Israeli troops demolished houses and cleared a wide roadway through the Nur Shams refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, in a weeks-long operation against militant groups that has forced tens of thousands of Palestinians from their homes.

Israel launched a major military incursion in the northern West Bank in August, which it called “Operation Summer Camps.” It sent armored vehicles into the cities of Jenin and Tulkarem, severing water and electricity and leading Palestinians to ration food, residents told CNN.

Associated Press journalists saw a handful of tanks move Sunday into Jenin, long a bastion of armed struggle against Israel.

Israeli bulldozers have demolished large areas of the now virtually empty Jenin refugee camp and appear to be carving wide roadways through its once-crowded warren of alleyways, echoing tactics already employed in Gaza.

Fatima Tawfeeq, 63, has lived through numerous Israeli military operations in the occupied West Bank. She witnessed Israel’s takeover of the Palestinian territory in 1967 and lived through Israel’s crackdown during the first and second intifadas,

Nearly 40,000 Palestinians driven from their homes by Israel's monthlong offensive in the West Bank have scattered across nearby villages and towns, trying to find shelter.

Israel’s military sent tanks into the occupied West Bank for the first time in more than two decades as it expanded operations in the territory on Sunday in a move decried by Palestinian authorities as an escalation of aggression.

Watching her granddaughter sleep in cramped quarters for displaced Palestinians, Sanaa Shraim hopes for a better life for the baby, born into a weeks-long Israeli military raid in the occupied West Bank.