Israeli army violence continues in the occupied West Bank where soldiers act with impunity, Palestinians are ordered to leave or labour without pay.

Occupied West Bank, Palestine – Close to Tulkarem, on the outskirts of the Nur Shams refugee camp, grey apartment blocks sit empty. Abandoned cars are strewn amid rubble where homes once stood. Shops are silent, streaked black where flames licked against the windows.

Amid escalating violence by settlers from illegal Israeli settlements across the occupied West Bank, the Israeli military has intensified its efforts to forcibly displace the tens of thousands of Palestinians who live in the Nur Shams and Tulkarem refugee camps.

An unprecedented ground assault, replete with bulldozers, arson, and sniper fire, has made life impossible for the people there, most of whom have been pushed out to shelters or other villages.

In the nearly empty Nur Shams camp, Israeli soldiers stand on rooftops, aim their sniper rifles from windows, and patrol empty streets with searchlights.

Sometimes, the green dot from a weapon’s laser sight dances across the bodies of the few remaining, unarmed residents as they walk by.

Since January, the Israeli military’s violent “Operation Iron Wall” has displaced some 32,000 residents of the Tulkarem, Nur Shams and Jenin refugee camps, according to the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA).

The Israeli army, which has designated both camps as closed military areas, is likely to stay there for months and fire on anyone who enters.

Palestinian families have submitted more than 400 requests to Israel to retrieve their belongings from their homes, but none have been approved, according to the UN.

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