Israel levelling thousands of Gaza civilian buildings in controlled demolitions

Israel has demolished thousands of buildings across Gaza since it withdrew from a ceasefire with Hamas in March, with entire towns and suburbs - once home to tens of thousands of people - levelled in the past few weeks.

Satellite images show massive amounts of destruction in several areas which Israel's military command claims to have under "operational control".

Large swathes of it have been caused by planned demolitions, both to already damaged buildings and ones that appeared largely intact.

Verified footage shows large explosions unleashing plumes of dust and debris, as Israeli forces carry out controlled demolitions on tower blocks, schools and other infrastructure.

Multiple legal experts told BBC Verify that Israel may have committed war crimes under the Geneva Convention, which largely prohibits the destruction of infrastructure by an occupying power.

An Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson said it operated in accordance with international law; that Hamas concealed "military assets" in civilian areas, and that the "destruction of property is only performed when an imperative military necessity is demanded".

The IDF says it demolished 1,200 buildings in Khuza'a, which it alleged were part of "terror infrastructures" run by Hamas.

A similar story emerges in the nearby town of Abasan al-Kabira, where about 27,000 people lived before the war. Photos taken on 31 May and 8 July indicate that an extensive area was swept away in just 38 days.

Israel has created extensive "security zones" and corridors separating parts of Gaza, and has destroyed large numbers of buildings along and near these routes. Its latest corridor separates western from eastern Khan Younis, including Khuza'a and Abasan al-Kabira.

Also since early in the war analysts have suggested that Israel has been attempting to create deep "buffer zones" by destroying buildings near to the border, but some of the areas flattened recently are deep into Gaza.

In Qizan Abu Rashwan - an agricultural settlement about 7km from the Israeli border - virtually every structure left standing has been demolished since 17 May. One video we verified showed a controlled explosion levelling a cluster of tower blocks.

BBC Verify presented the IDF with a list of places in which we documented demolitions and asked it to provide specific military justifications. It did not do so.

"As has been widely documented, Hamas and other terrorist organizations conceal military assets in densely populated civilian areas," an IDF spokesperson said. "The IDF identifies and destroys terrorist infrastructure located, among other places, within buildings in these areas."

Several human rights lawyers who spoke to BBC Verify suggested the campaign could amount to war crimes.

Eitan Diamond - a senior legal expert at the Diakonia International Humanitarian Law Centre in Jerusalem - said there was little justification under the Fourth Geneva Convention, the document which generally covers the protection of civilians in wartime.

"International humanitarian law prohibits such controlled destruction of civilian property during armed conflict, except under narrow conditions of absolute military operational necessity," Mr Diamond said.

"Destruction of property because of concerns or speculations about its possible future use (for example, that it will be used to launch attacks in the future) falls well outside this exception."

Professor Janina Dill, co-director of Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law & Armed Conflict, said an occupying power must administer a region for the benefit of the population - which she said was "incompatible with a military approach that simply makes the territory uninhabitable and leaves nothing standing".

But some analysts have sought to defend the IDF’s campaign.

Many of the buildings the IDF has demolished had already been left in ruins by shelling and air strikes, said Prof Eitan Shamir, director of the BESA Center For Strategic Studies in Israel and an ex-official with the Ministry of Strategic Affairs. He told BBC Verify they posed a safety risk for returning civilians, especially "during winter rains when they are more likely to collapse".

Prof Shamir also alluded to tactical concerns.

"The area is a combat zone," he said. "Even when a building has been entered and cleared by the IDF, once the Israelis exit it, the terrorists often return to plant bombs or hide inside to shoot at them."

There is no sign of a let-up in the pace of the demolitions. Israeli media reported last week that the IDF had received dozens of D9 bulldozers from the US, which had been suspended under the Biden administration.

And BBC Verify identified dozens of adverts posted to Israeli Facebook groups which were offering work in Gaza to demolition contractors. The majority of the posts have been shared by recruiters since May.

Many of the ads specify areas of Gaza where the work will occur, such as "the Philadelphi Corridor" and "the Morag Axis" - both areas controlled by the IDF.

When approached for comment by BBC Verify, one contractor replied: "Go [expletive] yourself, you and Gaza."

One analyst - Adil Haque of Rutgers Law School - suggested that the IDF’s demolitions could be seeking to create a "security zone" that it could "permanently control".

Other analysts say the demolitions could be clearing the ground to develop the proposed "humanitarian city" in Rafah. Efraim Inbar - President of the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security - suggested they could be seeking to encourage Palestinians to leave the strip entirely by increasing "the strong desire to emigrate".

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu previously told a group of MPs in a closed-door meeting widely reported in Israeli media that the IDF was "destroying more and more homes" leaving Palestinians with "nowhere to return to".

For Gazans, the devastation has been intense.

Moataz Yousef Ahmed Al-Absi from Tel al-Sultan said his home had been swept away.

"I had just moved into my home a year before the war started, and I was incredibly happy with it, holding high hopes for my future. Now, it's been completely destroyed," he said.

"After losing everything, I no longer have a home or a shelter."