JERUSALEM

Israel is planning to dismantle Palestinian refugee camps in Jenin and Tulkarem, both in the northern occupied West Bank, according to a report Saturday by Israeli news website Walla.

The report said the Israeli army has struggled to maintain control over the camps, which it described as “strategically vital” areas for resistance activity.

“Previously, when the army wanted to carry out arrests or assassinations, it was forced to send in undercover units, which exposed soldiers to great danger,” Walla reported.

To reassert operational control, Israeli military leadership reportedly devised a plan to dismantle the camps and enable quicker troop movement.

Gen. Avi Blot, head of Israel’s Central Command, is leading an engineering operation focused on restructuring the camps. Intelligence is being used to build new access routes and widen existing roads, the report said.

A senior Israeli officer, speaking anonymously, told Walla that more troops have been deployed to support the ongoing engineering effort.

The report also said that since the military campaign began in the Jenin and Tulkarem camps, 88 Palestinians have been killed and around 300 arrested.

Tensions have continued to escalate across the occupied West Bank. Since Oct. 7, 2023, at least 939 Palestinians have been killed and nearly 7,000 injured in attacks by Israeli forces and settlers, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.

In July, the International Court of Justice ruled that Israel’s decades-long occupation of Palestinian territories is illegal and called for the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.