TULKAREM, West Bank (AP) — For weeks, the family had been on the move. Israeli troops had forced them from home during a military operation that has displaced tens of thousands of Palestinians across the occupied West Bank. After finding shelter in a wedding hall, they were told to leave again.
“We don’t know where we’ll go,” said the family's 52-year-old matriarch, who did not want to be identified for fear of reprisal. She buried her face in her hands.
The grandmother is one of more than 1,500 displaced people in and around the northern city of Tulkarem who are being pushed from schools, youth centers and other venues because the people who run them need them back. It was not clear how many displaced in other areas like Jenin face the same pressure.
Many say they have nowhere else to go. Israeli forces destroyed some homes.
The cash-strapped Palestinian Authority, which administers parts of the West Bank, has little to offer. The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, the largest aid provider in the occupied territories, struggles to meet greater needs in the Gaza Strip while facing Israeli restrictions on its operations.
Approximately 40,000 Palestinians were driven from their homes in January and February in the largest displacement in the West Bank since Israel captured the territory in the 1967 Mideast war.
Israel says the operations are needed to stamp out militancy as violence by all sides has surged since Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack ignited the war in Gaza.
Fears of long-term displacement
Israel's raids have emptied out and largely destroyed several urban refugee camps in the northern West Bank, like Tulkarem and nearby Nur Shams, that housed the descendants of Palestinians who fled or were driven from their homes in previous wars.
Israel says troops will stay in some camps for a year.
People with means are living with relatives or renting apartments, while the impoverished have sought refuge in public buildings. Now that the Muslim holy month of Ramadan has ended, many are being told to leave.
“This is a big problem for us, as the schools cannot be used for the displaced because there are students in them, and at the same time, we have a shortage of financial resources,” said Abdallah Kmeil, the governor of Tulkarem.
He said the Palestinian Authority is looking for empty homes to rent to families and plans to bring prefabricated containers for some 20,000 displaced. But it’s unclear when they will arrive.
Seven minutes to pack
The matriarch said Israeli troops gave the family seven minutes to pack when they evicted them from the Nur Shams camp in early February. They left with backpacks and a white flag to signal they weren't a threat.
Shelters were overcrowded. People slept on floor mats with little privacy, and dozens at times shared a few toilets and a shower.
The family tried to return home when soldiers allowed people to go back and get their belongings. Days later, they were forced to leave again, and soldiers warned that their house would be burned if they didn’t, the woman said.
The family found a charity center that doubles as a wedding hall in a nearby town. Now, with the onset of wedding season, they have had to leave.
When the family feels homesick, they walk to a hilltop overlooking Nur Shams.
Palestinians sheltering in and around Tulkarem say they feel abandoned. Much of the aid they were receiving, such as food and clothes, came from the community during Ramadan, a time of increased charity. Now that has dried up.
Israel's crackdown in the West Bank has also left tens of thousands unemployed. They can no longer work the mostly menial jobs in Israel that paid higher wages, making it harder to rent scarce places to stay.
Iman Basher used to work on a Palestinian farm near her house in Nur Shams. Since fleeing, the day's walk there is too far to travel, she said. The 64-year-old was among dozens of people recently forced from another wedding hall. She now sleeps on a mat in another packed building.
Basher said soldiers raiding her house stole about $2,000, money she had been saving for more than a decade for her children’s education.
An Israeli military spokesperson said the army prohibits the theft or wanton destruction of civilian property and holds soldiers accountable for what it called “exceptional” violations. The army said militants fight and plant explosives in residential areas, and soldiers sometimes occupy homes to combat them.
‘The scale of the displacement is beyond us’
Aid groups said some displaced people are living in unfinished buildings, without proper clothes, hygiene, bedding or access to healthcare.
“It’s hard to find where the need is ... The scale of the displacement is beyond us,” said Nicholas Papachrysostomou, emergency coordinator in the northern West Bank for Doctors Without Borders.
The charity's mobile clinics provide primary healthcare, but there’s a shortage of medicine and it’s hard to get supplies because of Israeli restrictions and financial constraints by the West Bank's health ministry, he said.
The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA, plans to disburse $265 a month to about 30,000 of the most vulnerable displaced people, but there is enough money for only three months, said Hanadi Jaber Abu Taqa, head of UNRWA in the northern West Bank.
The agency's money mostly goes to Gaza. Just over 12% of the funds it seeks from donors for this year will be allocated to the West Bank.
Portable housing for the many displaced would only be a temporary fix. Some Palestinians said they wouldn't accept it, worrying it would feel like giving up their right to return home.
Isam Sadooq had been helping 60 displaced people staying at a youth center in Tulkarem. Last month, he was told, by the people who run the center, that they should consider evacuating so children can resume sports.
“If we cannot find them another place to live, what will be their fate?” he said. “They will find themselves in the street, and this is something we do not accept."
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Sam Mednick, The Associated Press
