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<title>Destruction of al-Rimal Neighborhood in Gaza City, an
Attack on the Economic Existence of a National Group</title>
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<p dir="RTL"
style="direction: ltr;text-align: justify;margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;"><strong>Destruction
of al-Rimal Neighborhood in
Gaza City, an Attack on </strong><strong>the
Economic Existence of a
National Group </strong><br>
<br>
Date: 19 October 2023<br>
Throughout a night of intense
bombing into the early morning
hours of 10 October, targeted
Israeli airstrikes extensively
<a
href="https://alhaq.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=10071401ba4201bc1a4992f68&id=fa61be1a73&e=08c14cf485"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #007C89;font-weight: normal;text-decoration: underline;"
moz-do-not-send="true">leveled</a>
al-Rimal neighbourhood,
considered ‘the beating heart’
of Gaza City. The attack on
al-Rimal is part of the latest
full-scale Israeli military
offensive against the
population in the Gaza Strip,
the most intense and violent
in living memory. The specific
targeting and destruction
inflicted on al-Rimal
neighbourhood is intended to
cause physical, psychological
and economic distress as a
form of collective punishment
on the people of Gaza. This
constitutes a war crime, and
may give rise to evidence
meeting the threshold for the
crime of genocide. <br>
<br>
<strong><em>Al-Rimal’s
Significance </em></strong><br>
Al-Rimal, an affluent
neighbourhood in the heart of
Gaza City, is of significant
value to all Gaza’s residents.
It stretches over an area of
about five square kilometres
and is home to about 70,000
residents. Besides being one
of the most densely populated
residential neighbourhoods in
Gaza, al-Rimal was considered
the ‘economic and
administrative backbone of the
Gaza Strip’, was home to
commercial shops, residential
towers, hotels, restaurants,
banks, schools, universities,
local and international media
offices, telecommunications
companies, healthcare
facilities, as well as
international and local
organisations, including the
headquarters of UNRWA.
Al-Rimal has been massively
levelled in Israel’s military
reprisals and collective
punishment of the Palestinian
population in the Gaza Strip.<br>
<br>
<strong><em>Previous Israeli
Targeting of al-Rimal</em></strong><br>
During Israel’s six previous
full-scale military offensives
against the Gaza Strip over
the last 15 years, the people
of Gaza, struggling to find
pockets of safety from
relentless bombardment, would
look to urban centres such as
al-Rimal to find refuge. This
calculation changed in May
2021, when Israel’s military
eleven-day onslaught on Gaza
directly targeted al-Rimal,
killing 30 Palestinians in the
neighbourhood alone and 240
Palestinians in the Gaza Strip
overall. <br>
<br>
The al-Shorouk Tower and the
al-Jalaa building, landmarks
which dotted the skyline of
Gaza City and were used by
both locals and visitors to
orient themselves within the
city, were demolished in the
bombing campaign. The
Associated Press, Al-Jazeera,
medical offices, residential
apartments and a radio station
were all housed in the
al-Jalaa building and reduced
to rubble. The road leading to
al-Shifa Hospital, a place
which acted as a sanctuary for
the sick and wounded amid the
rubble of previous Israeli
military offensives, was
severely damaged and rendered
unusable by ambulances trying
to reach the hospital. The
intense targeting of al-Rimal
in May 2021 marked a turning
point for the neighbourhood,
which had been spared the
worst in past offensives.<br>
<br>
On 10 October 2023 the IOF
extensively destroyed al-Rimal
neighbourhood, turning many of
its buildings into rubble.<br>
<br>
<br>
<strong><em>Al-Rimal’s
destruction is a form of
collective punishment </em></strong><br>
<br>
This destruction is a
physical, psychological and
economic attack intended to
collectively punish the
Palestinian population in the
Gaza Strip amidst an ongoing
military offensive underpinned
by statements inciting acts of
genocide.<br>
<br>
<strong><em>Physical </em></strong><br>
Since the start of the
military offensive on 7
October, the neighbourhood has
been directly targeted by
Israeli bombings. On the first
day of the offensive, Israeli
warplanes bombed and
completely destroyed the
Palestine Tower, a 14-storey
building compromising 78
residential apartments and
offices. On 9 October the
Israeli Coordinator of
Government Activities in the
Territories (COGAT) called on
residents of al-Rimal to
evacuate their homes.
Throughout a night of intense
bombing into the early morning
hours of 10 October, Israeli
warplanes destroyed
residential buildings, cafés,
a mosque, notable institutions
such as the <a
href="https://alhaq.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=10071401ba4201bc1a4992f68&id=90b9dc72d8&e=08c14cf485"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #007C89;font-weight: normal;text-decoration: underline;"
moz-do-not-send="true">Islamic
University of Gaza</a> and
the Ministry of Culture, and
roads once lined with trees
and street vendors. <a
href="https://alhaq.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=10071401ba4201bc1a4992f68&id=234f3e3de7&e=08c14cf485"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #007C89;font-weight: normal;text-decoration: underline;"
moz-do-not-send="true">Drone
footage</a> shows entire
neighbourhood blocks reduced
to rubble. UNRWA headquarters
in al-Rimal also suffered
damage due to the airstrikes. <br>
<br>
International humanitarian law
prohibits the targeting of and
indiscriminate attacks against
civilian objects during
hostilities. As such, the
physical destruction of
al-Rimal and the killing of
civilians there may amount to
war crimes. The Rome Statute
stipulates in Article
8(2)(a)(iv) that the
‘extensive destruction and
appropriation of property, not
justified by military
necessity and carried out
unlawfully and wantonly,’
constitutes a war crime.
Furthermore, Articles
8(2)(b)(i)-(ii) state that war
crimes include ‘intentionally
directing attacks against the
civilian population as such or
against individual civilians
not taking direct part in
hostilities,’ and
‘intentionally directing
attacks against civilian
objects, that is, objects
which are not military
objectives’. Within six days,
the IOF dropped more than
6,000 bombs on the Gaza Strip.
On 10 October 2023, after the
destruction of al-Rimal, the
Israeli military spokesperson
Daniel Hagari stated that ‘[In
Gaza], the emphasis is on
damage and not on accuracy’.
Levelling the entire
neighbourhood of al-Rimal and
destroying numerous
residential blocks, cafés, ice
cream parlours, a university,
a mosque and institutions such
as the Palestinian
Telecommunications Company and
the Palestinian Bar
Association are undoubtedly
evidence of a scorched earth
policy.<br>
<br>
<strong><em>Psychological </em></strong><br>
The decision to destroy
al-Rimal was not only a
physical attack on a
significant centre of life in
Gaza City but was also a
collective psychological
attack as well. Article 51(2)
of Additional Protocol I to
the Four Geneva Conventions of
1949 states that ‘the civilian
population as such, as well as
individual civilians, shall
not be the object of attack.
Acts or threats of violence
the primary purpose of which
is to spread terror among the
civilian population are
prohibited.’ As previously
mentioned, al-Rimal was
considered ‘the beating heart
of Gaza’, home to hundreds of
families and the centre of
commercial and financial life,
from local businesses to
world-renowned media
institutions and iconic
landmarks that identified Gaza
City. Customary international
law requires that military
operations be targeted and
proportionate. Indiscriminate
attacks and mass destruction
in a densely populated
neighbourhood cannot be
considered proportionate.
Instead, it is intended to
enact collective punishment
and instil fear in a
population that is safe
nowhere. This destruction is
an additional step in a
concerted effort to
collectively break the
psychological welfare of
Palestinians under siege. <br>
<br>
Shukri Al-Ahwal, a resident of
al-Rimal, shared his <a
href="https://alhaq.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=10071401ba4201bc1a4992f68&id=dd6da0cdeb&e=08c14cf485"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #007C89;font-weight: normal;text-decoration: underline;"
moz-do-not-send="true">testimony</a>
with B’Tselem while standing
on the rubble of his
neighbourhood, stating that:
‘Even in nightmares, we have
not seen anything like this.
This was the safest place in
Gaza. Everyone would come
here. As you can see,
unspeakable destruction. There
are no military headquarters
or outposts here. We are
civilians. They tell us:
“evacuate”, but where can we
go? We are all displaced.’<br>
<br>
<strong><em>Economic </em></strong><br>
Finally, the levelling of
al-Rimal constitutes an
economic attack that falls
into the larger context of
Israel’s efforts to de-develop
the Gaza Strip through an
ongoing 16-year air, sea and
naval blockade. The decision
to relentlessly bombard
al-Rimal was a calculated one
against the economic survival
of Gaza’s residents. Al-Rimal
was considered an upscale
neighbourhood, home to
middle-class families many of
whom were financially
successful due to businesses
that survived despite the
crippling economic blockade on
Gaza. Through tightly
controlling the movement of
all people and the import and
export of all goods in and out
of the besieged enclave,
Israel has enacted a policy of
de-development. They have
attempted to keep the
residents of Gaza subjugated
in a state of economic
insecurity and at the complete
mercy of Israel for access to
food, fuel, electricity,
medical equipment and basic
construction materials.<br>
<br>
For example, Israel has
weaponised its control of the
flow of food and water into
the besieged enclave,
employing a ‘calorie-counting’
technique, where it made
precise calculations of the
daily caloric need of every
individual in Gaza to
determine how much food to
allow into the Strip, stunting
the growth of Gaza’s economy
and its people. The ‘dual-use’
policy, which prohibits the
importation of medical
equipment, raw materials,
chemicals and fertilizers into
the Gaza Strip if the goods
can conceivably be used for a
‘military purpose’, stunts the
economic growth of Gaza to
such a degree that lifting the
policy would increase the GDP
by about 40 percent. This
means that after six
successive full-scale Israeli
military offensives against
Gaza in the last 15 years,
residents have been unable to
fully rebuild all that was
bombed because they lack
access to basic materials such
as cement.<br>
<br>
Israel’s policy of economic
de-development of the Gaza
Strip ‘deliberately inflicting
on the group [the Palestinian
people] conditions of life
calculated to bring about its
physical destruction in whole
or in part’, may meet the
threshold of genocide. In
addition to the
‘calorie-counting’ technique
and the ‘dual-use’ policy,
al-Rimal’s destruction, as the
commercial and financial
centre of Gaza City, is
significant. According to
Raphael Lemkin, proponent of
the Genocide Convention:<br>
<br>
The destruction of foundations
of economic existence of a
national group necessarily
brings about a crippling of
its development, even a
retrogression. The lowering of
the standard of living creates
difficulties in fulfilling
cultural-spiritual
requirements. Furthermore, a
daily fight literally for
bread and for physical
survival may handicap thinking
in both general and national
terms.<br>
<br>
The crime of genocide includes
the intent to destroy a
national, ethnic, racial or
religious group in whole or in
part, by ‘causing serious
bodily or mental harm to
members of the group’ and
‘deliberately inflicting on
the group conditions of life
calculated to bring about its
physical destruction in whole
or in part’. The destruction
of al-Rimal, the relentless
bombardment of the Gaza Strip
since the onset of the latest
military offensive starting on
7 October 2023, the genocidal
language employed, which
stated an intention to
‘flatten’ Gaza and referred to
its residents as ‘human
animals’, taken together with
the Israeli policy to prevent
the economic growth of the
Gaza Strip from its imposed
crippling siege, may amount to
the crime of genocide, should
the special intent for the
crime be met.<br>
<br>
<strong><em>Conclusion</em></strong><br>
The destruction of al-Rimal
will have an irreversible and
lasting impact on the economic
and social development of
Palestinian society for years
to come. And its destruction
is a microcosm of the larger
Israeli strategy of domination
and subjugation, part of an
attempt to de-develop the Gaza
Strip, which constitutes, at a
minimum, a war crime against
the targeting of civilian
property, and may, given the
preceding statements of
genocidal intent, be
considered an act of genocide.<br>
<br>
Al-Haq urges the international
community to take immediate
and effective measures to hold
Israel accountable for the
indiscriminate targeting of
civilian homes and
infrastructure, the killing of
entire families and the
strategic deprivation and
subjugation of the people of
Gaza. We also call upon the
Prosecutor of the
International Criminal Court
to investigate Israeli crimes
in accordance with the Rome
Statute and hold accountable
every individual who has
incited, carried out or
ordered the commission of such
crimes.<br>
<br>
<img data-file-id="6526279"
src="https://mcusercontent.com/10071401ba4201bc1a4992f68/images/1f3b5ae7-8bd7-2a72-99e0-eca974f5a4d2.jpg"
style="border: 0px;width: 800px;height: 500px;margin: 0px;outline: none;text-decoration: none;-ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic;"
moz-do-not-send="true"
width="800" height="500"><br>
Al-Rimal after October 10
devastation. Credit: Anadolu (<a
href="https://alhaq.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=10071401ba4201bc1a4992f68&id=9afacdf7eb&e=08c14cf485"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #007C89;font-weight: normal;text-decoration: underline;"
moz-do-not-send="true">https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/10/11/rimal-gaza-hamas-israeli-bombardment-palestinian/</a>) <br>
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<strong>Our mailing address is:</strong><br>
Al-Haq Organization<br>
54 Main Street<br>
Ramallah P6008148<br>
Palestine<br>
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