Israeli Supreme Court Issues Injunction Freezing Mass Demolitions in Tulkarem Following Adalah’s Petition on Behalf of Palestinian Refugees
Petitioners’ homes lie adjacent to vacant land, undermining the Israeli military’s claim of needing operational space. The Court instructed the military not to carry out the demolitions in the meantime and ordered the state to submit a detailed response to the petition by 2 September.
On 2 July 2025, the Israeli Supreme Court issued an interim injunction freezing military demolition orders in the Tulkarem Refugee Camp in the occupied West Bank. The Court gave the State until 2 September 2025 to submit a detailed response to Adalah’s petition.
In response, Adalah’s legal director, Dr. Suhad Bishara, who filed the petition, commented:
“The interim decision marks a rare acknowledgment by the Court of the severity of the demolition orders and the urgent need to give the affected families a meaningful opportunity to defend their right to remain in their homes. As Adalah argued in the petition, over the past year, the Supreme Court has repeatedly approved mass demolitions—endorsing acts that amount to grave breaches of international law—and has handed the military near-blanket authority to issue and implement sweeping demolition orders without due process. To fulfill its legal obligations, the Court must go beyond temporary injunctions and strike down these unlawful orders outright.”
Background:
Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel filed a petition to the Israeli Supreme Court on 2 July on behalf of 11 residents of the Tulkarem Refugee Camp and their families, demanding the cancellation of sweeping military demolition orders that would destroy their homes and forcibly displace them. The petition challenged a mass demolition notice issued by the Israeli military’s Central Command on 30 June 2025, which was set to take effect within 72 hours of publication.
The military order targets 104 civilian buildings, including an estimated 400 residential apartments, home to approximately 2,000 Palestinian refugees. The petitioners, like many others, have lived in these homes for decades, and their demolition would leave them and their children without any shelter or property.
This is the third petition Adalah has submitted in recent months to challenge mass demolition orders in Jenin, Nur Shams, and Tulkarem refugee camps. As in the previous cases, the Israeli military claimed the demolitions were needed for undefined “military-operational purposes”—without additional evidence or reasoning. The military’s response to Adalah’s legal letter on 1 July 2025 repeats the same vague claims made in earlier demolitions, citing general concerns about unsubstantiated “terror infrastructure” and “security needs.”
The petition underscores that what sets this case apart is how the military’s core claim—that it needs additional space for operational movement—collapses when examined in light of the physical reality on the ground, at least in relation to the petitioners’ homes.
An expert opinion by Bimkom – Planners for Planning Rights confirms that these specific buildings are directly adjacent to a vacant 2-dunam plot on the southern side of a wide road. The petition argues that, beyond the fundamental illegality of the demolitions, this case lays bare the military’s use of sweeping, unsubstantiated pretexts that do not hold up against the actual layout of the area. The existence of a viable, non-destructive alternative underscores the arbitrary, disproportionate nature of the demolition orders.
The execution of the demolition orders would forcibly displace hundreds of Palestinian refugees and inflict irreversible harm on them. The petitioners argue that the demolition orders amount to forcible transfer and may constitute grave breaches of international law, including the Fourth Geneva Convention’s prohibition on the destruction of civilian property and the displacement of protected persons.
Adalah further argues that these demolitions are being carried out with no genuine legal recourse for those affected. The petition notes that over the past year, the Supreme Court has consistently subordinated the right to be heard to the alleged needs of the military, granting the army near-total discretion in issuing and implementing sweeping demolition orders. This leaves affected families with no opportunity to challenge the orders before losing their homes.
The petition is part of a broader effort to challenge Israel’s ongoing military assaults across the West Bank, which have heavily targeted refugee camps and triggered the largest displacement of Palestinians in the West Bank since the 1967 occupation, forcing some 40,000 people from their homes. These actions form part of what appears to be a full-fledged war against Palestinian refugees. Alongside the military campaigns, the Israeli Knesset passed legislation aimed at dismantling UNRWA, threatening to strip Palestinian refugees across the OPT of essential services and support, including in Gaza, where Israel continues its genocidal assault and imposes a deliberately engineered famine.
Related Press Releases:
Read Press Release on Adalah`s Website
For further details and inquiries:
Miriam Azem | International Advocacy Coordinator
Email: miriam@adalah.org
Phone/WhatsApp: +972-53-734-0662
Click here to read the court’s decision
Click here to read the [Hebrew] petition
HCJ 6221-7-2025 Jubeihi et al. v. Minister of Defense
Photo: The aftermath of Israel’s destruction campaign in Tulkarem Refugee Camp. Source: The New Arab.
| Themes |
| • Armed / ethnic conflict • Destruction of habitat • Displaced • ESC rights • Landless • Local • Public policies • Refugees |
