Five months of forced displacement and escalating humanitarian needs amid advancing annexation in the West Bank
 

More than 40,000 people in the northern West Bank remain forcibly displaced, cut off from their homes and left with very limited access to basic services and healthcare five months after the launch of the Israeli military operation ‘Iron Wall’.  This large-scale military campaign has seen Israeli forces raid and violently empty well-established refugee camps in northern West Bank. 

Doctors Without Borders' new advocacy briefing note, Five Months Under Iron Wall, highlights the human toll of prolonged displacement in the West Bank. The note draws on Doctors Without Borders’ field presence, operational data, and nearly 300 interviews conducted in mid-May across 17 locations where Doctors Without Borders works in the northern West Bank, with forcibly displaced refugees from the three refugee camps of Jenin, Tulkarem, and Nur Shams.

Findings show that displacement-affected communities face growing instability and unmet needs such as access to healthcare and to regular food and water. Nearly half of the people spoken to have been forcibly displaced three or more times in four months, while nearly three out of four are unsure if they can stay where they currently are. Over a third report feeling unsafe where they currently reside. Mental health needs are also mounting, especially among women and children, as repeated displacement, uncertainty, and being violently displaced compound distress.

Read the advocacy briefing note