carrying out such destruction in the holy month over religious sensitivities.
Elsewhere in the West Bank, Israeli authorities ordered the expulsion of at least eight families in living in the vicinity of the Jenin refugee camp, giving them a “deadline” of Thursday evening, the Palestinian news agency Wafa said.
The families, living in the Al-Jabariyat neighborhood, were notified via drones, and their residences will be converted into military barracks, Wafa added.
The Israeli army has been reportedly Palestinian homes as barracks amid their deadly operation in Jenin, ongoing for over 40 days.
Amid Israel’s ongoing incursions in the Palestinian territory, three Palestinians, including a teenager, were injured by live bullets in the towns of al-Rihiya and Qusra in the central and southern West Bank.
In one incident, the health ministry said that a 20-year-old woman was in critical condition at Rafidia Governmental Hospital after being shot in the head by the Israeli army during the raid in Qusra.
According to the Palestinian Red Crescent, a 14-year-old was admitted to hospital after being shot in the foot by Israeli live ammunition in al-Rihiya.
Eyewitnesses said that Israeli army stormed the village of al-Rihiya and raided several homes in its al-Najjar and al-Hallaq neighbourhoods, firing sound bombs and live ammunition in the centre of the village.
Israel’s deadly military campaign against Palestinians and their properties in the West Bank began after a ceasefire was declared in the devastated Gaza Strip last January
