Israeli raids displaced tens of thousands in the West Bank. Now few places to shelter remain

TULKAREM, West Bank (AP) — For weeks, the family had been on the move. Israeli troops had forced them from home during a military operation that has displaced tens of thousands of Palestinians across the occupied West Bank. After finding shelter in a wedding hall, they were told to leave again.

“We don’t know where we’ll go,” said the family's 52-year-old matriarch, who did not want to be identified for fear of reprisal. She buried her face in her hands.

The grandmother is one of more than 1,500 displaced people in and around the northern city of Tulkarem who are being pushed from schools, youth centers and other venues because the people who run them need them back. It was not clear how many displaced in other areas like Jenin face the same pressure.

Many say they have nowhere else to go. Israeli forces destroyed some homes.

The cash-strapped Palestinian Authority, which administers parts of the West Bank, has little to offer. The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, the largest aid provider in the occupied territories, struggles to meet greater needs in the Gaza Strip while facing Israeli restrictions on its operations.

Approximately 40,000 Palestinians were driven from their homes in January and February in the largest displacement in the West Bank since Israel captured the territory in the 1967 Mideast war.

Israel says the operations are needed to stamp out militancy as violence by all sides has surged since Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack ignited the war in Gaza.

Israel's raids have emptied out and largely destroyed several urban refugee camps in the northern West Bank, like Tulkarem and nearby Nur Shams, that housed the descendants of Palestinians who fled or were driven from their homes in previous wars.

Israel says troops will stay in some camps for a year.

People with means are living with relatives or renting apartments, while the impoverished have sought refuge in public buildings. Now that the Muslim holy month of Ramadan has ended, many are being told to leave.

“This is a big problem for us, as the schools cannot be used for the displaced because there are students in them, and at the same time, we have a shortage of financial resources,” said Abdallah Kmeil, the governor of Tulkarem.

He said the Palestinian Authority is looking for empty homes to rent to families and plans to bring prefabricated containers for some 20,000 displaced. But it’s unclear when they will arrive.

The matriarch said Israeli troops gave the family seven minutes to pack when they evicted them from the Nur Shams camp in early February. They left with backpacks and a white flag to signal they weren't a threat.

Shelters were overcrowded. People slept on floor mats with little privacy, and dozens at times shared a few toilets and a shower.

The family tried to return home when soldiers allowed people to go back and get their belongings. Days later, they were forced to leave again, and soldiers warned that their house would be burned if they didn’t, the woman said.

The family found a charity center that doubles as a wedding hall in a nearby town. Now, with the onset of wedding season, they have had to leave.

When the family feels homesick, they walk to a hilltop overlooking Nur Shams.

Palestinians sheltering in and around Tulkarem say they feel abandoned. Much of the aid they were receiving, such as food and clothes, came from the community during Ramadan, a time of increased charity. Now that has dried up.

Israel's crackdown in the West Bank has also left tens of thousands unemployed. They can no longer work the mostly menial jobs in Israel that paid higher wages, making it harder to rent scarce places to stay.

Iman Basher used to work on a Palestinian farm near her house in Nur Shams. Since fleeing, the day's walk there is too far to travel, she said. The 64-year-old was among dozens of people recently forced from another wedding hall. She now sleeps on a mat in another packed building.

Basher said soldiers raiding her house stole about $2,000, money she had been saving for more than a decade for her children’s education.

An Israeli military spokesperson said the army prohibits the theft or wanton destruction of civilian property and holds soldiers accountable for what it called “exceptional” violations. The army said militants fight and plant explosives in residential areas, and soldiers sometimes occupy homes to combat them.

Aid groups said some displaced people are living in unfinished buildings, without proper clothes, hygiene, bedding or access to healthcare.

“It’s hard to find where the need is ... The scale of the displacement is beyond us,” said Nicholas Papachrysostomou, emergency coordinator in the northern West Bank for Doctors Without Borders.

The charity's mobile clinics provide primary healthcare, but there’s a shortage of medicine and it’s hard to get supplies because of Israeli restrictions and financial constraints by the West Bank's health ministry, he said.

The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA, plans to disburse $265 a month to about 30,000 of the most vulnerable displaced people, but there is enough money for only three months, said Hanadi Jaber Abu Taqa, head of UNRWA in the northern West Bank.

The agency's money mostly goes to Gaza. Just over 12% of the funds it seeks from donors for this year will be allocated to the West Bank.

Portable housing for the many displaced would only be a temporary fix. Some Palestinians said they wouldn't accept it, worrying it would feel like giving up their right to return home.

Isam Sadooq had been helping 60 displaced people staying at a youth center in Tulkarem. Last month, he was told, by the people who run the center, that they should consider evacuating so children can resume sports.

“If we cannot find them another place to live, what will be their fate?” he said. “They will find themselves in the street, and this is something we do not accept."

Follow AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war

Cars move along a damaged street of the West Bank city of Tulkarem, Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

Cars move along a damaged street of the West Bank city of Tulkarem, Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

Salha Farhat, 68, center, separates herbs for a meal as she sits with two Palestinian women at a youth center that has been used as a temporary shelter for displaced people in the West Bank city of Tulkarem, Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

Mattresses and blankets are seen in a compound of a local multipurpose hall that is being used as a temporary shelter for displaced people in the village of Kafr al-Labad, near the West Bank city of Tulkarem, Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

Stuffed toys sit atop plastic chairs in a wedding hall at a charity center that is being used as a temporary shelter for displaced people in the West Bank town of Anabta, Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

A woman and her mother, both of whom did not want to be named for fear of reprisal, stand in a wedding hall at a charity center that is being used as a temporary shelter for displaced people in the West Bank town of Anabta, Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

A damaged street winds toward the Tulkarem refugee camp in the West Bank city of Tulkarem, Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

Palestinian men talk as they stand in compound of a local multipurpose hall, that is been used as a temporary shelter for displaced people in the village of Kafr al-Labad, near the West Bank city of Tulkarem, Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

A washing machine operates in the yard of a local multipurpose hall that has been used as a temporary shelter for displaced people in the village of Kafr al-Labad, near the West Bank city of Tulkarem, Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

A child stands at the entrance of a wedding hall at a charity center, that is been used as a temporary shelter for displaced people in the West Bank town of Anabta, Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

Palestinian women stand at a local multipurpose hall that has been used as a temporary shelter for displaced people in the village of Kafr al-Labad, near the West Bank city of Tulkarem, Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

A youth sleeps at a local multipurpose hall that has been used as a temporary shelter for displaced people in the village of Kafr al-Labad, near the West Bank city of Tulkarem, Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

A family stands in a wedding hall of a charity center that has been used as a temporary shelter for displaced people in the West Bank town of Anabta, Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

A 52-year-old family matriarch, who did not want to be named for fear of reprisal, kisses a granddaughter in a wedding hall at a charity center that has been used as a temporary shelter for displaced people in the West Bank town of Anabta, Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian drones battered the Ukrainian port city of Odesa in a nighttime attack, local authorities said Tuesday, less than 24 hours after a purported Easter ceasefire unilaterally declared by Moscow ended and just over a day before Ukrainian, British, French and U.S. officials are due to meet in London to discuss the war.

Anticipation is building over whether diplomatic efforts can stop more than three years of fighting since Russia’s full-scale invasion of its neighbor. Hostility has run deep between the two sides since Russia invaded and illegally annexed Ukraine’s Crimea Peninsula in 2014.

Trump said last week that negotiations were “coming to a head” and insisted that neither side is “playing” him in his push to end the grinding war.

This came after Secretary of State Marco Rubio suggested last week the U.S. might soon back away from negotiations altogether if they don't progress. He spoke in Paris after talks among U.S., Ukrainian and European officials produced outlines for steps toward peace and appeared to make some long-awaited progress.

A new meeting is expected Wednesday in London, and Rubio suggested it could be decisive in determining whether the Trump administration continues its involvement.

Odesa came under a “massive attack” by Russian drones overnight, injuring at least three people, the head of Odesa regional administration, Oleh Kiper, wrote on his Telegram page Tuesday.

A residential building in a densely populated urban area, civilian infrastructure and an educational facility were hit, he said.

Also, during daylight Tuesday, Russia hit the southern Ukraine city of Zaporizhzhia with two massive aerial glide bombs — a retrofitted Soviet weapon that for months it has used to lay waste to eastern Ukraine.

The attack killed a 69-year-old woman and injured 22 people, including three children, according to regional governor Ivan Fedorov.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said there are no plans for talks on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s proposal to halt strikes on civilian facilities. He said Moscow is prepared to consider such a step but noted that reaching an agreement could take time.

“While talking about civilian infrastructure, it’s necessary to clearly define when such facilities can be a military target and when they can’t,” he said. “If a military meeting is held there, is it a civilian facility? It is. But is it a military target? Yes, it is. There are some nuances here that need to be discussed.”

The Ukrainian air force said Russia fired 54 Shahed and decoy drones at Ukraine overnight, marking a resumption of long-range attacks that have blasted civilian areas and sown terror throughout the war.

Russia has stepped up in the past months its use of Shahed drones, expanding its production of the weapon and refining its tactics, the International Institute for Strategic Studies said in a recently published analysis.

After Putin declared a unilateral ceasefire on Saturday, Ukraine said it was ready to reciprocate but said Russian attacks were continuing. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Russia violated the ceasefire more than 2,900 times.

The Associated Press was unable to verify whether a ceasefire was in place along the roughly 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line.

Russia has effectively rejected a U.S. proposal for an immediate and full 30-day halt in the fighting by imposing far-reaching conditions.

Meanwhile, both Russia and Ukraine are preparing for the spring-summer military campaign, Ukrainian and Western officials say.

Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

In this photo provided by Ukraine's 93rd Kholodnyi Yar Separate Mechanized Brigade press service, Ukrainian servicemen attend an Easter service on their position in the Donetsk region, Ukraine, Sunday, April 20, 2025. (Mykola Oliinyk/Ukraine's 93rd Mechanized Brigade via AP)