Katz says he instructed IDF to stay for year in West Bank refugee camps and not allow 40,000 residents home

Defense Minister Israel Katz says he has instructed the IDF to stay for the next year in West Bank refugee camps that have been cleared of terror operatives and civilians, and not allow anyone to return.

“40,000 Palestinians have so far evacuated from the Jenin, Tulkarem and Nur Shams refugee camps, and are now empty of residents. UNRWA activity in the camps has also been stopped.” Katz says in a written statement.

He says the IDF is clearing the “nests of terror” of terrorists and destroying infrastructure and weapons “on an extensive scale.”

“I instructed the IDF to prepare for a long stay in the camps that were cleared, for the coming year, and not allow residents to return and the terror to return and grow,” Katz says.

“We will not return to the reality that was in the past. We will continue to clear refugee camps and other terror centers to dismantle the battalions and terror infrastructure of the extreme Islam that was built, armed, funded and supported by the Iranian evil axis, in an attempt to establish an eastern terror front,” he adds.