GENEVA, July 15, 2025 (WAFA) – The United Nations has raised alarm over a surge in mass displacement across the occupied West Bank, describing it as the most severe since Israel began its occupation nearly six decades ago.
The UN said the ongoing Israeli military aggression, now entering its seventh month in the northern West Bank, has forced tens of thousands of Palestinians from their homes, prompting concerns of possible “ethnic cleansing.”
Spokesperson for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), Juliette Touma, stated that the military operation in the West Bank is the longest since the Second Intifada in the early 2000s.
Speaking to journalists in Geneva via video call from Jordan, she said what is happening is affecting numerous refugee camps in the region and is causing the largest displacement of Palestinians in the West Bank since 1967.
Meanwhile, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights warned that the mass forced displacement carried out by the occupation forces may amount to “ethnic cleansing.”
Since the beginning of the Israeli aggression on the northern governorates of the occupied West Bank in January—specifically in Jenin and Tulkarm—around 30,000 Palestinians remain forcibly displaced,” according to Thameen Al-Kheetan, a spokesperson for the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).
He added that during the same period, Israeli forces issued demolition orders for around 1,400 homes in the northern West Bank, describing the figures as “alarming.”
Al-Kheetan noted that Israeli demolitions have displaced 2,907 Palestinians across the occupied West Bank since October 2023.
He also stated that an additional 2,400 Palestinians— nearly half of them children—were displaced due to attacks by Israeli colonists, expressing regret that the cumulative outcome has been the emptying of large parts of the West Bank of Palestinians.
The permanent displacement of civilians within occupied territory constitutes an unlawful transfer of population, said Al-Kheetan, stressing that it may constitute “ethnic cleansing” and “a crime against humanity.”
He reported that 757 settler attacks were recorded in the occupied West Bank during the first half of the year, representing a 13% increase compared to the same period in 2024.
He told reporters that these attacks injured 96 Palestinians in the occupied territories during June alone— the highest monthly toll in over two decades.
Since the start of the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023, at least 964 Palestinians have been killed in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, according to United Nations data.
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