Afrasianet - Author: Ahmad Zaqout - Gaza - Israel has not only destroyed Gaza's neighborhoods, but has begun looting the rubble of destroyed homes, turning it into "spoils" to be reprocessed and sold inside the occupied territories. A double crime aimed at obliterating evidence and depriving Palestinians of the right to reconstruction and memory.
The Israeli occupation war on the Gaza Strip was not limited to shelling, destruction and mass massacres, but also took multiple forms of humiliation and violation, which went beyond the limits of killing to tampering with what was left by the crime itself, as one of these forms was the looting of the rubble of destroyed houses and transporting it to the territories of Palestine occupied in 1948, under the pretext of "removing rubble".
These practices conceal economic, military and political goals, including obliterating war crimes and prolonging the suffering of Palestinians by obstructing reconstruction and erasing collective memory, thus turning the rubble from an opportunity for recovery into a "war booty" and a source of profits for the occupation at the expense of a suffering people and an erased future.
Despite the lack of visual documentation, accusations of theft of building rubble in the affected areas of northern Gaza and Khan Yunis and Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip by the occupation and its contractors are escalating, and these accusations are reinforced by eyewitness accounts and satellite images showing the disappearance of large amounts of rubble, indicating an organized looting operation aimed at obscuring the effects of destruction and crimes.
According to the Hebrew newspaper Haaretz, demolition contractors contracted with the occupation army receive about $1,500 for each house removed, and some consider the continuation of the war a "commercial opportunity," exposing the collusion between the army and the economic sector in turning destruction into a source of profit.
Population displacement and obliteration of crime
Palestinian rescuer Noah al-Shanghoubi confirms that "Israeli military bulldozers and trucks daily transport huge quantities of rubble from Palestinian homes to the occupied interior, where these materials are sorted and reprocessed in Israeli factories before being sold to construction companies, in what is a huge profitable project that generates tens of millions of dollars."
"What is happening is an organized crime, where the occupation begins with the displacement of residents from entire neighborhoods, then penetrates into them and destroys them completely, whether through aerial bombardment or blowing up, and then bulldozers enter to remove everything, and leave the ground barren, as if it was never inhabited by humans," he said, noting that "we are in an area only 20 kilometers away from the place, however, warplanes are watching us and know exactly what we are doing, and the problem is that no one talks about what is going on, because he did not There is no one left to see or document."
Journalist Wael Abu Omar said, "Recently, we have started to see crushers working clearly, as heavy machinery enters the rubble and is permanently broken up, and everything that enters these crushers turns into ashes or powder, in the complete absence of any control or ability to document."
Abu Omar adds: "Citizens in Gaza are trying to do the impossible, in light of the lack of building materials and iron, collecting the remaining stones from under the rubble, in an attempt to restore a room or rebuild a small part of a house, and there are those who are literally trying to recycle their demolished house to create a new hope amid the rubble," stressing that "the occupation does not steal rubble just for profit, but within the framework of an organized attempt to obliterate the features of crime, prevent any return or repair, and expand its military control."
"For us, this rubble is life, and the occupation is a tool, as it recycles it to build settlements with it, and also uses it to remove field obstacles, which helps it prevent resistance fighters from hiding behind destroyed buildings to carry out operations against it, and to expand the field of vision for its soldiers," Abu Omar said.
Life-repellent environment and erasure of field evidence
Mohammed Haj Youssef, spokesman for the Civil Defense in Rafah, said that the occupation seeks to make Gaza's environment life-repellent to push people to forcibly leave their homeland, stressing that "in light of the siege and lack of resources, some families use wood and plastic from the rubble of their homes as alternative fuel to warm their children or cook, as rubble has become a means of resistance to survival."
Haj Youssef pointed to a very important point, saying: "The remnants of the rubble, especially fragments of rockets and bombs, may constitute field evidence before international investigators on the type of weapons used by Israel, and this is what makes the occupation keen to remove everything, not only for military reasons, but to obliterate any trace that may embarrass it in front of the international press and judicial authorities that have already begun preparing files about its brutal war in Gaza."
Rubble theft doubles the cost of reconstruction
Economic analyst Ahmed Abu Qamar believes that "Gaza's rubble is part of the circular economy, as it can be recycled and used in reconstruction operations, because it contains valuable materials such as cement, iron and electricity wires, and is not seen as traditional waste."
According to estimates by the United Nations Development Programme and the Ministry of Public Works and Housing in Gaza, the amount of rubble in the Strip is about 50 million tons, a huge amount that could have been used for vital projects such as ports and coastal landfill.
The economic analyst stresses that what Israel has done is a double crime, as it not only destroyed the Palestinian infrastructure and economy, but also turned the rubble of destruction into a source of economic prosperity for it, through the establishment of recycling factories inside the occupied territories, and the use of materials in infrastructure projects that generate huge profits for Israeli contractors.
"The theft of rubble will double the cost of reconstruction by more than 20%," Abu Qamar said, stressing that "keeping these materials would have greatly reduced the reconstruction bill, especially in light of the urgent need for building materials and local recycling capabilities."