Tens of thousands of people in the occupied West Bank remain displaced months after the Israeli regime launched an offensive in the Palestinian territory earlier this year.
Media reports on Wednesday cited Doctors Without Borders (MSF) as saying that 40,000 Palestinians in the West Bank remain forcibly displaced five months after the launch of the Israeli attacks under the military codename Operation Iron Wall.
MSF reported that large-scale military attacks by Israeli forces who violently raided the well-established refugee camps in the northern West Bank have caused widespread destruction, including demolitions, in the three main refugee camps of Jenin, Tulkarm, and Nur Shams.
“After five months, the military operation continues,” MSF project coordinator in Jenin and Tulkarm, Simona Onidi, said in a statement on Tuesday.
“The camps remain sealed off, with Israeli soldiers actively preventing anyone from entering. Families are still in limbo, and we’re worried that humanitarian needs will keep escalating,” according to the MSF coordinator.
Onidi raised the alarm about the dire conditions of the Palestinians who remain cut off from their homes and are left with very limited access to basic services and healthcare.
The raids come as Israeli authorities are also pushing for the immediate annexation of the West Bank.
At a meeting on Wednesday, Israeli minister Yariv Levin, alongside the settler leaders, demanded the expansion of settlements.
“The time for sovereignty has come, the time to apply sovereignty. My position on this matter is firm, it is clear,” the minister was quoted as saying.
“I think that this period, beyond the current issues, is a time of historic opportunity that we must not miss.”
Fourteen ministers from Netanyahu’s Likud Party called on the prime minister on Wednesday evening to immediately annex the occupied West Bank.
In a letter addressed to Netanyahu and shared by far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on X, the signatories called on the regime “to apply sovereignty over Judea and Samaria (West Bank) before the end of the Knesset summer session,” which concludes on July 27.
The ministers argued that the current “strategic partnership and backing and support of the US and President Donald Trump create a favorable time to lead this move (annexation) now.”
An estimated 770,000 illegal Israeli settlers live in the West Bank.
Since the start of the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip in October 2023, at least 988 Palestinians have been killed and more than 7,000 injured in the West Bank by Israeli forces and illegal settlers, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) last July declared Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory illegal and called for the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East al-Quds.
Also, the International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his former minister of military affairs, Yoav Gallant, for war crimes and crimes against humanity.