What this campaign was
Israel's operations in the northern West Bank refugee camps since August 2024: the Summer Camps raids, then Iron Wall from January 2025, which displaced some 33,000 people from three camps by OHCHR's count. The camps remain closed military areas, and the operation has not been declared over.
It is the largest displacement in the West Bank since 1967 by UN accounts, and it removed three camps as both armed-group bases and inhabited places. The camps' closure is a standing condition in the module's humanitarian and UNRWA records, and it shows a shift in Israeli practice in the West Bank from raid-and-withdraw to holding ground inside Area A cities.
Confidence: High As of 2026-10Reviewed 2026-10-12
Summary
The IDF launched an operation it called "Summer Camps" in Jenin, Tulkarm and the surrounding camps on 28 August 2024, withdrawing in early September. From 5 December 2024 the Palestinian Authority's security forces ran their own operation, "Protect the Homeland", against armed groups in Jenin camp, until January 2025. On 21 January 2025, immediately after it, the IDF, the Israel Security Agency and the Border Police announced Operation "Iron Wall" in Jenin camp, which extended to the Tulkarm and Nur Shams camps. In a report published on 4 September 2026 covering 5 December 2024 to 31 January 2026, OHCHR found about 33,000 people displaced from the three camps at the start, 33,362 still displaced at the end of the period, and closed-military-area orders over the camps; Israel's defence minister said in February 2025 that residents would not return. Whether Iron Wall has formally ended is not established.
Stated objectives
What the participants say. Each entry cites where the position was stated; Vigil records that it was made, not that it is true.
Israel stated the purpose of Iron Wall as dismantling armed-group infrastructure in the camps and preserving the IDF's freedom of action in the West Bank.
The Palestinian Authority presented "Protect the Homeland" as a security operation to restore its authority in Jenin camp against the armed groups there.
Primary forces
- IDF Central Command Primary force · Confidence: High · as of 2026-09
The IDF regional command responsible for the West Bank.
Opposing forces
- al-Quds Brigades (Palestinian Islamic Jihad) Opposing force · Confidence: Moderate · as of 2025-01
Camp-based armed formations, among them the Jenin Brigade, were the stated target of both operations; they draw on several organisations, Palestinian Islamic Jihad's al-Quds Brigades prominent among them, and are not reducible to one.
Supporting & external
- Judea and Samaria Division Supporting force · Confidence: Moderate · as of 2026-09
The territorial division for the West Bank. Other formations attached to the operation at different times are not authored here.
- Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) Supporting force · Confidence: High · as of 2025-01
Named with the IDF and the Border Police in the joint statement that announced Iron Wall on 21 January 2025.
Reported participants
- Palestinian Authority Security Forces Reported participant · Confidence: Moderate · as of 2025-01
Ran its own operation, "Protect the Homeland", in Jenin camp from 5 December 2024 to January 2025, against the same armed groups. It is not part of the Israeli campaign and is recorded here because the two operations followed directly one after the other in the same place. OHCHR records that it killed nine residents and six members of the PA security forces.
Summer Camps
The IDF launched a multi-day operation it called "Summer Camps" in Jenin, Tulkarm and nearby camps on 28 August 2024 and withdrew in early September; an Israeli source described the withdrawal as a pause.
The Palestinian Authority's "Protect the Homeland"
The PA security forces conducted their own operation in Jenin camp against armed groups from 5 December 2024. OHCHR records nine residents and six PA security personnel killed in it. It ended in January 2025, as Iron Wall began.
Iron Wall
The IDF, the Israel Security Agency and the Border Police announced Iron Wall in Jenin camp on 21 January 2025, and it extended to the Tulkarm and Nur Shams camps. By 6 February 2025, OHCHR reports, 90 per cent of Jenin camp's 20,000 inhabitants had been forced out. OHCHR records 102 Palestinians killed by Israeli security forces in the Jenin, Tulkarm and Tubas governorates between December 2024 and January 2026.
The camps as closed military areas
The camps were kept under closure and not reopened for return. OHCHR's report of 4 September 2026 records 33,362 people still displaced at 31 January 2026, demolition orders covering 514 buildings, and closed-military-area orders running to 20 August 2026 for Jenin and 30 September 2026 for Tulkarm and Nur Shams. Whether those orders were renewed is not established.
Outcome and present status
Ongoing. The Jenin, Tulkarm and Nur Shams camps remain emptied of most of their residents and closed to return, with 33,362 people still displaced at 31 January 2026 by OHCHR's count, and no Israeli statement ending the operation has been found. OHCHR characterises the displacement as raising concerns of forcible transfer; Israel's response is not reproduced in that report.
Political implications
The emptying of camps inside Area A cities narrows the PA's practical security role in the north, which its own preceding operation had sought to assert.
Humanitarian implications
UNRWA's services to the displaced continue outside the camps, under the constraints of Israel's laws against the agency.
Linked events
Locations
Places this module already publishes as map markers, listed because the campaign is about them. Not an operational area.
Reference layers
What remains unknown
- Whether Iron Wall has formally ended, and whether the closed-military-area orders were renewed after August and September 2026, is not established.
- The end dates of Summer Camps and of the PA's operation are soft in the sources.
- OHCHR's legal characterisations are its own and are kept separate from its findings of fact; Israel's position on them is not in the report.
Readings the evidence also supports
- The closure can be read as a security measure that ends when the armed formations are judged dismantled, or as a durable change to the camps' status. The absence of a return date is consistent with both.
Listed because the record's own assessment is not the only one its sources permit — not as a hedge on the assessment above.
Watch questions this campaign bears on
Standing analytical questions whose evidence runs through this campaign, each with its latest review. Derived from the Watch object, never restated here.
See the force running this in Explore Interactive: select this record and follow what connects to it.
Assessed as of — 2026-10 Last reviewed — 2026-10-12