IDF’s new counterterror strategy: Transforming Palestinian ‘refugee camps’ & striking a blow against refugee narrative

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) are implementing a new counterterror strategy by physically transforming refugee camps in Palestinian towns across Judea and Samaria into regular neighborhoods, Ynet News reported.

This new, unprecedented strategy was being implemented as part of “Operation Iron Wall,” the largest Israeli military operation in Judea and Samaria in the past decades, which began in January.

During the following month, Israeli tanks were spotted near Jenin for the first time in over two decades, as the IDF further intensified its operations and evacuated thousands of residents from the so-called “refugee camps.”

Why has the IDF been operating in Jenin: pic.twitter.com/ywSo7idrXm

— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) March 6, 2025

Defense Minister Israel Katz also vowed that troops would be stationed there indefinitely. “I have instructed the IDF to prepare for a prolonged stay in the camps that have been cleared for the coming year – and not to allow residents to return and terrorism to grow again,” he said.

The camps were initially established to accept Palestinian refugees during Israel’s War of Independence in 1949. Over the decades, they evolved into dense urban neighborhoods that have often become breeding grounds for terror.

Now, the IDF has decided to physically transform these areas by destroying homes and carving new streets through the hearts of the Jenin, Tulkarm and Nur a-Shams camps.

According to a Ynet report, the move is also explicitly intended to have a psychological impact by challenging the refugee narrative - one that perpetuates hatred toward Israel and has secured decades of international aid from organizations like the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).

IDF troops have wrapped up most search operations and, in the Jenin camp, demolished some 200 homes and opened five kilometers (three miles) of new roads.

IDF Central Command, which is responsible for Judea and Samaria, explained that the relatively large camp was deliberately turned into a fortress by intentionally building with dense structures and narrowing the roads to obstruct IDF access and movement within the camp.

Every red dot is a home of a terrorist in Jenin.

Each one will be destroyed by Israel. pic.twitter.com/4Tx2Pnaclj

— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) March 19, 2025

“Every house demolition is done in a measured way, approved by the general and, of course, with legal consultation,” a senior security official clarified.

The IDF also stationed a combat battalion around the camp to prevent terrorists from returning and intends to block the rebuilding of demolished homes.

In the smaller Nur a-Shams and Tulkarm camps, around 30 and 15 houses were destroyed, respectively. IDF Central Command has reportedly been discussing similar plans for all 18 refugee camps in Judea and Samaria.

In a meeting with local council heads on Monday, Brig.-Gen. Hisham Ibrahim, the head of the COGAT (Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories) unit responsible for Judea and Samaria, said the army’s operations were the “most powerful” since “Operation Defensive Shield” in 2002.

“We are seeing the results on the ground,” said Ibrahim, an officer of Druze descent.

He added that the IDF continued to prepare for “a variety of possible scenarios,” and said that “dozens of plans were launched to improve the security of the communities, including unique access roads for IDF forces, landing pads and more.”

On Tuesday, the Border Police commando unit, Yamam, eliminated a terrorist in the town of Qalqilya while he was “on his way to carry out an attack in Israeli territory in the immediate timeframe.”

Two of his accomplices were also shot and killed in a firefight. “There was precise Shin Bet intelligence about a cell planning to attack in the immediate timeframe… The Yamam fighters returned fire using shoulder-fired missiles, an explosive drone, and live ammunition, resulting in the elimination of the terrorist,” a police source told Ynet.

On Monday, Israeli security forces arrested 18 terror suspects across Judea and Samaria.

On Wednesday, the IDF said it arrested 20 more suspects in overnight raids and confiscated two firearms, a grenade, and other weapons.