“The residents of this particular camp have endured the impossible,” UNRWA spokeswoman Juliette Touma told a media briefing on Tuesday.
She said Israeli explosives and bulldozers have destroyed dozens of houses and streets since January 21.
“Large parts of the camp were completely destroyed in a series of detonations by the Israeli forces. It is estimated that 100 houses were destroyed or heavily damaged.”
The Israeli military also uses drones to bomb houses in the West Bank.
Touma further stated that the destruction of basic infrastructure had taken a toll on the education system.
“When it comes to UNRWA, 13 schools in the camp and the surrounding areas continue to be closed. That affected 5,000 kids in that area.”
UNRWA announced it received no warning from the Israeli side prior to the detonation of its facilities.
Touma referred to a recent such action, on February 2, and added the detonation “was when children were supposed to go back to school.”
Israel has banned operations by UNRWA in the occupied Palestinian territories. UNRWA’s contact with the regime’s authorities has also been prohibited since January 30.
Elsewhere in her remarks, Touma stressed that UNRWA’s services inside Jenin have come to a full stop in early December.
Earlier on Monday, Palestinian authorities raised “ethnic cleansing” accusations while a UN special rapporteur blamed Israel for “genocidal intent” in killing at least 70 Palestinians in Jenin since the start of the year.
In a statement released on Tuesday, the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs strongly condemned Israeli attacks in the northern part of the occupied West Bank, particularly in Jenin, Tulkarem, Tubas, Far’a and Tammun.
The ministry said civilians are forcibly displaced from homes under armed threat, while entire neighborhoods are being destroyed with explosives, “which results in the forced alteration of Palestinian geography.”
The ministry called this a “flagrant violation of international law, international humanitarian law, and the Geneva Conventions.”
The statement also added it reflects an official Israeli policy to deepen the gradual annexation of the occupied West Bank for the benefit of settlement expansion.
The ministry urged urgent action by the international community to rein in Israel.
“The ministry holds the Israeli regime fully responsible for the consequences of these policies and calls on the international community to break its silence and fulfill its legal and moral obligations to put an end to this aggression.”
The UN human rights office has also announced that the daily Israeli assault on the occupied West Bank indicate “ongoing violations of the international law,” urging Israel to meet its obligations.
“Our Office has repeatedly raised concerns about the large-scale operation underway in the West Bank, and the devastating impact this is having on Palestinian communities, both in terms of violence and displacement,” spokesperson Jeremy Laurence told Anadolu in a statement.
“Daily reports of airstrikes and associated fatalities with thousands forcibly displaced indicate ongoing violations of international law,” Laurence said.
He noted that since the start of the operation, now ongoing in Jenin, Tubas, and Tulkarem, Israeli security forces killed 39 Palestinians, including three children.
“We remind Israel of its international legal obligations and call on it to cease and investigate all serious violations of international law, including all killings, and ensure meaningful accountability,” he concluded.
The Israeli escalation in the occupied territory came after a ceasefire and prisoner exchange deal took hold in Gaza on Jan. 19 following 15 months of Israel’s genocidal war that killed 62,000 Palestinians and reduced the enclave to rubble.
Since the beginning of Israel’s war on Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023, at least 905 Palestinians have been killed across the occupied West Bank in attacks by Israeli forces and settlers, according to the Health Ministry.
