Israel may have committed war crimes and crimes against humanity by forcibly expelling 32,000 Palestinians from three West Bank refugee camps during a military operation earlier this year, a human rights group said Thursday.
U.S.-based Human Rights Watch said in a report that top Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Defense Minister Israel Katz, should be investigated for war crimes and prosecuted if found responsible.
While much of the world focused on Israel's genocidal war on Gaza, Israel's military raided refugee camps in the north of the occupied West Bank and expelled tens of thousands of Palestinians from their homes in January and February. It amounted to the largest-ever displacement in the territory since Israel captured it in the 1967 Mideast war.
Israel has said troops would stay in some camps for a year. It is not clear when, if ever, Palestinians will be able to return. In the meantime, thousands of Palestinians are living with relatives or cramming into rental apartments, while the impoverished seek refuge in public buildings.
Israel, which called the raids "Operation Iron Wall," said they were needed to stamp out resistance groups as violence by all sides surged after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, incursion ignited the war. But months later, thousands of Palestinians remain unable to access their homes. Others have lost their homes entirely after they were bulldozed by Israeli forces.
