While the war raged in Gaza at the beginning of the year, the Israeli military carried out raids on three Palestinian refugee camps in the northern parts of the West Bank: the refugee camp in the city of Tulkarem, the one bordering the city of Jenin, and the Nur Shams camp outside Tulkarem.
A total of 32,000 residents were forcibly removed from the camps in January and February. Israel has said the military will remain in the camps for a year. It remains unclear when, or if, thousands of Palestinians will be allowed to return to their homes, HRW said in a report .
The forced displacement is the largest in the West Bank since Israel began its occupation of the area after the Six-Day War in 1967, according to HRW.
Israel's military said on Thursday that the operation in the refugee camps was ongoing because it takes time to combat militant Palestinian groups residing there, adding that Israeli forces had destroyed explosives laboratories.
The military further states, without presenting any basis for its claim, that Palestinian attacks in the West Bank have decreased by 70 percent since the raids on the three refugee camps began.
