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Israel’s defence minister Yisrael Katz has ordered the army to prepare plans to occupy refugee camps in the occupied West Bank and establish a permanent military presence there, Israeli media reported.

According to the Israeli intelligence website Walla, Katz has instructed the army’s Central Command to draw up operational plans aimed at occupying refugee camps and dismantling what Israel describes as “armed infrastructure”.

The report said the planned operations would mirror the ongoing campaign in the Jenin refugee camp, where Israeli forces entered the camp, displaced residents and demolished large sections of housing. Israeli officials have described the Jenin operation as a success that restored the army’s “freedom of action” in an area it characterised as a security stronghold.

During 2025, the army’s Central Command launched a broad military operation across the West Bank. Following Katz’s instructions, Israeli forces occupied and severely damaged three refugee camps in the Jenin and Tulkarm areas, displacing more than 50,000 residents from the Nur Shams refugee camp and the Tulkarm refugee camp. Military outposts were subsequently established inside those camps.

Israeli authorities claim that armed groups operating in northern West Bank camps fled to surrounding villages as a result of the operations. According to Israeli assessments cited by Walla, maintaining a continuous military presence is intended to dismantle infrastructure, expand the army’s operational freedom and prevent armed groups from rebuilding or reaching a level where they could carry out attacks.

Military officials told the website that operations are carried out immediately when intelligence allows. “Where there is no such opportunity, we act extensively to prevent future growth, systematically dismantling capabilities and infrastructure,” one official was quoted as saying.

Palestinian officials and human rights organisations have warned that such operations amount to collective punishment and risk entrenching long-term military control over densely populated civilian areas in the occupied West Bank.

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This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.