The United Nations has sounded a grave alarm over the dramatic surge in Palestinian displacement across the occupied West Bank, warning that current developments represent the most severe forced population movement in the region since the beginning of the Israeli occupation in 1967.

According to UN agencies, ongoing Israeli military operations, which have now extended into their seventh consecutive month in the northern West Bank, have already uprooted tens of thousands of Palestinians. The humanitarian situation is spiraling, and experts fear that the systematic nature of these operations could amount to “ethnic cleansing.”

Juliette Touma, spokesperson for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), emphasized the historic scale and duration of the current military campaign. Speaking from Jordan via video link to reporters in Geneva, Touma described the Israeli operation as the longest sustained offensive in the West Bank since the Second Intifada two decades ago.

“What we are witnessing is affecting multiple refugee camps and communities,” she said. “It has triggered the largest wave of Palestinian displacement in the West Bank since the occupation began.”

The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) also expressed deep concern, warning that the scale and nature of Israel’s actions may rise to the level of crimes under international law.

Thameen Al-Kheetan, OHCHR spokesperson, reported that since Israel escalated its military campaign in the northern governorates of Jenin and Tulkarm in January 2025, nearly 30,000 Palestinians have been forcibly displaced. “This level of displacement within an occupied territory is not only illegal but deeply alarming,” Al-Kheetan said, emphasizing that the forced movement of civilians may constitute “a crime against humanity.”

In parallel to military operations, the Israeli authorities have issued demolition orders for around 1,400 homes in the northern West Bank since January. Al-Kheetan confirmed that a total of 2,907 Palestinians have been rendered homeless due to demolitions since October 2023.

In addition, the OHCHR has recorded a significant spike in settler violence. At least 2,400 Palestinians—nearly half of them children—have been displaced due to attacks by Israeli settlers. Al-Kheetan described the situation as one of “intentional depopulation,” saying that large swathes of the West Bank are being emptied of their Palestinian inhabitants.

“The permanent displacement of civilians in occupied territory is illegal under international law and may amount to ethnic cleansing,” he warned. “We are also deeply concerned that this may constitute a crime against humanity.”

From January to June 2025, the UN documented 757 settler attacks across the West Bank—marking a 13% increase over the same period last year. Alarming new data shows that 96 Palestinians were injured in settler-related violence during June alone, the highest single-month toll in over 20 years.

Since the start of Israel’s military assault on the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023, the violence has also intensified in the occupied West Bank. According to the latest UN figures, at least 964 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, over the past nine months.

Humanitarian agencies and rights groups are calling for urgent international intervention to halt the mass displacement and systematic targeting of Palestinian communities in the occupied territories. The UN has reiterated that under the Fourth Geneva Convention, the occupying power is prohibited from transferring or forcibly displacing the protected population within the territory it occupies.

With growing fears of a demographic and geographic reshaping of the West Bank, the UN’s warning signals a turning point in what many are calling a deliberate campaign of dispossession and demographic erasure. (ILKHA)