Destruction of Land and Property [1]

To read the relevant Articles in international humanitarian law applying to destruction and expropriation of private houses and land click on the blue words. Read the definition of civilian objects here.    

•  More than 947 houses in the Gaza strip has been completely demolished by the Israeli occupying forces since the outbreak of the intifada, rendering thousands of Palestinian civilians homeless. 

•  Thousands of other houses have been damaged and/or rendered completely uninhabitable by indiscriminate shelling, shooting, and bombardment by Israeli forces using heavy machine guns, tanks, helicopter gunships, and F-16 fighter planes.

•  Approximately 17.500 dunums/ 17.5 million square meters of land in the Gaza strip, most of it agricultural, has been razed by the Israelis. This represents at least 10% of the total arable land base of the Gaza strip, much of which has been seized for use by Israeli settlers.

•  Approximately 300 businesses, factories, or schools have been destroyed or damaged in the Gaza strip.

 

[Last updated 12 March 2003]