Israel said conditioning return of Palestinians to West Bank refugee camps on PA, not UNRWA, control

The Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar reports that Israel has recently conveyed conditions to the Palestinian Authority for the return of residents of Palestinian refugee camps in the northern West Bank to their homes.

According to the report, the conditions, passed via the United States, include the removal of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) from the camps, renaming them, and turning them into neighborhoods of Jenin and Tulkarem — in other words, transferring administrative responsibility to the Palestinian municipalities.

The report also says Israel will carry out security screenings and decide who is allowed to return to the camps.

Since early 2025, Israeli forces have been stationed in the refugee camps in the Jenin and Tulkarem areas, and tens of thousands of their residents have not been permitted to return home.

The Palestinian refugee camps, established to house descendants of those displaced in 1948, have long been controlled by UNRWA and operated as quasi-extraterritorial zones outside the PA’s control.

According to the report, Israel’s “roadmap” for the return of the displaced and its withdrawal from the camps includes: building trust between Israel and the PA; the PA restoring infrastructure under full IDF control alongside the presence of Palestinian security forces; a PA commitment to the new camp layout designed by Israel — with wide roads and a ban on returning to destroyed houses; establishing a joint security center in the camps; and a PA pledge to resettle about 50% of residents outside the camps.