The humanitarian crisis facing 42,000 forcibly displaced Palestinians in the West Bank
Israeli military heavy machinery demolishes a home in Nur Shams refugee camp, east of Tulkarem, 25 June 2025
Zena al-Tahhan reports in Mondoweiss on 28 July 2025 :
Abdelsalam Odeh and his wife have been living in a bus for the past three months. The couple had nowhere to go and no means to pay rent after being expelled at gunpoint from their lifelong home in the Tulkarem refugee camp by the Israeli army earlier this year.
But desperation has a way of unlocking ingenuity — and for 71-year-old Odeh, that meant repurposing an old vehicle, piece by piece, and turning it into a home.
He converted the inside of the small bus into a bedroom and attached a small kitchen extension using corrugated steel sheets. “It is our duty to be patient and persevere. Our expulsion will not last, no matter how long it persists,” Odeh told Mondoweiss from the bus. “The occupation wants to expel us all. They want to take every single part of Palestine and its lands — not ‘1948’ and ‘1967’ occupied lands — they want it all to be a ‘Jewish state’. And God willing, this will not happen,” he continued.
Amid displacement and poverty, the couple has carved out small pockets of life. They fashioned fabric walls using worn tarpaulins and turned old car wheels into flowerpots now blooming with color.
But it has not come without hardship. The structure remains exposed on one side, offering little privacy or protection. Even inside their home, his wife must remain veiled. The sweltering summer heat and the bitter chill of winter press in without restraint. Almost all their furniture, including the bus itself, was donated to them by helping hands. “We cook on woodfire and are living a rudimentary life. There are days when we don’t have food. I don’t have any source of income,” Odeh explained. “We had to sell my wife’s wedding ring.”