The Refugee Affairs Department in the Organization Condemns the Occupation's Decision to Demolish 25 Residential Buildings in Nour Shams Camp

SadaNews - The Refugee Affairs Department of the Palestine Liberation Organization condemned the Israeli occupation authorities' decision to demolish 25 residential buildings in the Nour Shams refugee camp, scheduled to commence on December 18th, considering it a war crime, ethnic cleansing, and a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law.

In a statement issued today, Tuesday, the department called on the international community for urgent intervention to halt the demolition operations, allow all displaced individuals to return to their camps in northern the West Bank, enable the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) to carry out its duties and reconstruct the camps, and protect them from the crimes of forced displacement perpetrated by the occupation authorities.

It emphasized that the systematic demolition policy in the Nour Shams camp will lead to the forced displacement of dozens of families, as part of a plan aimed at emptying the Palestinian camps, erasing their existence, and imposing long-term control over them, within broader schemes to annex the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.

The department rejected all Israeli attempts aimed at creating permanent demographic and geographic changes in the camps, transforming them into neighborhoods within Palestinian cities, with the goal of erasing their legal, cultural, and social identity, liquidating the refugee issue, undermining the right of return, and concealing the features of the Nakba crime committed by the occupying state in 1948.

It considered that the conditions imposed by the occupation authorities for withdrawal from the camps, including the prohibition of UNRWA's work, banning any political activities for refugees, screening displaced individuals upon their return, and preventing the reconstruction of demolished homes in Nour Shams, Tulkarm, and Jenin camps, represent a continuation of the policy of forced displacement and ethnic cleansing, and an egregious violation of international humanitarian law.

It stressed that the ongoing aggression against the camps in northern the West Bank, targeting UNRWA, and preventing it from carrying out its mandate renewed by a resolution from the United Nations General Assembly, constitutes a breach of the principle of international protection for refugees and a violation of relevant United Nations resolutions, including Security Council Resolution 2730, and the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice issued last October.

The Refugee Affairs Department called on the international community to activate the principle of accountability, adhere immediately to the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice, respect the immunities and privileges of UNRWA, and ensure the facilitation of its work within the camps according to the mandate granted to it under General Assembly Resolution (302).