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Jenin: Significant damage and loss of life after Israel’s military operation, says UNRWA
The latest escalation of violence at the Jenin refugee camp in the Occupied West Bank has resulted in the loss of life and significant damage to infrastructure, said Tamara Alrifai, Director of the Department of External Relations and Communications of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) on Friday.
“The Israeli military operation on the 4th and 5th of July in Jenin was the most intense in over two decades with 12 Palestinians killed, including four children and 140 injured, some in critical conditions,” said Ms. Alrifai when briefing journalists at the United Nations in Geneva.
Jenin is one of 19 camps for Palestine refugees across the West Bank, housing refugees who fled or were forced to leave their home in 1948. In the absence of a political solution, they have since then become “refugees”. Nearly 23,000 people live in Jenin’s densely populated camp.
“The Jenin camp for Palestine refugees sustained significant damage this week”, said UNRWA’s communication director. “The streets are full of rubble, electricity and water are cut in most parts of the camp. There are some 900 houses that have been damaged, some of them unlivable. My colleagues at UNRWA in Jenin are still assessing the scope of the damage today.”
Quoting her UNRWA colleagues working in the Jenin camp, Ms. Alrifai said that the cemetery "is full in such a densely populated camp, people don’t know what to do”.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres stated at a press briefing last night that “Israel’s airstrikes and ground operations in a crowded refugee camp were the worst violence in the West Bank in many years.”
He called on “Israel to abide by its obligations under international law, including the duty to exercise restraint and use only proportional force, and the duty to minimize damage and injury and respect and preserve human life. The use of airstrikes is inconsistent with the conduct of law enforcement operations.”
During the Israeli military operation, nearly 500 families left the camp to stay with family and friends.
UNRWA’s health centre, the only one in the camp, was severely damaged. The UN Agency for Palestine refugees has set up a temporary health point.
The priority for UNRWA is to restore basic services in the camp and support those families whose homes were damaged with emergency cash assistance and to re-open the four UNRWA schools which provide education for 1,700 children.
“The children in Jenin have undergone severe trauma as a result of the recent military operation and the violence”, said Ms. Alrifai. “Since the beginning of the year, they have witnessed horror, noting that the situation in the northern part of the West Bank in and around Jenin and Nablus has been extremely violent in 2023. So reopening schools is a top priority for UNRWA both for educational and psychological reasons.”
UNRWA is calling on donors to step in, especially as the Agency faces huge financial challenges made far worse by the recent crisis in Jenin.
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- Exterior medium shot: UN Palais with flags
- Wide shot: attendees and moderator at the press conference, screen with speakers
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Tamara Alrifai, Director of Department of External Relations and Communications, UNRWA: “The Israeli military operation on the 4th and 5th of July in Jenin was the most intense in over two decades with 12 Palestinians killed, including four children and 140 injured, some in critical conditions.”
- Medium shot: attendees at the press conference
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Tamara Alrifai, Director of Department of External Relations and Communications, UNRWA: “It’s a statement from my colleague reporting back to us, saying: ‘The cemetery is full. In such a densely populated camp, the cemetery is already full. People don’t know what to do’.”
- Medium shot: attendees at the press conference, screen with speaker in the background
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Tamara Alrifai, Director of Department of External Relations and Communications, UNRWA: “The Jenin camp for Palestine refugees sustained significant damage this week. The streets are full of rubble; electricity and water are cut in most parts of the camp. There are some 900 houses that have been damaged, some of them unlivable. My colleagues at UNRWA in Jenin are still assessing the scope of the damage today.”
- Medium shot: attendees at the press conference
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Tamara Alrifai, Director of Department of External Relations and Communications, UNRWA: “The children in Jenin have undergone severe trauma as a result of the recent military operation and the violence. Since the beginning of the year, they have witnessed horror, noting that the situation in the northern part of the West Bank in and around Jenin and Nablus has been extremely violent in 2023. So reopening schools is a top priority for UNRWA both for educational and psychological reasons.”
- Medium shot: attendees at the press conference, screen with speakers in the background
- Medium shot: attendees at the press conference
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New data showing that rivers were at their lowest level for decades last year provides further evidence that the climate crisis is real and countries must act immediately to protect themselves from the increasing threat to communities and livelihoods, the UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Thursday.
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In 2025, for the fourth consecutive year, every major glaciated region on Earth lost ice mass, leading to short-term hazards including floods and long-term water insecurity, according to WMO.
Responding to a question about whether the changing global water cycle might have contributed to the deadly Nepal-China flooding disaster, Ms. Saulo explained that melting ice and rock was just one factor in the chain of events that ultimately sent a massive and deadly wall of water and debris downstream on 26 August, killing at least 1,367 people.
“You asked if it could happen again? Absolutely; the problem in this region is that there’s 63,700 glaciers at the last count,” she told a Press Conference in Geneva. “Even if you’re looking with remote sensing with satellites at these glaciers, you might see some faults, you might see some slight shifting, that does not mean necessarily catastrophic collapse. So, in order to plan for this, it’s very, very difficult. But the international community is looking very hard at ways in which we can bring people together to solve some of these monitoring issues.”
Data indicates that glaciers shrank between 2023 and 2025 with cumulative losses of 1,400 gigatonnes of water – or about one third of annual fresh water needs.
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