Israel clears another refugee camp as squeeze on West Bank tightens

Israeli troops demolished houses and cleared a wide roadway through the Nur Shams refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, in a weeks-long operation against militant groups that has forced tens of thousands of Palestinians from their homes.

The operation, during a fragile ceasefire in Gaza that has halted fighting there for the past six weeks, has emptied some of the biggest refugee camps in the northern West Bank in what some Palestinians see as a trial run for wider clearances later.

Nur Shams, outside the city of Tulkarm, is the latest camp to be virtually emptied of its inhabitants following a camp in the volatile city of Jenin to the east and a separate camp within Tulkarm itself.

Residents say bulldozers have been clearing a broad roadway through the area where houses once stood to create easy access for military vehicles, continuing one of the Israeli military's biggest operations in the West Bank for years.

Of the usual population of some 13,000, almost none was left inside the main camp, said Nihad al-Shawish, head of the Nur Shams camp services committee.


Reuters