Defending Palestinian Refugee Camps in the West Bank and the Rights of Palestine Refugees

1. Since October 2023, Israel has carried out a genocidal act against the Palestinian people in Gaza, marked by mass killing, forced displacement, and the systematic destruction of civilian life. Parallel to this war, Israel has dramatically escalated repression across the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, under conditions of near-total impunity.
2. During this period, Palestinian cities, towns, and villages in the West Bank have been subjected to intensified military raids, assassinations, mass arrests, closures, and escalating settler terrorism. Severe movement restrictions, checkpoints, and roadblocks have fragmented Palestinian life, undermining access to healthcare, education, work, and basic services, and placing entire communities under siege-like conditions.
3. Under the cover of the war on Gaza, Israel has launched large-scale military operations targeting Palestinian refugee camps in the West Bank, particularly in the northern areas in Westbank. These operations have involved prolonged incursions, aerial attacks, bulldozing of roads and homes, destruction of water, electricity, and sewage infrastructure, and the forced displacement of thousands of residents. Entire sections of refugee camps have been rendered uninhabitable, and many displaced families have been prevented from returning to their homes.
4. These actions are not isolated, they represent a deliberate policy aimed at dismantling the physical, social, and political fabric of Palestinian refugee camps. As communities formed by the 1948 Nakba, refugee camps stand as living evidence of the unresolved Palestinian refugee question and the right of return. Their destruction and so-called “re-engineering” constitute an attempt to erase refugeehood itself and impose a new reality of permanent displacement and fragmentation.
5. Palestinian refugee camps are protected civilian communities under international humanitarian law. The forced displacement of residents, large-scale destruction of civilian property, and collective punishment constitute grave violations of international law and form part of a broader system of colonial domination, demographic engineering, and apartheid. These practices must be understood as inseparable from the wider assault on Palestinian existence, identity, and political rights during the genocide and war on Gaza.
6. In parallel with the physical targeting of refugee camps, Israel has intensified its political and legal attacks on the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), seeking to delegitimize, restrict, defund, or dismantle its operations. UNRWA is not merely a humanitarian service provider, but an UN-mandated institution established to protect and support Palestine refugees until a just and lasting solution is achieved. Efforts to undermine UNRWA threaten access to education, healthcare, food assistance, and essential services for millions of refugees and aim to remove international responsibility for the Palestinian refugee question, constituting an attempt to liquidate refugee rights rather than resolve them.

Therefore, IUSY:

7. Condemns the systematic targeting, destruction, and forced depopulation of Palestinian refugee camps in the occupied West Bank and rejects all attempts to “re-engineer” camps through military force and collective punishment.
8. Demands an immediate end to military assaults on Palestinian cities, towns, villages, and refugee camps in the West Bank, and affirms the unconditional right of displaced residents to return safely to their homes.
9. Affirms that forcible transfer, collective punishment, and large-scale destruction of civilian property are prohibited under international law and call for accountability for all violations.
10. Reaffirms that the Palestinian refugee question cannot be resolved through erasure or repression, but only through justice, including the realization of refugee rights and the right of return based on UNGA resolution 194.
11. Defends UNRWA as an essential lifeline and an international responsibility, and opposes all political, legal, and financial measures aimed at undermining or dismantling its mandate and operations.
12. Calls on IUSY member organizations to mobilize politically to pressure governments and international institutions to oppose forced displacement, protect refugee camps, and ensure sustained support for UNRWA.
13. Commits IUSY to amplifying the voices of Palestinian refugee and camp communities, and to sustained international solidarity until freedom, return, justice, and dignity are achieved.