For nearly five months, the Israeli military has waged a relentless campaign on the West Bank city of Tulkarm and its two refugee camps, Nour Shams and Tulkarm Camp, turning densely populated neighbourhoods into ruins and displacing tens of thousands in what local observers describe as an effort to erase Palestinian identity from the map.

The Tulkarm Media Committee reported that over 50 residential buildings have been demolished in Tulkarm Camp in just the last two weeks, with Israeli forces bulldozing key areas including Al-Balawneh, Al-Okasha, Al-Nadi, Al-Sawalma, and the school district. In Nour Shams Camp, more than 20 homes have already been levelled, with a total of 106 buildings across both camps marked for destruction.

Beyond the physical devastation, the assault has left deep scars on the lives of ordinary residents. Over 25,000 people have been forcibly displaced, more than 400 homes have been flattened, and nearly 2,600 more damaged. The camps now resemble ghost towns, sealed off by military checkpoints and suffocated by an unrelenting siege.

Even amid this destruction, around 3,500 students defied the odds to sit their final exams, many doing so in unfamiliar schools after being forced from their homes. Their determination stands in stark contrast to the violence engulfing their lives.

The human toll continues to rise. Thirteen Palestinians, including a child and two women, one eight months pregnant, have been killed, and dozens more wounded or detained during repeated raids. Friday saw further violence in Bal’a, where Israeli forces assaulted civilians in broad daylight.

This sustained assault on Tulkarm is not an isolated military operation, but part of a wider pattern of collective punishment and forced displacement across the occupied West Bank. With each demolished home and broken life, Israel’s campaign chips away not only at buildings, but at the very fabric of Palestinian existence.