Nasser Faratawi says the Israel Defense Forces occupied his home and adjoining business in the occupied West Bank city of Tulkarm in March, used the building as a temporary base for several months and then a fire gutted his shop in June.
Faratawi, who ran a party and event business from the ground floor and lived with his family in three luxury apartments above, said soldiers arrived at the property on March 3 and gave the family an hour and a half to leave. He told the BBC the building was used "like a hotel" for three-and-a-half months and that on June 11 he watched from a distance as a fire started in his warehouse and shop.
When Faratawi was allowed to return at the start of July, he found his property badly damaged, he said. Furniture and decorations were smashed or thrown from windows, walls were scrawled with graffiti, including obscene drawings in a living room and his daughter's bedroom, every page of a Quran in the house was torn and the smell of rotting food lingered. He held up a blackened garland and a singed Ramadan lantern as he walked through the ruins of the shop that once decorated cars for weddings.
The Israeli military said it was "not aware of any arson committed by its troops at the site" and that a complaint about the incident "has been submitted and is under review." An IDF statement said the "destruction of civilian property by soldiers is contrary to IDF values" and that "incidents that deviate from IDF orders and values will be examined, investigated, and addressed by commanders." The military also said operations sometimes require soldiers to operate from within homes in an area "for varying periods of time, according to operational needs and field circumstances," and that it acts according to international humanitarian law while seeking to minimise civilian harm.
Faratawi estimated his total losses at up to $700,000. With his stock destroyed and his shop destroyed, he said he has no income and faces difficulty supporting his son and daughter, who are studying medicine in Egypt. He said he intended to seek help from international organisations and that filing a complaint with Israeli authorities was possible but unlikely to yield compensation based on previous cases.
The case in Tulkarm comes amid a wider surge in violence and military operations across the West Bank since the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas that sparked the war in Gaza. United Nations figures cited by observers say more than 900 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli forces and settlers since then, while more than 60 Israelis have been killed in Israeli-Palestinian attacks or clashes in the West Bank and Israel in the same period.
During large-scale Israeli operations, Palestinian homes are frequently commandeered for temporary military use, the IDF has said, citing security needs to locate and dismantle what it calls militant infrastructure. United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs officials documented Israeli soldiers taking over about 267 Palestinian homes during the last two weeks of June alone, in some cases for several hours and in others for a few days. An early estimate suggested more than 1,300 people were affected in those incidents and that many returned to find their property vandalised.
Bulldozer-cut routes through the adjacent Tulkarm refugee camp are visible from Faratawi's balcony. The camp remains largely emptied, with roughly 10,600 residents still displaced, according to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, which estimates more than 150 houses have been demolished there. In the broader set of operations earlier in the year, the Israeli military moved into three urban refugee camps—Jenin, Nur Shams and Tulkarm—calling them "terror strongholds." About 40,000 residents were forced to leave those camps, and some 30,000 of them have not been able to return, UN agencies say.
Humanitarian organisations have responded with temporary services. UNRWA has set up a health centre and schools and is supporting refugees staying in private accommodation in and around Tulkarm. The agency has also launched online education for displaced students. The Palestinian Authority, which governs parts of the West Bank and relies heavily on donor funds, has limited ability to pay for repairs or provide compensation; it has faced cash shortages that have affected public-sector salaries.
Between the start of Israel's Operation Iron Wall in January and July, humanitarian monitors recorded more than 1,400 demolition orders across the West Bank. Israeli authorities have said some demolitions and incursions are part of security operations intended to reduce militant activity. Israel's defence minister has said the military will remain in the three refugee camps at least until the end of the year.
Faratawi said he wanted to live in peace and had no prior problems with the Israeli military. "They came and destroyed me," he said. "It's all seen as destroyable because I live in this city — because I am Palestinian."
He is among many Palestinians who say they face both the immediate material and longer-term economic consequences of repeated operations, loss of livelihood and extensive property damage while legal and administrative avenues to seek redress remain limited. The Israeli military said it would review the complaint about the fire and reiterated that any deviation from orders would be addressed by commanders.