[News] Israel steals the rubble of Gaza: When the occupation kills the present and plunders the future

[Anti-Imperialist News]

  Israel steals the rubble of Gaza: When the occupation kills the
  present and plunders the future

Saturday 5-July-2025 - 
https://english.palinfo.com/reports/2025/07/05/342644/

<https://english.palinfo.com/reports/2025/07/05/342644/#>
<https://english.palinfo.com/reports/2025/07/05/342644/#>
<https://english.palinfo.com/reports/2025/07/05/342644/#>
<https://english.palinfo.com/reports/2025/07/05/342644/#>
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GAZA, (PIC)

After running out of targets to bomb in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli 
occupation army has moved to a new phase of brutal crimes against a 
population that has endured all forms of abuse—killing, destruction, and 
imprisonment. This new phase involves profiting from the remains of 
their destroyed homes, preventing them from using this rubble to 
rebuild, all under the pretext of “debris removal.”

According to activists, these operations involve transporting huge 
amounts of rubble—including iron, stones, and cement—from demolished 
homes into Israel using Israeli trucks and bulldozers. The materials are 
then recycled and later sold to Israeli construction companies, turning 
the remnants of Palestinian homes into a source of economic profit for 
the occupation army.

Activists believe the objectives behind these operations include 
generating profit through the sale of rubble to construction firms, 
erasing evidence of the crimes committed by the occupation against 
Gaza’s residents—similar to what happened to the destroyed Palestinian 
villages within 1948 occupied Palestine—preventing Gaza’s people from 
rebuilding their homes using this debris, and preventing resistance 
fighters from hiding behind the ruins to carry out operations against 
the occupation forces stationed in various areas of the Strip.

*Commerce and profits
*At the same time, the Hebrew-language newspaper Haaretz reported that 
every private contractor hired by the Israeli army receives 5,000 
shekels (approximately $1,474) for each house they demolish in the Gaza 
Strip.

The newspaper quoted one Israeli soldier in the Strip as saying, “Every 
private contractor working in Gaza with engineering equipment gets 5,000 
shekels for every house they demolish… they are making a lot of money.”

The soldier added, in an extensive report published by the newspaper a 
few days ago, that “every moment they (the contractors) aren’t 
demolishing homes is a financial loss, and the (Israeli) forces must 
secure their work.”

*Delaying reconstruction
*This report sparked wide controversy on social media platforms among 
Palestinian users who accused Israel of admitting, through this report, 
to a small part of what is actually happening to the homes of Gaza’s 
residents.

The users accused the occupation army of collecting the rubble and 
transporting it by trucks into Israel for recycling and resale to 
Israeli construction companies for profit. Others pointed out that this 
practice also aims to delay any future reconstruction in Gaza by 
maintaining full control over what enters the Strip and preventing any 
internal recycling.

*Erasing the traces of destruction
*Social media users confirmed that these violations have taken place in 
Rafah, northern Gaza, and east of Khan Yunis as part of a systematic 
policy to erase the signs of destruction before Gaza is reopened to the 
world. They viewed this behavior as a form of concealing the 
crime—similar to how Israel previously concealed numerous destroyed and 
depopulated Palestinian villages in in the Nakba.

Several users noted that satellite images showed the disappearance of 
rubble from various areas in Rafah and northern Gaza.

*Demolition contractors
*For his part, the Director General of the Ministry of Health in Gaza, 
Dr. Munir Al-Bursh, said that demolition is no longer just a military 
procedure but has become a profitable business through what he called 
“demolition contractors,” who do not hesitate to destroy homes even 
outside designated demolition zones.

Al-Bursh wrote in a post on the platform X, “The picture in Jabalia is 
clearer than any report, indicating that what is happening is systematic 
destruction and forced displacement of civilians without distinction or 
warning, driven by an insatiable appetite for devastation.”

The Health Director affirmed that occupation soldiers are not merely 
carrying out orders but find pleasure in setting debris alight and 
spreading destruction, motivated by a system that pays them for every 
house leveled to the ground. He said, “This is not war… it is a 
deliberate policy of ruin.”

“When homes are set alight and demolished on demand, the crime turns 
into an economic system, and the occupation becomes an investor in 
destruction, not merely an aggressor,” Al-Bursh said, adding, “Jabalia 
is the model… and all of Gaza is the victim.”

*Deliberate theft
*Activists saw this as part of a land-cleansing strategy aimed at 
prolonging the duration of the war and completely stripping Gaza to 
facilitate military control for the army. One activist wrote, “I am a 
resident of the neighborhood being transported into Israel in recent 
days.” Another activist added, “A thief of an entire homeland will not 
stop at stealing the rubble.”

Some bloggers also believed that the rubble helps resistance fighters 
hide, set up ambushes, or take sniper positions—tactics that have 
inflicted casualties on Israeli soldiers. Therefore, the Israeli army 
insists on removing the debris to create flat terrain that makes 
surveillance from long distances easier.

*Theft of the living and the dead
*Others pointed out that Israel has not only stolen land and rubble but 
has also reached the point of exhuming graves and taking bodies. They 
considered this “unsurprising from an entity bent on erasing every trace 
of Palestinian life.” Some bloggers believed the Israeli army is 
carrying out these operations also to prevent access to bodies that no 
one knows about, so that official casualty statistics do not soar to 
astronomical numbers.

Others highlighted that the 5,000 shekels paid by the occupation army to 
contractors for every house razed comes on top of “additional rewards” 
for killing starving people at aid distribution points. They said, “This 
is how destruction is funded, and the crime is intended to become a 
business.”

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