By ISABEL DEBRE FAR’A REFUGEE CAMP, West Bank (AP) — By car and on foot, through muddy olive groves and snipers’ sight lines, tens of thousands of Palestinians in recent weeks have fled Israeli military operations across the northern West Bank — the largest displacement in the occupied territory since the 1967 Mideast war. After announcing a widespread crackdown against West Bank militants on Jan. 21 — just two days after its ceasefire deal with Hamas in Gaza — Israeli forces descended on the restive city of Jenin, as they have dozens of times since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel. Hamas has been designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, Canada, and the European Union. But unlike past operations, Israeli forces then pushed deeper and more forcefully into several other nearby towns, including Tulkarem, Far’,a and Nur Shams, scattering families and stirring bitter memories of the 1948 war over Israel’s creation. During that war, 700,000 Palestinians fled or were forced from their homes in what is now Israel. That Nakba, or “catastrophe,” as Palestinians call it, gave rise to the crowded West Bank towns now under assault and still known as refugee camps. “This is our nakba,” said Abed Sabagh, 53, who bundled his seven children into the car on Feb. 9 as sound bombs blared in Nur Shams camp, where he was born to parents who fled the 1948 war. Palestinians who fled the Israeli military operation in the Nur Shams refugee camp arrive at a temporary shelter for displaced people in the West Bank town of Anabta, near Tulkarem, Monday, Feb. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser) Palestinians who fled the Israeli military operation in the Nur Shams refugee camp attend noon prayers at a temporary shelter for displaced people in the West Bank town of Anabta, near Tulkarem, Monday, Feb. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser) Palestinians fleeing the Israeli army operation in the Nur Shams refugee camp, sleep at a temporary shelter for displaced people in the West Bank town of Anabta, near Tulkarem Monday, Feb. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser) A volunteer barber gives a haircut to a Palestinian boy who fled the Israeli army operation in the Nur Shams refugee camp, at a temporary shelter for displaced people in the West Bank town of Anabta, near Tulkarem Monday, Feb. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser) Palestinians who fled the Israeli army operation in the Nur Shams refugee camp, gather around the fire for warmth at a temporary shelter for displaced people in the West Bank town of Anabta, near Tulkarem Monday, Feb. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser) A Palestinian boy who fled the Israeli army operation in the Nur Shams refugee camp inspects a pile of donated clothes at a temporary shelter for displaced people in the West Bank town of Anabta, near Tulkarem Monday, Feb. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser) Members of the Abu Dgheish family, who said the Israeli army evacuated them from their home during the military operation in the Far’a refugee camp, stand for a photo at a relative’s house where they took refuge, on the outskirts of Far’a, near the West Bank city of Tubas, Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser) A hill overlooks the Far’a refugee camp, near the West Bank city of Tubas, during an Israeli army operation, Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser) Israeli soldiers are seen operating inside the Far’a refugee camp, near the West Bank city of Tubas, Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser) Show Caption1 of 9Palestinians who fled the Israeli military operation in the Nur Shams refugee camp arrive at a temporary shelter for displaced people in the West Bank town of Anabta, near Tulkarem, Monday, Feb. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser) Expand Tactics from Gaza Humanitarian officials say they haven’t seen such displacement in the West Bank since the 1967 Mideast war, when Israel captured the territory west of the Jordan River, along with east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, displacing another 300,000 Palestinians. “This is unprecedented. When you add to this the destruction of infrastructure, we’re reaching a point where the camps are becoming uninhabitable,” said Roland Friedrich, director of West Bank affairs for the U.N. Palestinian refugee agency. More than 40,100 Palestinians have fled their homes in the ongoing military operation, according to the agency. Experts say that Israel’s tactics in the West Bank are becoming almost indistinguishable from those deployed in Gaza. Already, President Donald Trump’s plan for the mass transfer of Palestinians out of Gaza has emboldened Israel’s far-right to renew calls for annexation of the West Bank. “The idea of ‘cleansing’ the land of Palestinians is more popular today than ever before,” said Yagil Levy, head of the Institute for the Study of Civil-Military Relations at Britain’s Open University. The Israeli army denies issuing evacuation orders in the West Bank. It said troops secure passages for those wanting to leave on their own accord. Seven minutes to leave home Over a dozen displaced Palestinians interviewed in the last week said they did not flee their homes out of fear, but on the orders of Israeli security forces. Associated Press journalists in the Nur Shams camp also heard Israeli soldiers shouting through mosque megaphones, ordering people to leave. Some displaced families said soldiers were polite, knocking on doors and assuring them they could return when the army left. Others said they were ruthless, ransacking rooms, waving rifles, and hustling residents out of their homes despite pleas for more time. “I was sobbing, asking them, ‘Why do you want me to leave my house?’ My baby is upstairs, just let me get my baby please,’” Ayat Abdullah, 30, recalled from a shelter for displaced people in the village of Kafr al-Labd. “They gave us seven minutes. I brought my children, thank God. Nothing else.” Told to make their own way, Abdullah trudged 10 kilometers (six miles) on a path lighted only by the glow from her phone as rain turned the ground to mud. She said she clutched her children tight, braving possible snipers that had killed a 23-year-old pregnant woman just hours earlier on Feb. 9. Her 5-year-old son, Nidal, interrupted her story, pursing his lips together to make a loud buzzing sound. “You’re right, my love,” she replied. “That’s the sound the drones made when we left home.” Hospitality, for now In the nearby town of Anabta, volunteers moved in and out of mosques and government buildings that have become makeshift shelters — delivering donated blankets, serving bitter coffee, distributing boiled eggs for breakfast and whipping up vats of rice and chicken for dinner. Residents have opened their homes to families fleeing Nur Shams and Tulkarem. “This is our duty in the current security situation,” said Thabet A’mar, the mayor of Anabta. But he stressed that the town’s welcoming hand should not be mistaken for anything more. “We insist that their displacement is temporary,” he said. Staying put When the invasion started on Feb. 2, Israeli bulldozers ruptured underground pipes. Taps ran dry. Sewage gushed. Internet service was shut off. Schools closed. Food supplies dwindled. Explosions echoed. Ahmad Sobuh could understand how his neighbors chose to flee the Far’a refugee camp during Israel’s 10-day incursion. But he scavenged rainwater to drink and hunkered down in his home, swearing to himself, his family and the Israeli soldiers knocking at his door that he would stay. The soldiers advised against that, informing Sobuh’s family on Feb. 11 that, because a room had raised suspicion for containing security cameras and an object resembling a weapon, they would blow up the second floor. Related Articles World News | QR-code stickers mysteriously appear on 1,000 Munich graves. Police are now investigating World News | A worried NATO holds large-scale combat drills as the US stance on Europe shifts under Trump World News | Rubio will skip a G20 meeting after calling host South Africa’s policies anti-American World News | Trump media company sues a Brazilian Supreme Court justice investigating Bolsonaro World News | Trump warns Zelenskyy to quickly negotiate war’s end with Russia or risk not having a nation to lead The surveillance cameras, which Israeli soldiers argued could be exploited by Palestinian fighters, was not unusual in the volatile neighborhood, Sobuh said, as families can observe street battles and Israeli army operations from inside. But the second claim sent him clambering upstairs, where he found his nephew’s water pipe, shaped like a rifle. Hours later, the explosion left his nephew’s room naked to the wind and shattered most others. It was too dangerous to stay. “They are doing everything they can to push us out,” he said of Israel’s military, which, according to the U.N. agency for refugees, has demolished hundreds of homes across the four camps this year. The Israeli army has described its ongoing campaign as a crucial counterterrorism effort to prevent attacks like Oct. 7, and said steps were taken to mitigate the impact on civilians. A chilling return The first thing Doha Abu Dgheish noticed about her family’s five-story home 10 days after Israeli troops forced them to leave, she said, was the smell. Venturing inside as Israeli troops withdrew from Far’a camp, she found rotten food and toilets piled with excrement. Pet parakeets had vanished from their cages. Pages of the Quran had been defaced with graphic drawings. Israeli forces had apparently used explosives to blow every door off its hinges, even though none had been locked. Rama, her 11-year-old daughter with Down syndrome, screamed upon finding her doll’s skirt torn and its face covered with more graphic drawings. AP journalists visited the Abu Dgheish home on Feb. 12, hours after their return. Nearly two dozen Palestinians interviewed across the four West Bank refugee camps this month described army units taking over civilian homes to use as dormitories, storerooms or lookout points. The Abu Dgheish family accused Israeli soldiers of vandalizing their home, as did multiple families in Far’a. The Israeli army blamed fighters for embedding themselves in civilian infrastructure. Soldiers may be “required to operate from civilian homes for varying periods,” it said, adding that the destruction of civilian property was a violation of the military’s rules and does not conform to its values. It said “any exceptional incidents that raise concerns regarding a deviation from these orders” are “thoroughly addressed,” without elaborating. For Abu Dgheish, the mess was emblematic of the emotional whiplash of return. No one knows when they’ll have to flee again. “It’s like they want us to feel that we’re never safe,” she said. ”That we have no control.”
Projects to turn wastewater into drinkable water are progressing in San Diego and East County, but their costs have once again spiked. In East County, a milestone is approaching as a 24-inch pipeline that will transport water from the Advanced Water Purification plant under construction in Santee to the Lake Jennings reservoir in El Cajon is on track to be completed by the end of the month. The entire project is scheduled to be finished by the end of 2026. It will convert 15 million gallons of wastewater a day into enough drinkable water to meet 30% of East County’s demands. Construction of another stretch of pipeline needed for East County’s and San Diego’s water treatment projects is beginning soon in Mission Trails Regional Park. Costs of that project recently saw a significant price increase for the city of San Diego’s $5 billion Pure Water sewage recycling system and the $1 billion Advanced Water Purification program. In January, the San Diego City Council agreed to fund an additional $50 million for a new pipeline and rehabilitation of an existing one. Council members admitted to some sticker shock at the price increase, but voted 8-1 to approve the new agreement, with Councilmember Henry Foster in opposition. In November, the East County Advanced Water Purification Joint Powers Authority agreed to a $26 million increase for its share of the project. As explained by Padre Dam Municipal Water District CEO and General Manager Kyle Swanson, a significant part of the cost increase is for the rehabilitation of the 8-mile, 48-inch East Mission Gorge force main line, including a long stretch through Mission Trails Regional Park. The project includes a new 10-inch line that will carry less than a million gallons a day of residuals that are a byproduct of the Advanced Water Purification plant’s treatment process. The residuals will flow into the city of San Diego’s wastewater line and ultimately to the Point Loma Wastewater Treatment Plant. San Diego agreed to fund part of the project to divert the residuals away from its Pure Water plant. In this photo from September 2024, vaporizers sit in front of liquid oxygen tanks at the Pure Water facility under construction in San Diego. (Ana Ramirez / The San Diego Union-Tribune) A second, 27-inch pipeline under construction will be used during storms to prevent an overflow of the gravity line that carries wastewater from East County communities. Both lines will be inside the 48-inch East Mission Gorge force line in Mission Trails Regional Park, and a temporary bypass line will be installed during their construction. The total costs include $80 million for the residual line, with San Diego assuming about 89% of the cost, and $101.3 million for the East Mission Gorge force main rehabilitation project, with the East County JPA assuming about 60% of the cost. According to the staff report that went to the San Diego City Council, the latest cost increases were caused by a number of factors, including a new assessment of the condition of the Mission Gorge line and the rising cost of labor and materials. In discussions about the project, San Diego City Councilmember Raul Campillo said abandoning the project and starting over would be much more costly than the new $50 million bill. “I understand the significant cost increase for this contract,” he said. “It’s daunting, and it’s not something anybody takes lightly. But I think the context here is incredibly important.” Construction of the plant was launched in 2021 as the largest infrastructure in San Diego’s history. When completed over two phases in 2035, it’s expected to reduce the city’s share of imported water from about 85% to less than 50%. Campillo said the residual line and upgrades are crucial to the Pure Water system, and not approving the new agreement could mean abandoning the $1.3 billion already invested and possibly investing $2.5 billion or $4 billion to upgrade the Point Loma Wastewater Treatment Plant to meet standards of the Clean Water Act. The Pure Water project is intended to make the upgrades unnecessary because sewage from the plant will be purified at a new Miramar plant just east of Interstate 805, then stored in Lake Miramar reservoir near Interstate 15 and later piped to homes and businesses as potable water. Preliminary construction of the stretch of pipeline through Mission Trails Regional Park is scheduled to begin at the end of this month, which will close vehicle traffic on the two-mile Father Junípero Serra Trail from the visitor’s center to Old Mission Dam for about a week. More construction is scheduled to begin in the spring, and the road will be closed for vehicle traffic for 14 months but still will be open for hikers and cyclists. A video describing more details about the park project was posted by East County Advanced Water Purification, and updates on the entire project are posted on the AWP website. This was not the first significant cost increase to the project, and it wasn’t even the highest. The San Diego City Council approved an additional $130 million to the project in 2021 and another $130 million was added to the cost in 2024.
