UN raises ‘ethnic cleansing’ concerns over Israeli West Bank operation

What the report says

A United Nations human rights report has raised serious concerns about Israel’s Operation Iron Wall in the occupied West Bank, saying the campaign’s impact on Palestinian refugee camps may amount to collective punishment and could raise issues of ethnic cleansing. The report, published by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and cited by Al Jazeera, focused on the Jenin, Nur Shams and Tulkarem camps.

According to the report, the operation took place in January and February 2025 and left 102 Palestinians dead while displacing more than 33,000 residents. Al Jazeera reported that many of those displaced remain unable to return, with UNRWA figures cited as showing about 33,362 people still displaced as of July. The camps are among the West Bank’s long-established refugee camps, created to house Palestinians uprooted in 1948.

The UN report said the use of air strikes, armored bulldozers and controlled detonations to make areas uninhabitable, if done without imperative military necessity, would not be lawful under international law. It also warned that the scale and duration of the displacement could amount to forcible transfer, a potential crime against humanity.

The findings are significant because they add to international scrutiny of Israel’s conduct in the occupied West Bank and its treatment of refugee populations. Al Jazeera also reported that at least 21 children were killed during the operation, underscoring the human cost described in the UN assessment.