West Bank Military Campaign: Israel Map & Analysis
Israel’s “Iron Wall” operation in the West Bank is a stark imitation of it’s Gaza tactics, according to a new report. The report alleges the campaign, which began in January, is aimed at seizing and controlling Palestinian territory, echoing methods that have displaced thousands. Find detailed analysis that examines how Israel is reportedly widening roads, destroying infrastructure, and targeting medical facilities in the West Bank refugee camps of Jenin, Far’a, Nur Shams, and Tulkarem. News Directory 3 delivers an in-depth look at thes claims, detailing the impact on civilian life and the international community’s response. Discover what’s next.
Israel’s “Iron Wall” Tactics Mimic Gaza in West Bank, Report Says
Updated May 27, 2025
Israel is employing tactics similar to those used in its war on Gaza to seize and control territory in the occupied West Bank during its Operation iron Wall, according to a new report by Forensic Architecture.
The operation, launched in January, aims to preserve Israel’s “freedom of action” within the Palestinian territory, according to the israeli military.The UNRWA has described it as the most destructive operation in the West Bank as the second intifada.
The report suggests Israel has imposed a system of “spatial control,” allowing it to deploy military units across Palestinian territory at will. Researchers focused on Israeli actions in the refugee camps of Jenin, Far’a, Nur Shams, and Tulkarem, analyzing witness statements, satellite imagery, and videos.
Existing roads have been widened, and homes and properties demolished to allow for the rapid deployment of Israeli military vehicles, the report said.
“This network of military routes is clearly visible in the Jenin refugee camp and evidence indicates that the same tactic is, at the time of publication, being repeated in the Nur Shams and Tulkarm refugee camps,” the report’s authors noted.
israeli ministers have previously stated their intention to use the same methods in the West Bank that have devastated the Gaza Strip.
In January,Defense Minister israel Katz said Israel would apply the “lesson” of “repeated raids in Gaza” to the Jenin refugee camp. The following month, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said that “Tulkarem and Jenin will look like jabalia and Shujayea. Nablus and ramallah will resemble Rafah and Khan Younis,” comparing refugee camps in the West Bank to areas in Gaza that have been devastated by Israeli bombing and ground offensives.
“They will also be turned into uninhabitable ruins, and their residents will be forced to migrate and seek a new life in other countries,” Smotrich said.
Hamze Attar, a defense analyst, told Al Jazeera these tactics are not new, having frist been deployed by the British during their mandate over historic Palestine.
“Its part of the ‘counterinsurgency’ strategy,” he said. ”bigger roads [mean] easy access to forces – bigger roads, less congested battle management; bigger roads, less ability for fighters to escape from house to house.”
Displacing the Displaced
About 75,000 Palestinians live in the Jenin, Nur Shams, Far’a, and Tulkarem refugee camps. They were displaced during the Nakba when roughly 750,000 Palestinians were forced from their homes by Zionist forces from 1947 to 1949.
Now, at least 40,000 of those living in the West Bank refugee camps have been displaced as a result of Operation Iron Wall, according to the United Nations.
Many were forced from their homes on orders from the Israeli military, which researchers said have been “weaponized” against the local population.
Once an area had been cleared, it becomes a kill zone, and the Israeli military is free to reshape and build whatever it likes without interference from residents, the report said.
“Such engineered mass displacement has allowed the Israeli military to reshape these built environments unobstructed,” the report noted.
Destroying Infrastructure
Forensic architecture researchers said Israeli attacks on medical facilities in Gaza have also spilled over into the West Bank.
“Israeli attacks on medical infrastructure in the West Bank have included placing hospitals under siege, obstructing ambulance access to areas with injured civilians, targeting medical personnel, and using at least one medical facility as a detention and interrogation centre,” the report said.
During Israel’s initial attacks on the Jenin refugee camp on January 21, multiple hospitals were surrounded by the Israeli military.
The following day,civilians and hospital staff reported that the main road leading to Jenin Government Hospital was destroyed by Israeli military bulldozers,and access to the hospital was blocked by newly constructed berms.
On February 4, reports from Jenin said the israeli military was obstructing ambulances carrying injured people from reaching the hospital.
An UNRWA report in early February said the Israeli military had forcibly co-opted one of the health centers at the UNRWA-run Arroub camp near Jerusalem as an interrogation and detention site.
The attacks on healthcare facilities were part of a wider campaign to damage civilian infrastructure in the West Bank, the Forensic Architecture report said, using armored bulldozers, controlled demolitions, and air attacks.
Researchers said they verified more than 200 examples of Israeli soldiers deliberately destroying buildings and street networks in all four of the refugee camps with armored bulldozers.
Civilian property, including parked vehicles, food carts, and agricultural buildings, were also destroyed during Israeli military operations, they said.
What’s next
The report’s findings raise concerns about the long-term impact of Operation iron Wall on the West Bank and the potential for further displacement and destruction. The international community is likely to face increasing pressure to address the situation and ensure the protection of Palestinian civilians.