Israeli forces raid Palestinian refugee camp near Jerusalem

A view of the Palestinian Shuafat refugee camp and Israel's controversial separation barrier. [Ahmad Gharabli, AFP]

Israeli forces on Wednesday raided a Palestinian refugee camp next to Jerusalem, where tensions have been growing as residents fear eviction, the military and local leaders said.

AFP journalists saw about a dozen armoured military jeeps going into the Qalandia camp, which Israeli soldiers did not allow press or residents to enter, in the occupied West Bank.

"Security forces are operating in the Qalandia camp area to thwart terror and apprehend wanted individuals," a military official told AFP.

COGAT, the Israeli defence ministry body in charge of civilian matters in the Palestinian territories, said in an Arabic-language statement that the large-scale operation targeted "terrorist elements, terrorist infrastructure, and the possession and trafficking of weapons".

"We will not allow the camp to become a centre of terrorism or a safe haven for terrorists and criminals, just as we do not allow this in other camps throughout Judea and Samaria," the statement added, using the biblical name for the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967.

Mohammad Aslan, spokesman for the committee that runs the affairs of Qalandia camp, told AFP that the Israeli army had arrested at least 20 people and took up positions on the roofs of a number of houses inside the camp.

Footage shared by the Jerusalem Governorate, the Palestinian local authority for the region encompassing Qalandia camp, showed alleys inside the camp blocked off by rubble and boulders to impede movement, with furniture and other property strewn across the interior of one raided house.

In 2023, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government advanced plans for the construction of a 9,000-unit settlement on the grounds of Jerusalem's former Atarot airport, adjacent to Qalandia.

Palestinian residents have since voiced fear that raids and home demolitions could be tied to a strategy of eviction ahead of settlement construction, without any official word from Israeli authorities.