Palestinians

Israel carried out several attacks in Gaza, including shelling the Nuseirat refugee camp.

At least four Palestinians in Gaza have been killed as Israel continues to attack the enclave, despite a so-called “ceasefire” that has been in place for over a year.

Israel carried out several attacks in Gaza on Saturday, including shelling the Nuseirat refugee camp, in which Palestinian teacher Diaa Abu al-Rous was killed, al-Awda Hospital confirmed.

Separately, another man, Arafat al-Arair, died after sustaining serious injuries days earlier when Israel struck a vehicle in the Tel al-Hawa neighbourhood, southwest of Gaza City. A medical source at al-Shifa Hospital confirmed his death.

Meanwhile, two girls also died on Saturday from injuries sustained the previous evening when their tent caught fire at a camp for displaced people in al-Mawasi, in Khan Younis. Nasser Medical Complex confirmed their deaths. It is not clear what caused the fire.

At least six Palestinians were killed in Gaza over the past 48 hours, according to the enclave’s Ministry of Health, bringing the number of people killed since the October 2025 ceasefire to 1,580.

In its daily statistical report on Saturday, the ministry said another 26 people were injured over the same period.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) warned on Friday that Israeli forces in Gaza were continuing to displace Palestinians and that their actions continued to raise concerns of ethnic cleansing.

The OHCHR said in a statement that Palestinians were increasingly being forced into a shrinking area of the territory, which has been decimated following three years of Israeli siege.

The office said Israeli forces were destroying what remained of Gaza’s civilian infrastructure. The Israeli military is working to expand its control over Gaza’s territory to 70 percent, following an order from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in May.

Reporting from Deir el-Balah, Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum said Israel was targeting civilians as it sought to displace Palestinians from the city.

“We have testimonies from people who have evacuated their homes in the eastern part of Deir el-Balah city, confirming that the Israeli military has adjusted the yellow demarcation line by opening fire on civilians to push them from these areas,” Abu Azzoum said.

Since a nominal “ceasefire” came into effect a year ago, Israeli attacks have killed at least 1,580 Palestinians and injured 5,711 others, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

Talks aimed at permanently ending Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza under United States President Donald Trump’s peace plan have stalled. Reconstruction efforts have yet to begin amid disputes between Hamas and Israel over the implementation of Trump’s plan.

Hamas says it will not fully disarm until Israel withdraws entirely from Gaza. However, Israel maintains it will not leave the territory until Hamas forfeits its weapons.

For more than two years, Sheikh Ekrima Sabri has been barred from occupied East Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque, unable to pray or deliver sermons at the holy site.

And with his latest exclusion order extending the ban until April 2027, the Palestinian preacher – the head of the Higher Islamic Council in Jerusalem – is among those facing Israeli restrictions at the site – the third holiest in Islam and a Palestinian national symbol.

Sabri has faced repeated exclusion orders since August 2024. The latest order, issued on October 20, prevents Sabri from praying or delivering sermons at Al-Aqsa until April 2027.

At the same time, far-right Jewish religious activists have increasingly been allowed to pray at the site under Israeli police protection, going against a longstanding status quo and opposition from ultra-Orthodox Jewish religious authorities.

The restrictions began after Israeli police detained Sabri in August 2024 over a sermon in which he mourned the Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh, who was assassinated by Israel.

Sabri, one of the most prominent Palestinians in East Jerusalem, has faced repeated Israeli interrogations.

Palestinians say this is part of a campaign against them at Al-Aqsa. The Wadi Hilweh Information Center, a Palestinian human rights monitoring group, says Israeli authorities have issued more than 1,000 exclusion orders barring Palestinians from Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Old City since the beginning of 2026, including against religious figures and Islamic Waqf employees.

The centre reported an increase in exclusion orders ahead of Jewish holidays, documenting more than 40 issued over five days in early September.

Sabri told Al Jazeera that the latest extension was the fifth time Israeli authorities have issued an exclusion order against him.

He described the decision as unjust, illegal, inhumane and uncivilised, saying it was intended to silence those speaking out about Al-Aqsa.

Sabri said that he would continue defending Al-Aqsa despite the restrictions, describing the mosque as an integral part of his Islamic faith.

“These measures are aimed at diminishing the Palestinian presence at the mosque, while simultaneously allowing settlers to carry out incursions in large numbers,” Sabri said. “Such actions represent an aggressive policy targeting the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Islamic presence within it.”

Prohibited activities

Ibrahim al-Natsheh was released by Israeli police earlier this month after spending a week in detention after he was arrested while attending funeral prayers for his cousin at Al-Aqsa Mosque.

He told Al Jazeera that officers took him to a police room and handed him a six-month exclusion order barring him from East Jerusalem’s Old City. He said no specific charge was brought against him.

According to al-Natsheh, the order warns that he could face arrest and further penalties, including a fine or imprisonment, if he enters the prohibited area.

Al-Natsheh said he has received so many exclusion orders that he has lost count. He said the restrictions began about nine years ago, following an Israeli crackdown on Islamic study circles at the mosque.

Palestinian students, teachers and activists associated with the activities have faced arrests and exclusion orders.

“The orders banning us from the mosque provide no specific reason; they simply cite ‘disturbing the peace’, even though we are there solely to pray,” al-Natsheh told Al Jazeera. “Ahead of the Jewish holidays, they sent a message to me and a group of other worshippers, warning us not to approach the mosque or else we will be arrested.”

Even when he is not subject to a formal exclusion order, al-Natsheh said, Israeli police have prevented him from entering Al-Aqsa. He also alleged that officers have repeatedly arrested him at Al-Aqsa’s gates and severely beaten him while in detention.

“The path to the mosque has become incredibly difficult; it is swarming with soldiers and settlers,” he said. “We are denied the ability to reach it with any ease, and if we try, we face arrest and beatings with batons. It is deeply painful to witness what is happening to Al-Aqsa now.”

Al Jazeera has reached out to Israeli authorities for comment, but has yet to receive a response.

Diminishing Waqf role

Al-Aqsa Mosque has seen an escalation in Israeli restrictions and violations throughout 2026.

After the United States and Israel launched their war on Iran on February 28, Israeli authorities closed Al-Aqsa to most worshippers for 40 days, reopening the compound on April 9.

Meanwhile, according to the Palestinian Authority’s Jerusalem Governorate, almost 28,000 visits by Israeli settlers were recorded at Al-Aqsa between July and September.

Ma’rouf al-Rifai, an adviser to the Jerusalem Governorate, told Al Jazeera that during recent Jewish holidays, Israeli restrictions on Muslim worshippers had intensified.

These measures included closing the mosque for periods of time, preventing noon prayers on at least one occasion, and restricting access for residents of the Old City during visits to the site by Israeli settlers and Jewish religious activists.

Al-Rifai said the Islamic Waqf Department faces mounting constraints on its role in managing the mosque’s affairs.

He said Israeli police have prevented Waqf officials from accompanying Jewish groups when they entered the site, curtailed the authority of mosque guards, and arrested or barred several employees from the compound.

As a result, he said, fewer than 15 guards are now on duty during the morning shift, compared with approximately 50 previously.

He pointed out that the closure of the mosque for 40 days during the war with Iran took place without consulting the Waqf or providing prior notification, which he said demonstrated the Waqf’s diminishing role in the mosque’s administration.

“Settler incursions have undergone a shift over the past three years; they now include Jewish prayers and religious rituals, the raising of Israeli flags, and attempts to bring in sacrificial offerings,” al-Rifai said.

These changes have undermined longstanding arrangements at the compound, under which the Waqf manages Muslim religious affairs while Israeli police oversee security and access.

According to al-Rifai, Israeli authorities have prevented the Waqf from carrying out restoration work at the Bab al-Rahma prayer hall and restricted maintenance of the compound’s trees and gardens. He said the committee responsible for restoration work at Al-Aqsa has been unable to carry out its duties for years.

He warned of efforts to alter the status quo at Al-Aqsa Mosque, pointing to several proposals and developments, including demands to allow Jewish visitors into the compound on Saturdays, plans advanced by Israeli politicians to divide access to parts of the site between Muslims and Jews, and an Israeli police recruitment drive for volunteers tasked with escorting Israeli incursions at the site.

Al-Rifai said these developments represented a further erosion of the Waqf’s authority and warned that they could eventually transform the arrangements governing worship and access at the holy site.

Israeli forces and settlers have escalated pogroms and raids across the occupied West Bank, attacking and injuring Palestinians, restricting their movement, carrying out arrests and demolishing homes.

This comes as a military offensive and siege on the Hebron governorate entered its seventh day – an operation that has displaced or besieged hundreds of Palestinian families and kept tens of thousands of students out of classrooms.

In the Qalandiya refugee camp just north of occupied East Jerusalem, Israeli forces carried out a raid that triggered clashes on Thursday. Two children were wounded, the Palestine Red Crescent Society said.

It said its teams treated a 15-year-old boy who was shot with live ammunition in both legs, and a child, aged 12, who was injured by live-bullet fragments. Both were taken to hospital.

In a separate incident, Israeli soldiers and settlers beat disabled Palestinian Mohammad Ahmad Ayesh Thawabta in the village of al-Maniya, southeast of Bethlehem, the official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.

In the northern West Bank, Israeli forces detained 13 Palestinians, including three brothers, in raids before dawn on Thursday, the Palestinian Prisoners Media Office and local sources said. Most of the raids were in the Nablus governorate, where soldiers searched homes and harassed families.

Hebron offensive

In Hebron, Israeli forces continued raids and closures that began last week after two Israeli soldiers were killed in a gun attack. Both Palestinian suspects were also killed.

Hebron Governor Khaled Dudin said on Thursday that 537 families, comprising 3,361 people, have been forced from their homes, Wafa reported.

They include 232 infants, 326 older people, 147 pregnant or breastfeeding women and 213 people with chronic illnesses. Municipal figures put the total number affected, including those under siege, at about 5,000 people from 780 families.

Dudin said the offensive has disrupted education for about 262,000 students across 589 schools in the governorate this week, forcing schools to move to remote learning. Officials estimated daily economic losses at 10 million to 12 million shekels ($3.2m to $3.9m).

The Palestinian Prisoner’s Society said Israeli forces detained 110 Palestinians in the governorate from Friday to Wednesday. Soldiers beat two men in Dura and Wad al-Saman and arrested two brothers while they were ploughing their land east of Yatta, it said. Israeli forces also raided homes in Taffuh and Halhul, and settlers attacked vehicles at the city’s closed northern entrance, it added.

Memorials demolished

In nearby Masafer Yatta, armed settlers attacked US journalist Jasper Nathaniel and two activists in the village of Umm al-Khair on Wednesday. Russian activist Adele Shoko said on X that the settlers beat and threatened them and stole their equipment and Nathaniel was pepper-sprayed and arrested.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said Israeli forces are still operating in Hebron, blocking access and imposing tight restrictions on movement across the governorate.

They are “disrupting Palestinians’ access to livelihoods, education and healthcare. Most displaced families are staying with relatives,” OCHA said, calling for the prevention of further forced displacements and demolitions.

Israeli forces also demolished memorials to Palestinians in several parts of the Hebron governorate on Thursday. In Dura, south of Hebron city, soldiers fired a heavy barrage of tear gas before bulldozing a mural bearing the images of several of the town’s dead, including Bajis Abu Atwan, who was killed in the 1970s.

The targeting of memorials “appears to be a new pattern recently adopted by Israeli forces across all West Bank governorates – though at a higher rate here in Hebron”, Al Jazeera’s Muntasir Nassar said, reporting from Dura.

Israeli military and settler attacks across the West Bank have intensified since Israel’s war on Gaza began in October 2023.

The Farsh Al-Hawa area in the city of Hebron in the occupied West Bank is unrecognisable after Israeli forces demolished a three-story building and industrial facilities there. Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who also holds the West Bank portfolio in the Ministry of Defence, said he ordered their destruction.

It all started on Friday, when two Palestinians attacked an Israeli military checkpoint in Farsh Al-Hawa, killing two soldiers and injuring others.

Since then, Hebron, the West Bank’s economic capital, has been attacked and put under lockdown by Israeli forces.

Israel has announced a sweeping military assault in the city, targeting the neighbourhood of the gunmen, who were killed on Friday. Israeli forces have already forcibly displaced more than 2,000 Palestinians. City officials say almost half of the displaced are babies and children under 18, along with 81 pregnant women and 204 elderly.

Fahd Ahmaro was forced to leave his home, along with his family. He told Al Jazeera that he planned to stay but felt compelled to seek shelter outside his neighbourhood because the women and children were terrified.

“We left with nothing but the clothes on our backs. Our savings, belongings and documents are all in the house,” he said. “I tried to go back after I got my family out safely, but I couldn’t. It’s not safe any more.”

Palestinian authorities in Hebron have declared a state of emergency and created a crisis group, bringing together government agencies, the private sector and civil society, to respond after thousands of people in the city were forced to flee their homes.

Riyadh Khamis, who serves on the committee, told Al Jazeera that philanthropists who could not bear the thought of fellow Palestinians staying in temporary shelters opened their homes to the displaced.

“Hebron is known for its social solidarity and generosity. Our city was the first to provide aid during the COVID lockdown and during the genocide,” Khamis told Al Jazeera. “Today, our neighbours needed help so we all rallied.”

Real estate developer Mohamed Al-Rujoob is one of the philanthropists who sprang to action at the start of the assault on the city.

Al-Rujoob, who owns several apartments in Dura, a town close to Hebron, announced that the properties would be made available for displaced families, prompting other owners to do the same. He now hosts three extended families in his apartments, including 30 children.

“We must preserve people’s dignity. Today, we host these good people. Tomorrow, who knows? It might be us who need shelter. We’re all under the same occupation and we’re all vulnerable,” he said.

The Israeli army says Hebron is on lockdown, which affects nearly 1 million Palestinians who live in the city and the rest of the district.

Restrictions on movement have had a severe impact on the West Bank’s largest district. Schools have moved to online classes, while Hebron’s universities have made similar arrangements for their 18,000 students until the Israeli operation ends.

The measures are essential for Palestinian students who are stuck in their homes and neighbourhoods, including the besieged Fawwar refugee camp in Hebron, home to nearly 8,000 Palestinians. Israeli soldiers closed the camp’s entrance gate on Saturday, barring residents from entering or leaving, even on foot.

Abdel Fattah Al-Ttitti, a school teacher who lives in the camp and works in a Hebron school, said “we are locked in”.

“If, God forbid, somebody needs medical attention, we may be able to get them to the clinic in Masafer Yatta, but that clinic is poorly equipped. If there’s a medical emergency, they can’t help,” Al-Ttitti told Al Jazeera.

He is glad that schools announced online classes. “Until this campaign is over, there’s no other way,” he said.

Many in Hebron believe that Israel’s military campaign in the city has a political dimension, with Israelis heading to the polls on Tuesday for a general election.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s governing coalition is vying for every right-wing vote. Violence against Palestinians has proved an expedient campaign tactic for politicians such as National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Minister of Settlement Affairs, Orit Strook.

Both right-wing ministers have homes in illegal settlements in the Hebron area and support the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from the occupied West Bank and Gaza, which they refer to as “encouraging voluntary migration”.

Deir el-Balah, Gaza Strip — After three years of genocidal war, Palestinians in Gaza are watching the upcoming elections in Israel with a mixture of fear and uncertainty.

Although the territory has been under a “ceasefire” since October 2025, Palestinians in Gaza continue to endure almost daily Israeli air strikes, dire living conditions, and a punishing siege that has caused shortages of basic goods.

Israelis will head to the polls on Tuesday to vote for their next government, in an election that has been shaped by the war on Gaza. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been strongly criticised for his handling of security before the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attacks on Israel. Members of his far-right government have called for a tougher line on Gaza, including the expulsion of its population.

The people of Gaza know this election will shape their future and many have been closely watching the campaign.

Mohammed Eliyan, 36, was displaced from Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza and now lives in Deir el-Balah with his five children. He hopes a change in leadership in Israel could bring relief to Palestinians who have endured repeated displacement and war.

“We follow the Israeli election to see who will win in the next phase. We hope there might be some easing for the Palestinian cause and for us, who have been displaced again,” he told Al Jazeera.

Eliyan hopes that Gadi Eisenkot, the former Israeli military commander and Netanyahu’s main rival, will defeat the prime minister. He sees Netanyahu as more hardline and fears that if his Likud party and far-right allies win another term, it would mean more war and further displacement for Gaza’s people.

“We hope there will be changes after the election, and that someone other than Benjamin Netanyahu will win. What Netanyahu has done to the Palestinian people, before and after October 7, has not been a small thing,” he said.

But regardless of who wins, Eliyan does not expect a major shift in Israeli policy.

“They are still our enemy, and I don’t expect things to improve dramatically,” he said. “But we hope someone else might be less harsh than Netanyahu.”

He called on Israel’s next leader to end the war, prevent displacement and starvation, and ease restrictions at Gaza’s crossings.

“We want whoever leads Israel not to be hardline. End the war and let us live in peace,” he said.

Islam Salem, 41, is displaced from Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza and has three daughters. He is following Israel’s election closely and believes the result could affect Gaza’s future and the lives of his children, likely for the worse.

“Politics is our livelihood. It is connected to everything in our lives, our living conditions and even the future of our children,” he said.

But he also believes that elections primarily serve Israeli interests, so even if there are new faces in the next government, the Gaza strategy will likely remain the same.

“Israeli policy will not change in any way. Whatever they take, they consider it theirs and a political gain for them, the gains of a war they have pursued for a long time,” Islam told Al Jazeera.

He pointed to Israel’s continued control of about 65 percent of Gaza’s territory inside the “Yellow Line”. He also doubts whether reconstruction will begin soon in Gaza, where more than 80 percent of buildings have been damaged, and about two-thirds of those have been completely destroyed.

“I think reconstruction will be difficult. They do not want to give others any rights. They want their rights in full, and even more,” he said.

Years of war have left Salem struggling to imagine a future beyond his harsh daily reality.

“There is no future left for us to be afraid of. We live day by day. We have no idea what will happen next, and everything we feared has already happened,” he said.

Asked what he would say to Israel’s next prime minister, he spoke of how many in Gaza are feeling.

“If only a simple person could come and talk to him and say, ‘Leave us alone. Give us some breathing space and let us breathe.’ But he would not be convinced. What can I say to him?” he said.

Hanan Abu al-Maaza, 57, has been displaced more than 12 times during the war on Gaza. She fears Israel’s next government could bring more suffering to its people in the besieged enclave.

“We follow the election because of the fear and anxiety we are living with. We have been displaced more than 12 times, and we are afraid they will do even worse to us than before,” she said.

“We go to sleep without feeling safe, wondering what they might do to us next. The fear is still in our heads and hearts.”

Abu al-Maaza says if Netanyahu is defeated, there will be more chance that she can return to her home in Beit Lahiya.

“I hope someone else wins, so we can have peace of mind and feel safe, and return to our homes. That is what we wish for,” she said.

After years of destruction in Gaza, she hopes Israel’s next leader will show Palestinians more mercy.

“Maybe he will say that there is nothing left in Gaza, that they have done enough and should let people live. There is hardly anything left in Gaza for anyone to think about doing anything more,” she said.

Abu al-Maaza urged Israel’s next leader to end the war and stop the suffering in the territory.

“We have had enough of war and destruction. There is nothing left to destroy, yet the suffering continues,” she said.

Manar Owaida, 23, is originally from northern Gaza and is now displaced in the Tal al-Hawa neighbourhood of Gaza City. She is also keeping an eye on the Israeli election and considering its potential impact.

“I follow the election to know what they are saying and planning, and to understand what is happening around us and how the next Israeli government might affect the situation in Gaza,” she said.

Owaida hopes Gadi Eisenkot will replace Netanyahu, and sees the current prime minister as more extreme than his challenger. But she does not believe a change in Israel’s leadership would transform Palestinian lives, arguing that government policies have remained consistent for decades.

“Israel’s policy is one of crime, killing and destruction. Since 1948, it has been the same policy, the same killing and the same blockade,” she said.

Still, she hopes a new government could ease restrictions and killings and withdraw from areas beyond the “Yellow Line”, allowing life to gradually return to Gaza.

“There might be a change in Israeli policy if someone comes in place of Netanyahu and eases the blockade and the killing we are living through,” she said.

“There could be a withdrawal from the Yellow Line and life could gradually return to Gaza. But we are waiting with fear and uncertainty, alongside a little hope.”

Her greatest concern is that Netanyahu could launch a wider regional war to avoid domestic political pressure around the time of the vote.

Owaida said she wants Israel’s next prime minister to allow Palestinians to live without fear of further violence.

“We want to live in freedom and peace, away from killing and wars,” she said.

Mousa Ali, 33, was displaced from Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza and is now in Gaza City with his four children.

He believes that the outcome of the election could determine whether displaced Palestinians can return to areas beyond the “Yellow Line”.

“For Palestinians, this election is critical, especially because of the Yellow Line. We hope the opposition will be better when it comes to allowing displaced people to return to their areas,” he said.

Ali mentioned Gadi Eisenkot as a possible alternative and hopes Arab parties will perform strongly so they have a role in the next government.

But he does not expect a new leader to bring major changes for the people of Gaza and fears that Israeli attacks will continue. He says a Netanyahu victory would prolong displacement and control over areas around the “Yellow Line”.

“Every day in Gaza, there is blood, there are people being killed, and there is bombing everywhere,” he said. “We hope this policy will end and that a new prime minister will stop this ongoing bloodshed.”

Tulkarem, occupied West Bank – Fawza Awad, a 75-year-old widow, couldn’t hold back her tears as she described the living conditions she has endured since being displaced from the Tulkarem refugee camp in January 2025 – a result of an Israeli military operation that targeted refugee camps in the northern West Bank, forcibly displacing tens of thousands of Palestinians from their homes.

With little money, Fawza and her family found shelter where they could: a small, unfinished house in Tulkarem belonging to her daughter. She currently lives in a portion of the structure alongside her son, his wife, and their child.

The family previously relied on limited financial and food assistance provided by the World Food Programme (WFP), but has not received aid in the past five months.

The UN agency officially announced a 50 percent reduction in the number of food aid recipients in the occupied West Bank in September, citing “critical funding constraints”, the result of reduced funding from international funders. Food needs, conversely, have more than doubled since 2023, when Israel began its genocidal war on Gaza, and increased attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank.

The WFP noted at the time that approximately 900,000 people in the West Bank are currently suffering from food insecurity.

In a statement given to Al Jazeera, the WFP confirmed that some families had stopped receiving aid before the official announcement in September.

Fawza and her family have been left to fend for themselves. There is no prospect of returning to her old home – she says that the Israeli army has completely demolished the structure, replacing it with a wide road to facilitate the movement of its military vehicles.

She added that one of her sons has been detained by Israel since 2024, while her other sons, who previously worked inside Israel, are now all unemployed.

“I suffer from asthma and high blood pressure, requiring monthly medication that costs at least 200 shekels ($64), an expense no one covers for me. We used to receive modest food aid barely enough for two or three people, but now that has stopped completely,” Fawza told Al Jazeera.

‘Not even bread’

Not far away, in the al-Muwahhad School building in the Thannabeh suburb of Tulkarem, more than 1,000 Palestinians displaced from the Tulkarem and Nur Shams refugee camps are sheltering, having found nowhere else to go and unable to pay rent.

Among them are Rabab Qasim, 47, her husband Talib Abu Sarriya, 72, and their three children. For the second consecutive year, they have been living in a small, 30-square-metre (320sq-foot) room on the ground floor of the school, with no source of income and totally reliant on aid.

For the past three months, the family has received no aid whatsoever following the WFP food assistance cut.

“I suffer from a herniated disc in my back, requiring monthly treatment that costs 300 shekels ($96) – an amount I cannot afford,” Rabab said. “I also need physical therapy, which I have never been able to access because I cannot pay for it. I sleep on a worn-out mattress on the floor; all I wish for is to be able to buy a bed.”

Talib told Al Jazeera that the family are often unable to find bread or a meal, and frequently go to sleep hungry. It’s a far cry from their former life in the Tulkarem refugee camp, where he once owned a small vegetable stall. It was a modest livelihood, but one that gave them enough to get by.

Alone in the struggle

The WFP has blamed increasing Israeli pogroms and forced displacements in the West Bank for devastating livelihoods, deepening hunger, and pushing families into even more severe crises. The latest quarterly food security analysis conducted by the WFP indicates that 76 percent of Palestinian households in the West Bank have experienced a significant decline in income.

According to the analysis, 12 percent of the population has poor food consumption, and one-third of households cannot afford a healthy diet due to rapidly deteriorating economic conditions. Rural areas and the governorates in the southern occupied West Bank have been the hardest hit.

Said al-Amour, 61, a resident of Khirbet al-Rakeez in Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron, told Al Jazeera that he and his 14-person family haven’t received any assistance from the WFP for the past seven months.

In April 2025, while confronting repeated attacks by settlers on the village, Said says he was shot by a settler. The injury resulted in the amputation of his leg and a permanent disability; he continues to face periodic assaults and beatings whenever he encounters the settlers – part of the ongoing pogrom against Palestinians in the West Bank.

“They are trying to steal our land. I refuse to let them take it, and I will continue to defend it, but I am paying a heavy price. Now, they have cut off the aid I used to receive that helped my family remain steadfast here,” he told Al Jazeera.

Due to the amputation of his leg, al-Amour requires monthly medical treatment costing at least 1,200 shekels ($385), an expense that he cannot afford. He has no source of income other than a few olive trees, which settlers frequently attempt to seize.

Collapse of livelihoods

In cooperation with its partners, the WFP still provides assistance to 200,000 Palestinians in the West Bank through cash transfers, food vouchers, direct food supplies, livelihood programmes, and nutritional services.

However, the WFP told Al Jazeera that it simply does not have the resources to cover the needs of all the families in the West Bank requiring assistance.

“The cessation of aid does not imply that a beneficiary is ineligible; rather, it is a broad decision affecting all current beneficiaries, regardless of the outcome of their individual assessment,” the WFP said. “It is possible that changes may occur, and aid could be reinstated for some beneficiaries; in such cases, they would be contacted and notified via text message.”

Economist and human rights activist Ubai Aboudi told Al Jazeera that the West Bank is facing a humanitarian crisis exacerbated by the loss of the WFP food aid, as well as a financial crisis affecting the Palestinian Authority (PA). Israel has completely withheld the customs revenues it collects on behalf of the PA since May 2025, leaving the authority unable to pay public sector salaries.

Aboudi noted other factors, such as the tens of thousands of Palestinians previously employed in Israel and illegal settlements in the West Bank who have been out of work since October 2023, when Israel stopped giving them work permits.

He also added that Israeli restrictions on Palestinian and international NGOs, including the suspension of registration for 37 international organisations and the closure of some local groups, have further limited the ability to provide humanitarian assistance.

“Around half a million Palestinian families need food assistance, while the actual need may be greater,” Aboudi said. “With aid declining from the World Food Programme and other sources, many families are unable to secure food.”

Israeli pogroms on Palestinian farmers and their lands during the olive harvest season intensify.

Israeli forces have arrested 36 Palestinians during raids across the occupied West Bank, as attacks on Palestinian farmers and their lands during the olive harvest season ramp up.

In Jenin governorate, Israeli forces raided towns and villages on Thursday, arresting 10 Palestinians, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported, citing data from the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society.

Israeli forces also raided the town of Tuqu in the Hebron governorate on Thursday and arrested former prisoner Shorok al-Badan, along with five others from other parts of Hebron, according to Wafa.

The Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission said on Thursday that Israeli forces arrested 14 people in Khirbet Jawaya village of Masafer Yatta in Hebron, while Wafa reported that three other Palestinians were arrested across the Hebron governorate, citing a security source.

In Nablus and Jerusalem, three more Palestinians were arrested during Israeli raids in the village of Burin, the town of Awarta, and the Qalandiya refugee camp.

Attack pattern

The Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission said it documented 17 pogroms by Israeli forces and settlers on Thursday against Palestinian farmers and their land during the olive harvest.

The incidents were recorded across occupied West Bank governorates, including Hebron, Qalqilya, Nablus, Ramallah and el-Bireh, Jenin and Salfit.

According to the Commission, the attacks included assaults on farmers, preventing them from reaching their land, theft of crops and agricultural equipment, damage and burning of olive trees, as well as arrests, threats at gunpoint and live fire.

The Commission says the pattern represents an escalation in attacks targeting the olive harvest and undermines Palestinians’ ability to access and cultivate their land and maintain their livelihoods.

Israeli attacks on Palestinian farmers garnered international attention and condemnation. US Democratic congressional candidate Brad Lander was briefly detained on Wednesday by the Israeli military with a warning while volunteering to help Palestinian farmers harvest olives in the occupied West Bank.

Israeli forces detained U.S. Democratic congressional candidate Brad Lander on Wednesday as he helped Palestinian farmers harvest olives in the occupied West Bank, releasing him hours later while dozens of other volunteers, including a group of American rabbis, remained in custody.

The incident was the latest in an annual olive harvest that has been marked by violence between Israeli settlers and Palestinian villagers attempting to gather their crops.

The Israeli military said the farmers and volunteers had failed to seek prior approval for the harvest and were detained “due to the security risk posed by conducting an uncoordinated harvest near an Israeli community.” It later added that it viewed “the arrival of dozens of activists as an act intended solely to provoke, which undermines the harvesting process.”

Lander is running in the U.S. elections on Nov. 3 to represent a heavily Democratic New York district in the U.S. House of Representatives.

“The occupation is a crime under international law,” Lander wrote on social media after he was detained. “Harvesting olives isn’t a crime under any law I know.”

“These detentions by the IDF are one more attempt to undermine Palestinians’ right to harvest their olive groves, travel on their roads, and live in their homes,” he added in a post after his release.

This year, Palestinians have been required to coordinate with the Israeli military to access more of their privately owned farmland than in previous years. The anti-settlement group Peace Now said last week that the army had expanded by nearly 30% the area of farmland that Palestinians cannot enter without prior approval, to 34 square miles. The Israeli military declined to comment on the exact figures but said Palestinian farmers must coordinate access to areas under Israeli security control.

The detained volunteers were taken to a police facility. Lander was among them but “released after it became known that he was a congressional candidate,” the Israeli police said in a statement.

Israeli rights group Yesh Din and the Palestinian Farmers’ Union have said the 2026 harvest has been the most violent in recent history, with hundreds of reported thefts, clashes and arson attacks.

Much of the violence has unfolded on land outside Palestinian villages, where Palestinians have historically harvested olives and Israeli settlers have increasingly erected outposts without authorization from Israel’s government.

But there were no clashes before Israeli forces arrived Wednesday, according to Beck Strober, a spokesperson for Protect the Harvest, the advocacy group that organized the volunteers at the grove.

Jill Jacobs, one of a dozen American rabbis detained, condemned the Israeli government restricting the ability of Palestinians to harvest freely.

“The Israeli government is actively advancing the forced displacement of Palestinian communities across the West Bank, using its military to deny Palestinians access to their land and intimidate those who stand alongside them,” Jacobs, chief executive of T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights, said in a statement.

Lander, who was endorsed by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, defeated U.S. Rep. Dan Goldman in a primary for New York’s 10th congressional district. The race was viewed as a referendum on the Democratic party’s support for Israel. Both candidates are Jewish and have criticized Israel, but only Lander called the war in Gaza a genocide.

Lander was not the first U.S. politician detained in the West Bank this year. U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna, a California Democrat, said Israeli forces detained him during a visit in July.

The UN agency says funding shortages threaten to reverse ‘modest and fragile’ progress on food security.

The ⁠World Food Programme (WFP) has announced ⁠major cuts to its Gaza response due to a funding shortage, leaving about ‌500,000 people without critical support as much of the ⁠population of the war-ravaged Palestinian territory struggles to get enough to eat.

In a statement on Monday, the United Nations agency said it received less than half as much funding for its Palestine operation in 2026 as in previous years. It said it urgently needs a further $450 million to maintain critical operations in the occupied Palestinian territory over the next six months.

As a result, the WFP said it would reduce ⁠the number of people receiving monthly assistance in Gaza from 1.6 ‌million to 1.1 million. Rations will be cut from two food parcels per family to one, and bags of flour will be smaller.

The UN agency said it would also reduce the number of hot meals provided, from 250,000 to 150,000 a day. Families living in hard-to-reach areas, including near the so-called “yellow line” demarcating Israeli military control, will receive a hot meal every other day instead of daily.

More than three years of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza following the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, have brought the collapse of education, healthcare and the economy, while access to food, water, shelter and other basic necessities has become a daily struggle.

More than 74,245 Palestinians have been killed, according to Gaza’s health ministry.

UN estimates show more than 80 percent of people are unemployed and unable to afford fresh or protein-rich foods when they are available. Only one in five children consumes a sufficiently diverse diet while access to health services remains limited.

An estimated 1.4 million people, or 67 percent of Gaza’s population, are experiencing acute food insecurity at crisis levels or worse. This figure is down from 1.6 million people, or 77 percent of the population, at the end of 2025, however the WFP said the improvement “remains modest and fragile.”

Funding shortfalls had already affected operations in the occupied West Bank, where the number of people receiving assistance was halved in September, from 400,000 to 200,000.

European diplomats and officials were attacked on Saturday amid a surge in settler pogroms across the occupied West Bank in recent weeks, coinciding with olive harvest season.

The settler pogroms have escalated just weeks before Israel heads to the polls on October 27.

The European Union (EU) on Sunday condemned settler attacks on European diplomats and Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. A day earlier, a veteran American journalist working for the Washington Post was also brutally attacked.

But this is not the first time Israeli settlers have assaulted foreign officials or prominent Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

Here’s a timeline of some of the recent and past attacks:

October 17, 2026

Israeli settlers assaulted European diplomats, including a French mayor, near the Palestinian village of Taybeh in the occupied West Bank.

The delegation was visiting Palestinian olive harvesters on Saturday when the Israeli attackers confronted the group.

In Saturday’s incident, the settlers targeted Belgium’s consul general, French and Polish diplomats, and Catholic representatives, Belgian Minister of Foreign Affairs Maxime Prevot said.

“A French mayor was assaulted and a Belgian vehicle damaged,” Prevot said, linking the incident to Israel’s “illegal settlement policy” and pledging to push for further EU sanctions.

Bernard Baudoux, the French mayor who was assaulted, told the AFP news agency the attack suggests that “there is a tolerance on the part of the Israeli government” towards settler violence.

Video shared by an activist at the scene, Amit Orfali, shows Baudoux leaning against a vehicle while sitting on the dusty ground. Other clips showed young masked men knocking insistently on a driver’s side window and asking for identification, while other masked men carrying sticks advanced in the distance. Orfali said the masked men “threatened to kill us”.

France’s Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot called on Israel to arrest the “extremist settlers” who “violently assaulted” Baudoux, and bring them to justice. “They must urgently halt this criminal violence and guarantee the safety of civilian populations, as they are compelled to do under international law,” he said in a post on X.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office has, however, appeared to question the reports of the attack on the Europeans, saying on X that they are “alleged” and require “compelling evidence”, despite acknowledging that published footage of the incident exists.

“We take positive note of statements by several Israeli representatives who condemned the attacks,” the EU said in a statement on Sunday. “But we expect full accountability as well as effective measures to prevent continued acts of violence and violent harassment against Palestinians, including during the ongoing olive harvest season, as well as against journalists.”

October 16, 2026

Palestinian farmers harvesting olives and veteran American journalist Heidi Levine, 64, who freelances for the Washington Post, were brutally attacked by settlers.

Levine fell to the ground during the assault before she was set upon, witnesses said. “We looked and saw that there was a journalist … on the ground with people surrounding her, beating her, clubbing her, robbing her, pulling her up, beating her again and kicking her,” Jasper Nathaniel, an independent journalist who witnessed the attack, told Al Jazeera.

Levine later told reporters that her attackers “just kept kicking me and kicking me, like probably 50 times”.

Levine was wearing a protective vest marked “PRESS” on the front and back. Her cameras and phone were taken from her during the assault, the Washington Post reported.

Nathaniel said he and others managed to reach her when the settlers briefly backed away, but she struggled to stand. “She was in very, very bad shape. She couldn’t really get up off the ground,” he said.

As they helped Levine towards paramedics, settlers charged again, throwing more stones, he added. The journalist was eventually taken to a hospital in Ramallah.

Nathaniel said Israeli soldiers arrived after the settler assault and opened fire and used tear gas against Palestinians, shooting a man in the leg. “They do nothing to stop the settlers, and they speed into town and start firing their guns and tear-gassing, and they shoot a Palestinian man in the leg,” he said.

“They’re pointing their guns at the paramedics who are helping him, shoving journalists, including myself,” Nathaniel said, adding that the injured man was eventually taken away in an ambulance.

Wafa, the Palestinian news agency, reported that Israeli forces fired live ammunition and tear gas at Palestinians during the attack. After the soldiers left, Palestinians returned to harvesting their olives, Nathaniel added.

Netanyahu’s office has said the facts around the settler attack “remain unclear”, as it offered a conditional condemnation.

“Serious questions remain”, said a post on the official X account of the prime minister’s office, calling for an investigation to “establish the facts, including who initiated the violence”.

October 6, 2026

Israeli settlers beat Palestinian AFP news agency photographer Jaafar Ashtiyeh, 58, with rifle butts near Aqraba, south of Nablus. He suffered bruises to his head and torso and was taken by ambulance to a hospital, according to witnesses, his family and fellow journalists cited by AFP.

AFP photographer John Wessels was with Ashtiyeh when the incident occurred.

The news agency reported that a quadbike had raced towards the journalists and a man had opened live fire.

“At least six other people then rushed towards the AFP journalists, firing guns,” AFP reported. “As Ashtiyeh attempted to enter a car, which was clearly marked ‘Press’, two men jumped on him and beat him repeatedly with the butts of their rifles. ‘I could hear his screams,’ said Wessels, who was also threatened at gunpoint.”

While Ashtiyeh is now conscious in a hospital in Nablus, the assailants have taken his camera equipment, according to his colleague Wessels.

The Israeli military has yet to respond to the AFP news agency.

July 11, 2026

United States Congressional Representative Ro Khanna said he and his tour group were detained by rifle-wielding Israeli settlers during a trip to Palestine.

In a post on X, Khanna had accused the Israeli army of supporting the settlers.

“When the [Israeli army] arrived, they sided with the settlers and continued our detention,” Khanna wrote.

Khanna, a Democrat who is considering running for US president in 2028, told the Reuters news agency that “hoodlums … with machine guns” had detained his group a day earlier. “They block off the road. And then they call the [Israeli military] and the [Israeli military] is on their side,” Khanna said.

He added that the settlers were armed with US-made assault rifles.

In an interview with DRM News, Khanna said his experience in the occupied West Bank and Israel was the “first time” he had “really been acutely aware of being brown”.

“I saw the arrogance in the eyes of those settlers. Twenty-one and 22-year-olds with guns, laughing that they had detained us. The arrogance of those young [Israeli army] soldiers that my tax dollars are funding. Having no respect for the fact that they were detaining Americans,” he added.

The Israeli military disputed Khanna’s version of the events, saying that it “dispersed” civilians who were blocking the road.

Israeli officials have, however, ruled out apologising to Khanna or holding the settlers accountable.

Three months after the incident, on Saturday, October 17, Khanna called Netanyahu a “liar” after his office released an October 16 statement on X saying that “serious questions remain” about “who initiated the violence” and other details of the attack on Washington Post journalist Heidi Levine.

“Netanyahu called me a liar when settlers detained me, along with a NYT photographer, in Zanuta this past July,” Khanna wrote. “Netanyahu, you are the liar with the blood of Palestinian children on your hands.”

November 2025

One Canadian and three Italian activists were injured by illegal Israeli settlers in the Ein ad-Duyuk village in the Jericho governorate in the central West Bank, local sources told the Anadolu news agency.

Anadolu reported that settlers had stormed into a Bedouin community where the activists were residing and then assaulted them. Three activists sustained moderate injuries, while one was critically wounded, the news agency said and added that their passports, phones, and belongings were also taken.

July 2025

Palestinian activist and English teacher Awdah Hathaleen, who contributed to the Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land, was shot and killed on July 28, 2025, in the occupied West Bank village of Umm al-Khair in the Masafer Yatta region.

The beloved 31-year-old activist and father of three fell to the ground as people rushed over to try to help him. Then an ambulance came out of the nearby illegal settlement of Carmel and took him away.

Footage published by Israeli human rights group B’Tselem appears to show the suspect Yinon Levi opening fire on Hathaleen during a confrontation in the village.

Despite the visual evidence and prior sanctions imposed on Levi by both the EU and the United States over past attacks on Palestinians, Israeli authorities released him to house arrest.

US President Donald Trump also removed the penalties against Levi and other settlers accused of extremist violence after assuming office in January 2025.

July 2024

Israeli settlers attacked a group of foreign volunteers helping Palestinian farmers in the occupied West Bank.

David Hummel, an American-German in the group, told the AFP news agency that eight mainly American volunteers were working with the farmers in an olive grove near the Palestinian village of Qusra when settlers attacked them.

“They started attacking and beating us all with sticks and metal pipes, and they were throwing rocks as well at us,” he said.

“I was attacked on my legs, on my arms and here on my jaw as well and it was … very violent,” he added.

The Israeli army condemned the violence and said its troops were deployed to the scene and had fired warning shots into the air, causing the Israeli settlers to flee the area.

Most of the victims were from the Daraj neighbourhood in Gaza City, the Health Ministry says.

A mass funeral has been held for 75 Palestinians whose remains were found recently under the rubble of homes and buildings destroyed in the months since Israel launched its genocidal war on Gaza in October 2023, the Ministry of Health announced.

Hundreds of Palestinians attended the funeral procession before the remains were buried at the Sheikh Radwan Cemetery on Sunday morning.

Most of the victims were from the Daraj neighbourhood in the northeastern part of Gaza City.

Al Jazeera correspondent Nour Khaled said the majority of the remains belonged to women and children “who were inside their homes when they were targeted”.

The remains consisted of some body parts and personal belongings and were wrapped in Palestinian flags before the burial, she said.

Abdullah al-Majdalawi, director of public relations and media for Gaza’s Civil Defence, told the Turkish state news agency Anadolu that the remains had been recovered over recent weeks from several destroyed homes in Daraj.

He said the buildings were bombed while residents were inside during the early months of the war and that the victims belonged to about 20 Palestinian families, including people who had been displaced to the homes.

Efforts to recover bodies from beneath the rubble continue to face severe difficulties due to a lack of equipment and heavy machinery, he added.

The Civil Defence launched the second phase of its recovery operations in July. It recovered 333 bodies and remains of 559 people during its first operation in November 2025.

The Civil Defence says it believes the remains of another 8,000 Palestinians are still trapped beneath the rubble across Gaza. There are about 200,000 damaged and destroyed buildings in Gaza, according to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA.

At least 74,475 Palestinians have been killed since Israel launched the genocidal war three years ago.

Several Palestinians have been injured by Israeli settlers, and farmers have been arrested by Israeli forces during Israeli pogroms across the occupied West Bank.

Four women and a child were among six people injured on Saturday when Israeli settlers attacked residents in Ma’in village in the Masafer Yatta area, south of Hebron, according to the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS).

In the town of Deir Ammar, west of Ramallah, Israeli forces opened fire on farmers picking olives, forcing them to leave their land, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa.

In the same area, Israeli settlers shot and injured two Palestinians. In the village of Tuqu, southeast of Bethlehem, Israeli forces fired on a Palestinian civilian vehicle.

‘Part of campaign’

In the village of Kafr Malek, northeast of Ramallah, settlers raided a farm at dawn and killed about 20 sheep, Mayor Najeh Rustum told Al Jazeera.

He added that Israeli forces had raided the village the previous night as well, firing tear gas canisters that ignited a fire in a house and caused material damage.

Al Jazeera’s Nour Odeh, reporting from Ramallah, said settlers destroyed olive trees across the Beit Furik plain, east of Nablus, in the northern West Bank while Israeli forces arrested landowners and olive pickers.

In the village of Deir Jarir, east of Ramallah, she said, settlers under army protection fired live ammunition at farmers in the al-Hariq area to prevent them from completing the harvest and forced them off their land. Settlers also smashed the vehicle of international activist Jonathan Budlak in the village and threw stones at a farmer’s vehicle.

In the village of Burqa near Ramallah, Israeli forces and settlers prevented farmers from picking olives, Odeh said, adding that settlers attacked farmers in the Wadi al-Sha’er area, southeast of Salfit.

“What we see, whether it’s in Beit Furik, Kafr Malek, Deir Jarir or elsewhere in the occupied West Bank, is part of a campaign,” Odeh said.

She said settlers have become increasingly emboldened, publicly advertising attack campaigns on social media platforms.

“There have been 300 documented attacks since the beginning of October, and that has had a devastating impact on a very important season for Palestinian farmers,” she said, adding that danger comes from soldiers and settlers alike as military forces routinely intervene to protect settlers and attack Palestinians defending their land.

Prominent rabbi justifies attacks

The attacks follow a religious edict issued by Rabbi Dov Lior, a prominent rabbi for National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s Jewish Power party and a leading authority among the Hilltop Youth, which is a religious Zionist group devoted to seizing Palestinian land in the West Bank.

In the edict, Lior stated that harvesting olives in the Holy Land is entirely permitted and carries an added virtue, given security dangers.

He wrote that Jews are permitted to harvest olives even in areas far from Jewish communities to publicly display ownership of the land and fulfil God’s commandment of conquering it. He claimed the land belongs to the Jewish people and Palestinians did not buy or rent it.

Odeh said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu downplays pogroms and no concrete action is taken to stop them.

“It is a matter of debate among politicians, but no one is stopping these settlers, whose names, locations and homes are known,” she said, adding that politicians permit the violence to continue because “it is politically expedient” and secures votes before elections on October 27.

Ramallah, occupied West Bank – Every day, Fuad Abu Salam sips his morning coffee outside his rented home in the Thinnabeh suburb, gazing at every detail of the sprawling Tulkarem refugee camp in front of him. This West Bank camp he can see in the distance once housed a two-storey building comprising four apartments, each measuring 300 square metres (3,229sq feet), in which he and his extended family lived.

After he was displaced from the camp, he, his wife, his four children, and his mother were confined to a small, rented apartment no bigger than 100sq metres (1,076sq feet) in Thinnabeh. His home in Tulkarem was partially destroyed when he left the camp.

Everything changed for Fuad and his family on January 21, 2025, when Israel launched a military assault in the occupied West Bank dubbed “Iron Wall”, initially targeting the Jenin refugee camp. A week later, the operation expanded to include the Tulkarem and Nur Shams camps in the city of Tulkarem.

Israeli forces forcibly displaced the entire populations of the three camps during January and February 2025 and continue to prevent their return, the United Nations has said.

Mass displacement

Data from UNRWA cited in a report titled, Destruction of Palestinian Refugee Camps in the Northern West Bank, stated that 33,362 Palestinians remain forcibly displaced from the three camps. By October 2025, 52 percent of structures in the Jenin camp, 48 percent in the Nur Shams camp, and 36 percent in the Tulkarem camp had been destroyed or damaged.

The Israeli operation has affected hundreds of homes, roads, and infrastructure, including water and electricity networks, while humanitarian aid to the camps has been cut off.

Israeli forces killed 102 Palestinians, including 21 children, during the period covered, according to the report. This represents 46 percent of the total number of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank during this period.

On Sunday, the Israeli Supreme Court ordered the government to provide a timeline for the return of displaced people to the three camps, setting November 23 as a deadline for a response.

Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich rejected the ruling, warning that the return of residents could allow for the reconstruction of what he termed “terror infrastructure”. He called on the government not to implement the decision.

Meanwhile, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz opposed the court’s intervention, asserting that the army’s continued presence in the camps was a security decision and stating his intention to maintain a military presence there.

Fuad, 42, a greenhouse installer, found himself forced to flee with all the camp’s other residents and more than 40 family members. But he and his neighbours carried with them the hope of returning home.

They moved between the homes of relatives, enduring harsh living conditions, until he finally settled in the Thinnabeh suburb of Tulkarem.

The neighbourhood, which overlooks the camp, has “restored his spirit” because he can see his home even if it’s from afar. Although he is unable to reach the building, he can gaze at it and imagine a time when he can return.

“If a decision were issued right now allowing us to return, I would go back immediately without a moment’s hesitation,” he said.

But his home is no longer what it used to be. It was partially demolished and set on fire by Israeli soldiers, rendering more than 80 percent of the apartment block uninhabitable. Fuad plans to use the rubble to rebuild his home.

“I will never waver in my resolve to return, even if it means pitching a tent over the ruins and living there,” he declared.

Mohamad Ararawi, 18, from the Jenin refugee camp, also saw his home razed to the ground with a wide road replacing it.

He told Al Jazeera that his family of 40, who had lived in a five-story building in the al-Damaj neighbourhood, all fled the camp when the Israeli military operation began, seeking shelter in homes belonging to other relatives.

“My mother, father, five sisters, and I took refuge in my brother’s unfinished apartment. We endured harsh conditions, suffering through biting cold and scorching heat, before gradually completing the construction until it became somewhat habitable,” he added.

Returning is all that matters to them, and they refuse to live anywhere but the camp, even if it lacks basic amenities.

A near-impossible return

Returning the displaced back to their homes is not merely an issue of clearing roads for residents. Returning would mean living in a camp in which infrastructure has been damaged and hundreds of homes destroyed, all amid a lack of necessities.

Nihad Shawish, a member of the Nur Shams Camp Popular Services Committee, told Al Jazeera that the scale of destruction makes the residents’ return fraught with immense difficulties, despite their will to go back to their homes.

Approximately 400 homes, most of them three to four stories high, were destroyed, he said, while about 100 homes were burned down during the Israeli army’s presence in the camp.

Even the ones that survived are not necessarily habitable; they sustained severe damage affecting doors, windows, and interior facilities. The collapse of some buildings has also damaged neighbouring homes.

Approximately 10,900 camp residents remain displaced, including families staying in private homes and others at a school in the Thinnabeh suburb.

Faisal Salameh, an official with the Tulkarem Camp Popular Committee, told Al Jazeera that more than 2,000 housing units were completely destroyed, while approximately 90 per cent of the camp’s homes sustained partial damage, rendering them uninhabitable.

“Israel has turned the camp into an environment that drives residents away, given the widespread destruction and the ban on reconstruction in certain areas that have been converted into roads,” he noted.

Despite these conditions, Salameh said that displaced residents are eager to return to the camp as soon as a decision by the Israeli government permits them to.

The camp was home to approximately 15,000 people. The majority of the displaced currently live in rented homes or with relatives, while others have sought shelter in schools, mosques, or makeshift tin shacks.

Israeli rejection

While the Israeli Supreme Court’s ruling opens the door to discussing the return of displaced persons to camps in the northern West Bank, its rejection by Israeli government ministers raises questions about whether it will be implemented. Until then, the lives of the displaced families remain in limbo.

Mohamad Halaseh, an expert on Israeli affairs, told Al Jazeera that the Israeli right-wing isn’t just trying to alter the structure of the judicial system, but also seeking to undermine its legitimacy and exert pressure on judges.

He explained that the effect of political stances is evident in the disregard for Supreme Court rulings. He cites the issue of Palestinian prisoner visitations, a case in which the state failed to comply with the court’s decisions, as one example of this.

“The continued disregard for court rulings undermines the judiciary’s ability to compel the government to act when judicial decisions conflict with the stance of the political leadership,” he said.

Several precedents make the implementation of court rulings on the camps unlikely, he said. This is particularly distressing for residents who also face strong Israeli political opposition to the return of Palestinians to the three camps.

“Declared political stances set a limit on the extent to which executive institutions comply with judicial rulings,” he said.

Israel has expanded its military occupation in the Gaza Strip in violation of a United States-brokered ‘ceasefire’, forcing Palestinians into an ever-smaller share of the besieged territory, devastated by Israel’s ongoing genocidal war.

Nearly two-thirds of Gaza is now under Israeli military control or subject to access restrictions.

The original ‘Yellow Line’, established under US President Donald Trump’s 20-point plan to end the war, marked the area to which Israeli forces initially withdrew. They were expected to make further withdrawals gradually, but instead, they have seized more territory.

On Sunday, Israeli forces moved yellow concrete blocks dozens of metres west in Shujayea, a neighbourhood in southeastern Gaza City, forcing Palestinian families to flee and bringing more of the neighbourhood under Israeli military control.

“It’s not simply about where the ‘Yellow Line’ is today but where it can move next,” Al Jazeera’s Ibrahim al-Khalili said, reporting from Gaza City. “For families who have been repeatedly displaced in the past three years, the situation remains dire, and they have to make the impossible decision of where they can go.”

More than 90 percent of Gaza’s 2.1 million population has been forcibly displaced by Israel’s war, launched on October 7, 2023, after Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel.

Using maps, Al Jazeera shows how much of Gaza Israel has grabbed since the ‘ceasefire’.

Gaza before the war

Before the war, Palestinians were spread across the Gaza Strip, a 365sq km (141sq-mile) territory roughly 41km (25 miles) long and from 6km to 12km (4 to 7 miles) wide.

That made it one of the most densely populated places on Earth with about 6,000 people per square kilometre, similar to Nairobi or London. Each person had, on average, about 160sq metres (1,722sq ft) of land.

Even then, not all of Gaza’s land was accessible. Israel enforced a buffer zone along the fence with Israel, and Palestinians who approached it risked being shot. In 2010, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) estimated that the restricted area covered 17 percent of Gaza’s land and 35 percent of its farmland.

Gaza has been under an Israeli land, air and sea blockade since 2007.

Gaza at the ‘ceasefire’

Under the first phase of the “ceasefire”, Israeli forces were to withdraw to the “Yellow Line” within 24 hours, after which a 72-hour period began for the handover of Israeli captives held in Gaza. Trump first published a map of the line on his Truth Social platform.

The line left Israel in control of 53 percent of the Strip, mostly farmland and border areas in the east, and confined Palestinians to the remaining 47 percent, about 172sq km (66sq miles).

By October 2025, two years of war had killed more than 67,000 Palestinians, and tens of thousands more had left the territory, reducing Gaza’s population to about 2.1 million.

Pushed into less than half of Gaza’s territory under the “ceasefire”, its density doubled to about 12,000 people per square kilometre, comparable to New York City. Each person was left with about 82sq metres (883sq ft).

Gaza today

Since the “ceasefire”, Israeli forces have repeatedly moved the yellow concrete blocks marking the “Yellow Line” farther west, sometimes overnight, expanding the areas under their control. Satellite imagery has also documented continued demolitions in areas held by Israeli forces.

The research group Forensic Architecture estimated that Israel controlled 58 percent of Gaza by December. In March, the Israeli military sent aid agencies maps of a new “orange line”, a restricted zone beyond the “Yellow Line” where humanitarian movements must be coordinated with the army.

According to OCHA, restrictions now cover 65 percent of Gaza. Israel itself said it controls about 70 percent of the territory, a UN official told the Security Council in June.

That leaves 2.1 million people in about 35 percent of the Strip, roughly 128sq km (49sq miles). The population density has nearly tripled since before the war to about 16,000 people per square kilometre, close to central Tokyo.

Each person now has about 61sq metres (657sq ft) of land for everything: shelter, roads, schools, hospitals and farmland.

Unlike Tokyo, Gaza has little space left to house its people. The UN Satellite Centre, UNOSAT, found 82 percent of structures in the Strip are damaged or destroyed. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization says only 3 percent of Gaza’s cropland is both undamaged and accessible.

OCHA says the remaining 35 percent of Gaza is “already overcrowded” and access restrictions are a key obstacle as aid groups try to relocate families before the rainy season. More than 950,000 people live in displacement sites at risk of flooding, according to the UN, most of them in tents and makeshift shelters, as seen in the satellite image below.

Approaching the ‘Yellow Line” can be deadly. Israel treats areas beyond it as a free-fire zone, and Palestinians who come near it have been shot. Nearly 1,500 people have been killed across Gaza since the ceasefire was announced.