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<div class="gmail-inner-article-top"><h1 class="gmail-">Israel's bulldozers of war: Finishing what the Nakba started</h1><p class="gmail-">Washington's
subsidized bulldozer shipments are enabling Tel Aviv to raze Gaza to
the ground, reviving tactics used during the Nakba to ethnically cleanse
Palestine.</p><div class="gmail-another-name"><p><a href="https://thecradle.co/authors/robert-inlakesh" style="color:rgb(164,4,4)">Robert Inlakesh</a></p></div><div class="gmail-another-name" style="margin-top:16px"><p><span style="color:rgb(84,88,94)">SEP 22, 2025 - </span><font size="1"><a href="https://thecradle.co/articles/israels-bulldozers-of-war-finishing-what-the-nakba-started">https://thecradle.co/articles/israels-bulldozers-of-war-finishing-what-the-nakba-started</a></font></p></div></div><div class="gmail-inner-article-img"><img src="https://thecradle-main.oss-eu-central-1.aliyuncs.com/public/articles/76f783c4-97bf-11f0-8cd0-00163e02c055.jpeg" alt="" width="395" height="187" style="margin-right: 0px;"><span>Photo Credit: The Cradle</span></div><div class="gmail-inner-article-content"><div class="gmail-row"><div class="gmail-col-md-8 gmail-col-sm-7"><div class="gmail-article-content"><span class="gmail-article-body"><p style="text-align:justify">In
recent months, Israel has ramped up its use of heavily-armored
bulldozers to raze entire neighborhoods, olive groves, and critical
infrastructure across the already devastated Gaza Strip. These machines
form part of a systematic strategy to permanently alter Gaza's geography
and demography.</p><p style="text-align:justify">In January, US President Donald Trump greenlit the transfer of 134 D9 <a href="https://www.jfeed.com/news-israel/sqt3hg">bulldozers</a> to Israel, upon the implementation of the Gaza\u2013Israel ceasefire agreement. This <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/report-claims-washington-holding-up-shipment-of-armored-bulldozers-to-israel/">massive deal</a>
had previously been frozen under former US president Joe Biden's
administration. The US-made Caterpillar machines, dubbed "Doobi" or
"Teddy Bear" in Hebrew, were swiftly put to use after Israel violated
and ended the ceasefire. Soon after, \u201cOperation Gideon's Chariots\u201d was
launched on 16 May, flattening <a href="https://www.ynet.co.il/yedioth/article/yokra14488814#google_vignette">over 2,100 buildings</a> in Khan Yunis alone, shortly after the deal was finalized.</p><p style="text-align:justify"><strong>US bulldozers powering Israel\u2019s war machine</strong></p><p style="text-align:justify">In July, Israel <a href="https://www.ynetnews.com/article/r1seew3ree">received</a>
a shipment of bulldozers from the US, in what has been described as
\u201cthe largest air-and-sea logistics operation in the history of the State
of Israel,\u201d according to a Defense Ministry official. Back in February,
Tel Aviv also requested another military purchase of brand-new
bulldozers, estimated to cost a total of $295 million. In March, the US
then fast-tracked the deal, managing to <a href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20250310-us-fast-tracks-295m-arms-deal-to-israel-bypassing-congressional-review/">bypass congressional approval</a> by doing so. </p><p style="text-align:justify">Many of these machines have since been deployed to expand Israel's so-called <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2025/08/26/us/coast-guard-illicit-drug-offload-cocaine-hnk?iid=cnn_buildContentRecirc_end_recirc&recs_exp=more-from-cnn-right-rail&tenant_id=popular.article.en">buffer zone</a>
in Gaza, now stretching more than one kilometer into the coastal
enclave, severing the strip from the rest of occupied Palestine. There,
Israel\u2019s combat engineering corps \u2013 which includes the Yahalom, Asaf,
and Lahav battalions \u2013 have been used to both bulldoze and rig buildings
with explosives, also destroying the majority of Gaza\u2019s agricultural
lands. According to UN estimates, <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2025/04/1162491">92 percent</a> of Gaza's residential structures have been either partially or completely destroyed.</p><p style="text-align:justify">With
the Israeli army overstretched and short on manpower, the Israeli
Defense Ministry has enlisted private contractors to drive the
demolition effort. Ads offering up to <a href="https://x.com/ytirawi/status/1929420273792454730">$882 a day</a> have circulated on social media, while investigative reports from <i>Haaretz</i> reveal the operation now includes more than 500 heavy engineering vehicles, racking up costs of <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2025-08-19/ty-article-magazine/.premium/the-cost-of-demolition-gaza-never-in-israeli-history-were-so-many-buildings-demolished/00000198-c1d2-dc9d-abd9-dbded6b40000?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email&lts=1755949835849">nearly $30 million per month</a>.</p><p style="text-align:justify"><strong>A destructive legacy </strong></p><p style="text-align:justify">Immediately
following Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on 7 October 2023, Israel began
halting exports of military equipment and tanks, announcing instead its
purchase of <a href="https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/bjcr08wv6">dozens of bulldozers</a>. This move came as an effort to reinforce their armored units. The Israeli bulldozer strategy finds its origins in the <a href="https://yplus.ps/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Pappe-Ilan-The-Ethnic-Cleansing-of-Palestine.pdf">Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine</a>
(1947-1949), during the Nakba (The Catastrophe), where Zionist militia
forces not only expelled some 750,000 people from their homes, but
demolished over <a href="https://www.zochrot.org/villages/nakba_map/en?Nakba_Map">400 villages</a> as a form of erasing their connection to the land.</p><p style="text-align:justify">The Caterpillar D9 \u2013 first acquired by Israel shortly after its <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBYF8tP5zOs">release in 1954</a>
\u2013 has since become a staple of the Israeli army's arsenal. There have
been numerous modifications added to it, leading to the D9L, D9N, D9R,
and D9T, which are all deployed by Israel today. These vehicles are then
sold to Israel by the American company as civilian bulldozers, despite
often being part of US military packages, and are subsidized by American
tax dollars.</p><p style="text-align:justify">When the CAT D9s arrive, they are quickly fitted with <a href="https://english.iswnews.com/33275/military-knowledge-d9-armoured-bulldozer/">Israeli-developed</a> armor,
parts, and weaponry. The Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) weapons
company is primarily responsible for converting the bulldozers for
military purposes. Even Israeli universities have been involved in the
D9 development project, as <a href="https://corporatewatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/targeting-israeli-apartheid-jan-2012.pdf">Technion University</a> in Haifa was responsible for designing the first remote-controlled version of the D9 that is used in Gaza today.</p><p style="text-align:justify">Israel
does not make public the number of D-9 bulldozers it currently has in
operation. In fact, it actively works to obscure that knowledge from the
public. Since acquiring the D9s in the 1950s, Israel has used them in
every major conflict as key weapons of war, ranging from the 1956 Suez
Crisis, through to the First and Second Intifadas, right up until
today. </p><p style="text-align:justify">One of the largest purchases came in 2001 of <a href="https://forward.com/news/129547/caterpillar-caught-in-web-of-middle-east-politics/">50 bulldozers</a>, yet over the decades, bulldozer <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEP8KjuQHtI">purchases</a> were occasionally interrupted by legal challenges, such as the case brought by the family of <a href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/DHRzWz3K6TO/remembering-rachel-corrie-the-us-peace-activist-crushed-to-death-by-an-israeli-b/?hl=en">Rachel Corrie</a>
\u2013 an American peace activist crushed to death by a D9 in 2003\u2013 but
these were ultimately dismissed by US courts, and the deal was unfrozen.
In 2017, Israeli outlet <i>Walla News</i> reported that <a href="https://news-walla-co-il.translate.goog/item/3040197?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en-US&_x_tr_pto=wapp">20 heavy engineering vehicles</a>
were purchased from Caterpillar, which it labelled \u201cthe largest of its
kind in 20 years.\u201d Despite the lack of an official policy, an <a href="https://archive.is/20250819131026/https:/www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2025-08-19/ty-article-magazine/.premium/the-cost-of-demolition-gaza-never-in-israeli-history-were-so-many-buildings-demolished/00000198-c1d2-dc9d-abd9-dbded6b40000">investigative piece</a> last month by <i>Haaretz</i> found that the military demolition campaign is being driven by commanders \u201con the ground\u201d:</p><blockquote><p style="text-align:justify">\u201cThis
is an unprecedented engineering project, taking place despite neither
the military having an official policy on the matter, nor the political
leadership having made an official decision to demolish all of the homes
in Gaza. In fact, this policy is coming from the forces on the ground,
from company and battalion commanders, who are concerned that the
buildings left standing endanger the lives of their troops.\u201d</p></blockquote><p style="text-align:justify">This mirrors the implementation of <a href="https://www.palestine-studies.org/sites/default/files/attachments/jps-articles/Plan%20dalet.pdf">Plan Dalet</a>
during the Nakba, where orders to expel Palestinians were implicit,
leaving execution up to field officers. Then, as now, the goal remains
the same \u2013 to depopulate and reconfigure the land.</p><p style="text-align:justify"><strong>A nationwide demolition doctrine</strong></p><p style="text-align:justify">Between 1967 and 2011, Israel destroyed at least <a href="https://www.fagforbundet.no/globalassets/globale-filer/dangerous-liaisons-ii.pdf">28,000 </a>Palestinian
homes, many of which were demolished with bulldozers and other heavy
equipment. This does not even include the number of homes destroyed in
Gaza during its major attacks on the territory, when bulldozers were
also used, in 2012 and 2014. The bulldozer strategy is so entrenched in
Israeli public consciousness that the late former prime minister and war
criminal, Ariel Sharon, was often referred to as \u201c<a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2014/1/11/the-legacy-of-ariel-the-bulldozer-sharon">The Bulldozer</a>,\u201d and the nickname for the D9s was originally \u201cPooh HaDov\u201d (Winnie the Pooh), before evolving to become \u201cTeddy Bear.\u201d</p><p style="text-align:justify">While Gaza bears the brunt, this strategy is far from confined to the besieged coastal strip. In occupied <a href="https://thecradle.co/articles-id/1247">East Jerusalem</a>, settler groups exploit Israel's <a href="https://www.adalah.org/en/law/view/538">1950 Absentee Property Law</a> to expropriate Palestinian homes, while the state denies building permits to justify demolitions. Since 1993, around <a href="https://www.oikoumene.org/resources/documents/fact-sheet-east-jerusalem-demolitions-april-2023">3,000 structures</a>
have been destroyed this way. Similarly, in the Negev, Israel has set
up a system with the Bedouin towns in the area, whereby the majority of
their villages are deemed \u201cunrecognized.\u201d These 14 villages are <a href="https://www.nif.org/stories/palestinian-citizens-of-israel/protecting-unrecognized-bedouin-villages-in-the-negev/">consistently bulldozed</a>, despite the residents there holding Israeli citizenship.</p><p style="text-align:justify">In the occupied <a href="https://thecradle.co/articles-id/33222">West Bank</a>,
Palestinian homes are demolished, due to punitive measures that were
once banned but had returned as State policy in 2014. In essence, if you
carry out an attack against an Israeli, your family home will be
destroyed. Israeli officials and settler leaders openly invoke the <a href="https://thecradle.co/articles-id/33222">Biblical language</a>
of \u2018Judea and Samaria\u2019 to frame this policy as divinely sanctioned,
transforming collective punishment into a supposed religious duty.
Beyond punitive demolitions, the Israeli army has also destroyed homes
and orchards under the pretext of military zoning or permit violations,
particularly in Area C. Refugee camps like <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/video/newsfeed/2024/4/24/what-is-israels-bulldozer-strategy-in-the-occupied-west-bank">Nour al-Shams</a> and <a href="https://thecradle.co/articles-id/29463">Jenin</a>
have seen entire communities uprooted by bulldozer assaults that cut
off water, power, and roads. Similar tactics are now being applied in <a href="https://syrianobserver.com/foreign-actors/israeli-operations-in-southern-syria-spark-alarm-land-clearing-and-home-demolitions-reported.html">Syria's Quneitra</a> province and <a href="https://thecradle.co/articles/why-israel-occupies-five-lebanese-hills">southern Lebanon</a>, where the Israeli army seeks to create new \u201csecurity zones\u201d with the same machinery.</p><p style="text-align:justify">In all these areas, under different legal and security excuses, the goal is the same. <a href="https://x.com/ireallyhateyou/status/1959781034549186622">Throughout the month of August alone</a>, Israeli bulldozer drivers openly published dozens of videos bragging about demolishing thousands of olive trees and homes.</p><p style="text-align:justify"><strong>Western complicity and the machinery of ethnic cleansing</strong></p><p style="text-align:justify">The
D9 may be the poster child of this policy, but it is not alone.
Excavators and engineering equipment from American, South Korean, and
European firms have been used to build settlements and raze Palestinian
land. Bulldozers used in the infamous mass demolition campaign against
homes in the <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2025/7/10/west-bank-palestinians-prepare-to-lose-homes-as-israel-pushes-for-expulsion">Masafer Yatta</a> area of Al-Khalil (Hebron) were supplied by Volvo. The equipment of Volvo was even used in the construction of <a href="https://www.whoprofits.org/companies/company/3644">illegal settlements such as Har Gilo</a>.</p><p style="text-align:justify">Hyundai
Heavy Industries has also long provided track excavators and other
machinery that have been used by the Israeli military and in the
construction of illegal settlements. In 2017, Hyundai equipment was even
used in the construction of a settler-only road in the occupied West
Bank, a project which uprooted <a href="https://investigate.info/company/hd-hyundai-heavy">700 olive trees</a>.</p><p style="text-align:justify">Due
to a lack of sufficient tanks and armoured personnel carriers, Israel
has also been relying on AM General HMMWV Humvees to transport its
forces and workers to carry out demolition work, recently placing an
order for \u201c<a href="https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/israeli-military-to-acquire-hundreds-of-humvee-tactical-4x4s/ar-AA1J1XI2?apiversion=v2&noservercache=1&domshim=1&renderwebcomponents=1&wcseo=1&batchservertelemetry=1&noservertelemetry=1#:~:text=by%20Richard%20Thomas-,The%20Israeli%20military%20will%20acquire%20hundreds%20of%20High%20Mobility,to%20Israel's%20Ministry%20of%20Defense.&text=FinanceBuzz-,Announced%20on%2020%20July%2C%20the%20$150m%20deal%20includes%20spare,%2C%20training%2C%2">hundreds</a>\u201d more of these vehicles. The US-based General Motors company also <a href="https://www.whoprofits.org/companies/company/3959?general-motors-company">signed a deal back in 2022</a> to supply both vehicles and engines to the Israeli military.</p><p style="text-align:justify">The
complicity of western corporations in the bulldozer doctrine allows a
depleted Israeli military to sustain what all major human rights groups \u2013
including Israel\u2019s own <a href="https://www.btselem.org/press_releases/20250728_our_genocide">B\u2019Tselem</a>
\u2013 have called genocide in Gaza. The policy binds Israeli society itself
to the machinery of dispossession, drawing in civilian firms,
contractors, and workers into the architecture of ethnic cleansing. In
this way, today\u2019s bulldozer campaign revives the very same strategy of
erasure first unleashed during the Nakba.</p></span></div></div></div></div>
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