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<h1>Israeli arson, bulldozers and forced labour in the West Bank\u2019s
Tulkarem</h1>
<p class="gmail-article__subhead"><em>Israeli army violence
continues in the occupied West Bank where soldiers act with
impunity, Palestinians are ordered to leave or labour without
pay.</em></p>
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src="https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/GettyImages-2213004023-1-1760524380.jpg?resize=770%2C513&quality=80"
alt="Men and young men sitting on rocks looking aghast off to one side at the ongoing demolition"
width="408" height="272" style="margin-right: 25px;"
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Palestinians were forced to watch as Israeli soldiers tore their
houses down with bulldozers in the Nur Shams refugee camp on May
5, 2025 [Nedal Eshtayah/Anadolu via Getty Images]
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<p
class="gmail-contributors-list gmail-contributors-list--byline"><span
class="gmail-contributors-list__by-prefix">By </span><a
href="https://www.aljazeera.com/author/delaney-nolan"
moz-do-not-send="true">Delaney Nolan</a></p>
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<div class="gmail-article-dates">
<div class="gmail-date-simple"><span
class="gmail-screen-reader-text">Published On 15 Oct 2025
- </span><font size="1"><a
href="https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2025/10/15/israeli-arson-bulldozers-and-forced-labour-in-the-west-banks-tulkarem"
moz-do-not-send="true" class="moz-txt-link-freetext">https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2025/10/15/israeli-arson-bulldozers-and-forced-labour-in-the-west-banks-tulkarem</a></font></div>
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<p><strong>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>
<p>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>
</div>
<p>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>
<p>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>
<p>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>
<p>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>
<p>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>
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<h3 class="gmail-playlist-item-title"
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Farah and Myriam: Childhood Under Siege in Gaza</h3>
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<p> </p>
<p>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>
<h2 id="gmail-i-am-your-lord-you-are-here-to-serve-me">\u2018I am your
lord, you are here to serve me\u2019</h2>
<p>Abdel\u2019s* family is one of the few that Israeli soldiers have
allowed to remain.</p>
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<p>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>
<p>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>
<p>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>
<p>\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>
<p>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>
<img class="gmail-size-arc-image-770 gmail-wp-image-4035190"
src="https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/20250712_123731-1760453115.jpg?w=770&resize=770%2C578&quality=80"
alt="Delaney Nolan - Tulkarem" width="408" height="306"
style="margin-right: 25px;" moz-do-not-send="true">Scorch marks
on a building burned by Israeli forces on the outskirts of
Tulkarem refugee camp [Delaney Nolan/Al Jazeera]
<p>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>
<p>\u201cOne of them even said, \u2018I am your lord, you are here to serve
me.\u2019\u201d</p>
<p>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>
<p>\u201cIf I don\u2019t do what they tell me, they will destroy the house,\u201d
he frets.</p>
<p>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>
<p>All his neighbours have been displaced, and some of their homes
have been burned or trashed to the point of being uninhabitable.</p>
<p>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>
<p>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>
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<p> </p>
<p>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>
<p>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>
<p>Soldiers smashed everything they could find, even the washing
machine\u2019s circuits, tore up electrical boxes, broke toilets and
knocked down doors.</p>
<p>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>
<p>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>
<p>This kind of damage, Abdel says, shows the consequences of
defying the soldiers\u2019 demands.</p>
<h2 id="gmail-an-atmosphere-of-terror">An atmosphere of terror</h2>
<p>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>
<p>It also damaged critical infrastructure, including water and
electricity networks.</p>
<img class="gmail-size-arc-image-770 gmail-wp-image-4035274"
src="https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/20250712_181157-1760454606.jpg?w=770&resize=770%2C578&quality=80"
alt="Delaney Nolan - Tulkarem" width="408" height="306"
style="margin-right: 25px;" moz-do-not-send="true">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]
<p>In July, Israel\u2019s High Court froze a military order for the
demolition of 104 residential buildings, comprising some 400
homes, in Tulkarem.</p>
<p>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>
<p>Adalah, an Israel-based legal centre for Arab minority rights,
has been petitioning against the demolitions.</p>
<p>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>
<p>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>
<p>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>
<p>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>
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<p> </p>
<h2
id="gmail-accelerating-demolitions-adding-arson-to-the-destruction">Accelerating
demolitions, adding arson to the destruction</h2>
<p>Israel is now <a
href="https://www.aljazeera.com/video/newsfeed/2025/7/7/israel-demolishing-homes-in-west-bank-at-highest-rate-in-over-50-years"
moz-do-not-send="true">demolishing homes in the West Bank</a>
at the fastest rate since the 1967 War, partly thanks to
equipment from the United States.</p>
<p>At the beginning of the year, the Israeli army had just two or
three Caterpillar bulldozers, which are produced in Texas.</p>
<p>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>
<p>Residents say the Israeli army is also increasingly committing
arson, burning residential homes rather than bulldozing them.</p>
<p>\u201cEvery day, they burn two or three houses,\u201d Suhairi said,
speaking in early July.</p>
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<p>The burnings increased in June, but the soldiers claim they
have nothing to do with it, Suhairi says.</p>
<p>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>
<p>\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>
<img class="gmail-size-arc-image-770 gmail-wp-image-4035272"
src="https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/20250712_173307-1760454600.jpg?w=770&resize=770%2C578&quality=80"
alt="Delaney Nolan/Al Jazeera" width="408" height="306"
style="margin-right: 25px;" moz-do-not-send="true">A former
Palestinian Authority-run school is now a shelter for 17 families
displaced from Nur Shams camp [Delaney Nolan/Al Jazeera]
<p>\u201cIsraeli authorities are effectively transforming everyday life
and livelihoods in the West Bank into a form of warfare.\u201d</p>
<p>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>
<p>\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>
<p>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>
<h2 id="gmail-israel-doesn-t-respect-international-law">\u2018Israel
doesn\u2019t respect international law\u2019</h2>
<p>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>
<p>The shelter is privately funded, which helps fill the gaps left
as local humanitarian agencies struggle to meet needs with
limited funding.</p>
<p>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>
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<p>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>
<p>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>
<p>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>
<p>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>
<p>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>
<img class="gmail-size-arc-image-770 gmail-wp-image-4014351"
src="https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/AP25253509407930-1759817422.jpg?w=770&resize=770%2C513&quality=80"
alt="West Bank Killed Children Photo Essay" width="408"
height="272" style="margin-right: 25px;" moz-do-not-send="true">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]
<p>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>
<p>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>
<p>Even Abdel is not safe.</p>
<p>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>
<p>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>
<p>About a week after that, Israel rounded up about 1,500
residents of Tulkarem, including children. Abdel was released
days later.</p>
<p>\u201cThey were difficult days, as I was brutally beaten. I\u2019m still
in pain.\u201d</p>
<p>\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>
<p>\u201cWe don\u2019t know what the future will hold,\u201d he says. \u201cThings are
getting worse.\u201d</p>
<p><em>*Name changed for the subject\u2019s safety</em></p>
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