Israeli Military Signals Start of Mass Demolitions in Tulkarem Refugee Camp
In an update submitted to the Israeli Supreme Court on 6 July 2025, the Israeli military announced its intention to begin implementing wide-scale demolition orders in the Tulkarem Refugee Camp in the occupied West Bank, today, 7 July.
The notice follows an amended Supreme Court decision issued on 3 July. The Court initially imposed a freeze on the demolition order on 2 July in response to an urgent petition filed by Adalah on behalf of 11 Palestinian residents of the camp. However, the amended ruling now permits the military to carry out demolitions if it invokes “urgent combat needs or overriding security considerations”—effectively granting it broad discretion and substantially weakening the scope of judicial oversight.
CLICK HERE to read more about the petition and decision from 2 July 2025
CLICK HERE to read the respondents’ update to the court (Hebrew)
CLICK HERE to read Adalah’s response (Hebrew) and HERE for the request to submit an additional expert opinion (Hebrew)
In its submission, the military asserted that the planned demolitions were necessary to restructure the camp to “secure operational freedom of movement”. However, it also stated that, at this stage, it did not intend to demolish the four buildings in which the petitioners reside—buildings about which Adalah submitted an expert opinion, by Bimkom - Planners for Planning Rights, refuting the military’s claims.
Adalah submitted a response to the Court on 7 July, challenging the military’s justification for the demolitions. Adalah argued that no combat activity is currently taking place in the area, and that the refugee camp has been largely emptied of residents, rendering the claim of urgent necessity baseless. Adalah also argued that the respondents’ position completely nullifies the rights of the protected residents, including their right to be heard and fundamental procedural safeguards, leaving them no recourse to challenge the catastrophic consequences of the demolition order. Under these circumstances, the demolition orders become an irreversible fact imposed unilaterally by the military, leaving affected residents with no opportunity to challenge them—either before the military authorities or the Israeli civil judicial system.
Adalah further requested leave to submit a complementary expert opinion to expand on the partial opinion it had filed earlier—written by Bimkom—due to the extremely short 72-hour timeline imposed by the military’s 30 June demolition order. The supplementary opinion will provide a more comprehensive factual analysis addressing the military’s rationale for the planned massive demolitions within the densely-populated refugee camp. It will demonstrate how previous demolitions carried out under an earlier order were implemented far more extensively than the structures demarcated for demolition and detail the wide-ranging consequences of these actions. Additionally, the opinion will examine the irreversible damage inflicted on the camp’s physical and social landscape and highlight that the orders effectively seek to redesign the camp without any proper justification or authority.
Adalah continues to demand an immediate and complete halt to all demolition orders, stressing that these mass demolitions constitute unlawful forced displacement in breach of international human rights and humanitarian law.
