RAMALLAH, Palestine 

Over 3,250 housing units in the Jenin refugee camp have become uninhabitable due to Israel’s ongoing military offensive in the northern West Bank, the Jenin municipal chief said on Wednesday.

"The situation in Jenin camp is entirely catastrophic," Mohammed Jarrar told Anadolu. “Israeli forces continue to demolish, bomb, and burn Palestinian homes."

Jarrar revealed that Israel rejected a Palestinian appeal against plans to raze 93 additional residential buildings, containing about 300 housing units.

“We expect the demolition could happen at any moment,” he warned, adding that such a move would deepen the humanitarian crisis in the camp.

He stressed that the camp’s entire infrastructure has been obliterated, rendering it “completely unfit for living” and in dire need of genuine reconstruction after years of repeated Israeli operations.

A specialized committee estimated the operation’s toll on Jenin and its camp at $310 million, Jarrar noted.

The Palestinian governor said Israel forced over 1,000 Palestinians from neighborhoods near the Jenin camp to abandon their homes, while hundreds of other families fled voluntarily, fearing for their safety and their children’s lives.

More than 70 Palestinians have been killed and thousands displaced since the start of the Israeli onslaught in the northern West Bank in January, according to Palestinian figures.

Tension has been running high across the West Bank, where at least 938 Palestinians have been killed and nearly 7,000 others injured in attacks by the Israeli army and illegal settlers since the start of the Gaza war on Oct. 7, 2023, according to the Health Ministry.

In July, the International Court of Justice declared Israel’s long-standing occupation of Palestinian territories illegal, calling for the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.