Israeli Forces launched a large-scale military operation in Qalandiya refugee camp north of occupied East Jerusalem, in the early hours of Wednesday, August 5.

According to Palestinian and international media outlets, the operation included a curfew, a wave of arrests, physical assaults against several people, including journalists, the demolition of properties, and preventing the residents from performing dawn prayers in all mosques across the camp. Yet, an Israeli military official described the operation as “limited.”

The Israeli military’s coordinator for activities in the West Bank (known as Cogat) claimed in a Facebook post that the operation aims to thwart “terrorist actors, terrorist infrastructure, and the phenomenon of weapons possession and trafficking, which poses a threat to the security of the entire region.”

For Palestinians, the pretext is baseless as the operation came one week after Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz instructed the Israeli Army to take over another Palestinian refugee camp in the West Bank.

Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth cited Katz’s office as saying that Israeli Forces were ordered to follow the same strategies applied to northern West Bank refugee camps such as Jenin, Tulkarm, and Nour Shams during Qalandiya’s operation.

Read more: Israel kills a toddler in Jenin and expands “Iron Wall” operation to Tulkarm

The aggression against Qalandiya is part of Israel’s ethnic cleansing policy, say right groups and analysts

Analysts and human rights groups consider Katz’s order part of a broader plan to displace Palestinians from their homes, reflecting Israel’s longstanding policy of ethnic cleansing.

Human Rights Watch warned on Friday, July 31, that Katz’s instructions mean that more Palestinians will be expelled from their homes, and more potential ethnic cleansing and war crimes will be committed by Israeli Forces in the occupied territory.

A report issued by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in January revealed that over 37,000 Palestinians were displaced throughout 2025, mostly as a result of operations carried out by the Israeli Army in refugee camps in the northern West Bank.

Human Rights Watch called on governments to “urgently act to prevent the potential forced displacement of more Palestinian refugees, including by imposing targeted sanctions on those implicated in ongoing grave abuses, suspending arms transfers to Israel, banning trade with illegal settlements, considering suspending preferential trade agreements with Israel, and supporting the International Criminal Court and its ongoing investigations, including by executing its arrest warrants.”

“Katz’s announcement shows that when serious international crimes go unpunished, they can happen again,” the New York-based organization cautioned.

Read more: ICC issues arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant as the genocide continues in Gaza

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