WEST BANK (Dispatches) – 
Extremist Zionist settlers on Wednesday continued to expand an illegal settlement outpost near al-Jiftlik village in northern Ariha, in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Information Centre reported.
A local official reported that a group of settlers brought vehicles and equipment to the outpost, which they established about four months ago.
He added that the settlers also placed mobile homes, planted palm trees, ploughed a swath of land and annexed more areas around the outpost.
Earlier, another group of settlers from the illegal settlement of Vered Yeriho near Ariha placed a fence on a mount overlooking the Aqabat Jaber camp and seized vast tracts of land in the area.
Meanwhile, the Zionist regime’s military raids in two West Bank refugee camps have displaced nearly 5,500 Palestinian families since December, local and UN officials said, amid escalating violence in the occupied territory.
The Israeli military describes its ongoing attacks as “counterterrorism” efforts aimed at rooting out Palestinians.
Jonathan Fowler, spokesman for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), said an estimated 2,450 to 3,000 families have been displaced from the Tulkarem refugee camp.
Faisal Salama, head of the camp’s popular committee, estimated that 80 percent of the camp’s 15,000 residents have been displaced.
Both Salama and Fowler said that obtaining precise figures is challenging because of the security situation within the camp and its fluctuating population.
“The displaced people from the camp are scattered in the suburbs and in the city of Tulkarem itself,” Salama told AFP.
He said that six people had been killed and dozens wounded since the offensive began on January 25.
“The bombing of residential homes in the camp continues, along with destruction and bulldozing of everything.”
Salama also reported that the Zionist regime’s raids have severely restricted the movement of goods into the camp.
“There is a shortage of water, no electricity, no communication and a lack of essential supplies such as milk for children, diapers, and medicine,” he added.
Displacement has also been severe in Jenin, also in the northern West Bank, where the military launched an intensive assault it dubbed “Iron Wall” on January 21.
Fowler reported that 3,000 families — around 15,000 people — have fled Jenin refugee camp since December, initially when Palestinian security forces staged their own operation against and then later because of the Zionist aggression.
Displacement has surged in recent days after the military assault inflicted further destruction on the camp.
On Sunday, Israeli media and the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that Zionist troops had demolished 20 buildings in a single coordinated detonation in the camp.
Both the Tulkarem and Jenin refugee camps are known strongholds of Palestinian militancy.
A gunman attacked an Israeli military checkpoint in the northern West Bank at Tayasir on Tuesday, fatally wounding two soldiers before troops shot him dead, the military said.