GENEVA: The United Nations warned on Friday that Israel’s forced displacement of the entire Palestinian populations of three West Bank refugee camps last year could amount to crimes against humanity.

The UN rights office described how a military operation launched in the north of the occupied territory in January 2025 had forcibly displaced over 33,000 people.

At the start of operation “Iron Wall”, Israeli military, police and other forces entered the camps and killed civilians, destroyed hundreds of homes and damaged infrastructure, it said.

They cut off water and electricity and barred humanitarian access to the camps before going door to door forcing residents to leave, it added.

Israel’s actions raise concerns of ethnic cleansing, says UN rights office; two Israeli ministers seek removal of Palestinians from Gaza

A few days into the operation, Israeli security forces “consolidated their control” over the camps and “forcibly displaced their population in their entirety”, the report said.

“The large-scale, long-term and systematic displacement of over 33,000 Palestinian refugees from refugee camps such as Jenin, Nur Shams and Tulkarm during Israel’s Operation Iron Wall … raises serious concerns of the crime against humanity of forcible transfer,” it warned.

As of July this year, 33,362 Palestinian refugees displaced from the three camps had not been permitted to return, the UN office said.

The rights office said “the use of airstrikes, armoured bulldozers and controlled detonations, to render entire camps uninhabitable, to force the displacement of their residents and to prevent their return… are not permissible under international law”.

Israel’s actions “appear to amount to collective punishment and raise concerns of ethnic cleansing”, it warned.

UN rights chief Volker Turk said Friday that the way the operation was conducted “suggests its aim was to expel as many Palestinians as possible and to make way for more illegal Israeli settlements, in further violation of international law”.

Israeli ministers seek removal of Palestinians from Gaza

Two Israeli ministers floated proposals this week for the mass removal of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, resurfacing an idea voiced repeatedly by right-wing politicians over the past three years as they seek to rally supporters ahead of an election.

The calls by two of Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s political allies have revived Palestinian fears that Israel ultimately aims to forcibly expel them from Gaza.

Far-right security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir laid out a seven-year plan for removing Gaza’s population through “voluntary emigration” during a press conference on Thursday night. He said he would seek the creation of a “ministry in charge of emigration” in the next government.

“Instead of illusions of peace now, we need actions of emigration now,” he said. “Instead of (them) digging tunnels, it’s time to pack suitcases,” referring to tunnels dug under Gaza by Hamas before the war.

Ben-Gvir’s Jewish Power party said in a statement on Thursday that Turkiye, Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of Congo were being considered as potential destinations.

Ismail Al-Thawabta, director of the Hamas government media office, said: “The Palestinian people are deeply rooted in their land and will not be intimidated by such threats.”

Ben-Gvir’s comments followed those of Defence Minister Israel Katz, from Netanyahu’s Likud party, who said on Wednesday there was “no real solution for Gaza in the end without this migration”.

Hamas’ plea to Islamic leaders

Hamas called on Arab and Muslim countries on Friday to oppose a proposal from two Israeli ministers to remove Palestinians from the Gaza Strip and send them abroad.

“Escalating statements by ministers in the Israeli government regarding the continued adoption of plans to displace the Palestinian people from the Gaza Strip represent an extremely dangerous development,” Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem said in a statement.

He called on “Arab and Islamic countries to take serious and unified action to confront these plans and adopt effective positions and measures to thwart them”.

Published in Dawn, September 5th, 2026