Back

The UN’s Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing, Professor Balakrishnan Rajagopal described the nature of the systematic and widespread attacks on civilian housing and infrastructure in Gaza “domicide”. https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/11/gaza-destroying-civilian-housing-and-infrastructure-international-crime

As of April 12, more than 33,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza and approx 1.7 million displaced since the offensive began according to UN OCHA reports. It’s estimated that more than 50% of Gaza’s buildings have been destroyed or damaged. https://www.conflict-damage.org/

We used social media to track a single IDF combat engineering battalion, 8219 Commando, as they moved across Gaza, demolishing tunnels, houses, and mosques. 8219 Commando is a combat engineering battalion associated with 551 Commando Brigade and part of the 98th Division.

This map shows the destruction and demolitions carried out by 8219 since November that we were able to geolocate from their posts and their journey to demolition.

Between November 20th and the 23rd, the unit destroyed or partially destroyed at least 34 residential tower blocks immediately next to Al Quds Hospital in the neighbourhood of Tel al-Hawa, Gaza City. Most of these blocks were seven to ten storeys high.

On the 19th the Captain wrote about finding rockets and a UAV at one location in the residential blocks, which matches a Times of Israel report from this time. He did not explain why this discovery required the destruction of so many residential blocks. https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/idf-raids-gaza-citys-tel-al-hawa-neighborhood-capturing-hamas-outpost-offices-of-intel-division/

The Unit also destroyed religious buildings which hold a protected status under International Humanitarian Law. For example, between December 10 - 15th, Al-Islah mosque and an adjacent building were demolished.

An Instagram post, by a member of the battalion, depicting this Al-Islah mosque claimed that “Every house, mosque and school has been used here for terror purposes: either as a place for terrorists, an explosives warehouse or a military base”.

We also found evidence of the 8219 Unit clearing land for a ‘buffer zone’, destroying entire towns alongside the Israeli border.

In notes the 8219 Captain stated that a separate unit had requested the help of 8219 and between December 26 and January 6, the IDF bulldozed large areas of the neighbourhoods of Khuza’a and Khirbat Ikhza’a, demolishing buildings using explosives.

The Captain described this operation in a Facebook post as one to take and “destroy the village of the murderers”.

A tour video from 8219 Commando claims that in 84 days of fighting they destroyed 49 tunnels and 662 buildings. @scrippsnews interviewed 8219 member Jason Segal, who said “I think we are the unit, at least until we left, that blew up the most amount of houses in Gaza.”

Sometimes soldiers did not give an explanation about why they carried out demolitions. On other occasions they listed a number of objectives or reasons for the demolitions, one common reason appeared to be seeking revenge.

For instance, one post from the Captain notes his company commander described the destruction of swathes of Khuza’a as revenge for October 7 and deaths of soldiers.

Professor Balakrishnan Rajagopal, the UN’s Special Rapporteur on adequate housing told us that even if it was not possible to establish genocidal intent, widespread destruction rendering a place uninhabitable could still amount to a crime against humanity.

Professor Rajagopal also noted that the “buffer zone” being cleared by the IDF along the border with Gaza doesn’t fit the definition of such zones within the Geneva Conventions and is effectively a “land-grab” taking approximately 16% of Gaza’s land.

Mairav Zonszein, a Senior Analyst on Israel-Palestine at the International Crisis Group which monitors conflict, said the current conflict wasn’t the only example of demolitions of Palestinian homes by the IDF but it was “on a scope that we’ve never seen.”

“Essentially the aim of the offensive is to take apart Hamas as an entity, but they don’t distinguish. Part of that is destroying infrastructure and changing the urban fabric through demolitions” she told Bellingcat. “They are trying to take apart a society.”

When asked about these alleged acts of domicide, the IDF responded “There is no IDF doctrine that aims [at] causing maximal damage to civilian infrastructure regardless of military necessity. IDF actions are based on military necessity and with accordance to international law..."

“...The IDF is locating and destroying terror infrastructures embedded, among other things, inside buildings, within these areas.”

Bellingcat worked with partners @scrippsnews to investigate the alleged domicide in Gaza and the ongoing conflicts over land in the West Bank. You can watch the one hour documentary produced by the team here: https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2024/04/29/the-hidden-war-in-gaza-and-the-west-bank/

Bellingcat is a non-profit and the ability to carry out our work is dependent on the kind support of individual donors. If you would like to support our work, you can do so here https://www.bellingcat.com/donate/