UN Warns of Crimes Against Humanity Over Palestinian Displacement

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights stated on Friday that over 33,000 Palestinians were displaced from the Jenin, Tulkarm, and Nur Shams refugee camps in the West Bank during 2025. The UN agency warned that the continued prevention of their return raises serious concerns about potential crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing.

In a new report, the commission detailed that Israeli security forces evacuated residents of the three camps in January and February 2025 as part of operations and continue to bar their return, which the UN considers a violation of international law. The report indicated that the "widespread, prolonged, and systematic displacement" of over 33,000 Palestinians could amount to the crime of forcible transfer, a crime against humanity.

The commission added that the use of airstrikes, armored bulldozers, and explosions to render large areas of the camps uninhabitable, coupled with forcing residents to flee and preventing their return without urgent military necessity, could constitute collective punishment and raise concerns of ethnic cleansing.

Israel, in response, rejected these accusations, with its mission in Geneva stating that the commission had abandoned its neutrality, independence, and integrity.