Schlagwort: Amnesty International

The Israeli military’s deliberate destruction of civilian homes in Quneitra governorate in southern Syria since December 2024, with no absolute military necessity, should be investigated as war crimes, said Amnesty International today. Israel has an obligation to make reparations for these serious violations of international humanitarian law, which should be tailored towards addressing the specific harms faced by the victims.

On 8 December 2024 – the day the former Syrian government led by Bashar al-Assad fell – Israeli military forces crossed through the Golan Heights, a Syrian territory Israel has occupied since 1967, into three villages and towns located within the UN-Demilitarized zone in the Quneitra governorate in southern Syria, conducting home raids and ordering residents to leave.

Over the following six months, the Israeli military destroyed or damaged at least 23 civilian structures in three villages, which witnesses described as their and their neighbours’ homes and said had the effect of displacing entire families. Amnesty International was able to verify through satellite imagery the damage and destruction to 23 structures in these villages. Witnesses reported that at least two additional homes were destroyed, as well as adjacent gardens and agricultural land, in 2024 and 2025. There were no active hostilities immediately prior, during or after the destruction to civilian buildings. Generally, international humanitarian law applies to any attacks Israel conducts throughout Syrian territory. In areas that Israel occupies, the law of occupation imposes additional obligations, including under the Fourth Geneva Convention.

“The unlawful destruction of civilian property has become a hallmark of Israel’s military operations in the region, documented over the past years in Gaza and Lebanon, and now, as our investigation has established, in Syria as well. Our research has shown how Israeli forces have, repeatedly and deliberately, forced families from their homes and then destroyed them in clear violation of international humanitarian law. Securing Israel’s border cannot be used to justify bulldozing and blowing up people’s homes and villages on the territory of another country,” said Kristine Beckerle, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa.

“Families in southern Syria survived a decade-long conflict, many of them having already rebuilt their homes during that period, only to see those homes demolished once again, without any absolute military necessity.”

Amnesty International interviewed eight residents of Quneitra governorate: four whose homes had been demolished, two who witnessed the demolition of their neighbours’ homes, one who had direct knowledge of damage caused by Israeli forces to a governorate building, and a local representative. Interviewee accounts, corroborated by media reports, indicate there were no active hostilities immediately prior, during or after the damage and destruction to civilian buildings in southern Syria. Amnesty International verified 35 videos and images, some of which showed bulldozers demolishing homes or rubble of apparent homes in the villages. It also reviewed media reports, include media based in Israel, statements by the Israeli government, and analysed satellite imagery for each affected area to confirm demolitions within the time frame described by witnesses.

Israel’s pattern of destroying civilian homes in Gaza, southern Lebanon and southern Syria has been carried out with total impunity, displacing and shattering the lives of countless families across the region.

Kristine Beckerle, Amnesty International

Amnesty International identified nine military bases built by Israeli forces since December 2024 in Quneitra and Daraa governorates, both located in southern Syria along the border with the Golan Heights, which Israel has occupied since 1967 and which it unlawfully annexed in 1981. Israel has expanded the portions of Syrian territory it occupies. Some of the documented demolished structures were close to either recently constructed Israeli military bases or to an area where a base was later built in areas beyond the occupied Golan Heights.

Israeli officials have repeatedly made broad claims that their military operations and presence in Syria are necessary to prevent threats from Hezbollah or Iran-linked groups based in Syria or to destroy weapons stockpiles or air defense systems. In December 2025, the Israeli Defense Minister said the Israeli military had no plans to withdraw from newly seized positions in Syria.

On 17 April 2026, the Israeli Prime Minister said that Israel had established a “security buffer zone” whose boundary was marked by what he called the “yellow line”. The zone included parts of Syria where Amnesty International documented civilians’ homes damaged and destroyed. It also included the Israel-occupied Golan Heights and parts of southern Lebanon. The Prime Minister said: “This buffer zone completely removes the near threat of invasion and anti-tank fire. The IDF is stationed there, at the ‘Yellow Line’, to continue defending against the near threat.”

Article 53 of the Fourth Geneva Convention prohibits the destruction of property by an occupying power “except where such destruction is rendered absolutely necessary by military operations”. This prohibition covers not only total but also partial destruction, as well as seizure, of property. The absolute military necessity standard requires that destruction of property be materially indispensable, namely that no other option be available, in the conduct of military operations. In turn, military operations refer to military activities, including movements, manoeuvres and preparation, directly related to fighting or combat.

The absolute military necessity standard does not allow an Occupying Power to carry out destruction of property on the basis of broad or abstract strategic goals, such as deterrence or prevention of future attacks, or to pursue the needs of, or implement security measures. Under Article 147 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, “extensive destruction and appropriation of property, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly”, constitutes a grave breach, i.e. a war crime.

The Israeli military entered the UN-Demilitarized zone in Quneitra governorate from the Israel-Occupied Golan Heights, claiming the move was necessary to protect against potential threats. After entering the area, the military began demolishing and destroying homes, despite the absence of active hostilities. The Israeli military also established military positions and bases in the area, and eventually announced the area was part of a “security buffer zone”. Families were displaced and their homes demolished without the provision of alternative shelter, compensation or any timeline for their return.

Amnesty International wrote to the Israeli authorities to ask about the criteria used for deciding which properties would be destroyed, including how they determined whether the absolute military necessity standard had been met, along with other questions. No response had been received at the time of publication.

Amnesty International concluded that the destruction of and damages to civilian structures in southern Syria were carried out without absolute necessity dictated by military operations in violation of international humanitarian law, and amount to grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention.

Al-Hamidiya village and surrounding area

As Israeli soldiers entered al-Hamidiya village on 8 December 2024, two residents told Amnesty International that Israeli soldiers ordered the women and girls to leave their homes at around 11 am while they kept most of the men in their homes for questioning until the afternoon, after which they were allowed to rejoin the women and girls.  Israeli soldiers ordered at least 10 families to leave their homes and move to other parts of the village. Satellite imagery from 17 December 2024 shows new berms have been constructed and, in January 2025, construction of a new base is visible less than 300m east of the affected area.

Two witnesses whose homes had been demolished told Amnesty International that on 16 June 2025 at 9:30pm they saw at least two bulldozers demolishing homes in the village over the course of two days. The bulldozers continued working into the night before stopping and then resuming work early the next day.  A local representative later confirmed to the residents interviewed by Amnesty International, as well as to other families, that their homes had been demolished.

A woman whose home was demolished and garden bulldozed over said: “My husband died during the conflict [in Syria]… He built the house brick by brick. We had a small garden, too. It didn’t give much but enough seasonal vegetables and fruits to save us money on purchasing. My house meant a lot to me and my son… I had a place of my own, and for my son.”

Her neighbour added: “Our home is spacious, next to the house, we have small land with walnuts, pomegranate trees, olive trees and others… everything was bulldozed”. 

High resolution satellite imagery from 23 August 2025 analysed by Amnesty International’s Evidence Lab shows 14 structures and the walls surrounding them were completely destroyed.

Rassim al-Rawadi village and surrounding area

A resident said that Israeli soldiers entered Rassim al-Rawadi village on 8 December 2024 at around 5:30am, detained residents for several hours in the village’s public school and then ordered all of them to leave the village. The families returned around one month later. During that time, at least three homes were damaged and two demolished, the resident said. He added that he saw bulldozers in his village apparently demolishing homes three days after he and his family were forcibly displaced to a nearby village, around 1.5 km away. Amnesty International reviewed videos taken by residents upon their return to their village showing damage and destruction of at least two separate homes.

A resident told Amnesty International that Israeli military forces raided his home and held him, his wife and three children for six hours before ordering them to leave their home. He added that he and the other residents were allowed to return 40 days later, only to find his home reduced to rubble.

Lower resolution satellite imagery analysed by Amnesty International’s Evidence Lab shows destruction, soil disturbances and trees removed between 10 and 13 December 2024. High resolution imagery captured on 17 December 2024 shows in more detail that six structures across the area appear heavily damaged or destroyed and new berms are visible. Trees on the west side of the main road have been removed. In early January 2025, lower resolution imagery shows clearing for a new military base began approximately 1.5 kilometres south-west of the village, only 300m from al-Quneitra hospital.

Al-Rafeed village

On 20 December 2024, the Israeli forces entered Al-Rafeed village and demolished at least two homes. According to a resident, the families were sleeping at their relative’s home in town, less than a kilometre away, when the demolition happened.

A witness told Amnesty International that the two demolished homes were located around 1.5 km from an Israeli military point in the occupied Golan Heights. He described how he saw the Israeli military forces using a bulldozer and other equipment to destroy the home: “The bulldozer turned the house from bricks to sand in minutes… The two homes belonged to people [two brothers and their families] who were already living in destitution. It was heartbreaking to see them displaced, and their home on the ground.”

The Israeli soldiers also demolished a nearby former military base that belonged to the former government of Bashar al-Assad, the resident said.

Lower resolution satellite imagery analysed by Amnesty International shows probable destruction to structures and trees removed between 19 and 20 December 2024. Higher resolution imagery captured on 25 December 2024, shows in more detail that six structures appear destroyed. Amnesty International’s Evidence Lab verified four videos and six pictures, all published on 20 December 2024, showing Israeli soldiers in the village and destroyed concrete structures.

Caption: Satellite imagery from 22 May 2024 shows the western edge of Al-Rafeed village. On 25 December 2024, yellow squares highlight six structures that appear destroyed. Heavy vehicle tracks are visible around the area and many trees lining the road are removed.

“Israel’s pattern of destroying civilian homes in Gaza, southern Lebanon and southern Syria has been carried out with total impunity, displacing and shattering the lives of countless families across the region. The international community must unequivocally condemn these actions and exert real pressure to bring these recurring violations to an end and to prevent further devastation of civilian lives across the region. There must be a demand for accountability for those responsible and reparations for those affected,” said Kristine Beckerle.

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The Algerian authorities must immediately and unconditionally release all arbitrarily detained journalists targeted for exercising their right to freedom of expression, including Abdelwakil Blamm, Hassan Bouras and Christophe Gleizes, Amnesty International said today. The call comes ahead of the 14 May trial of Abdelwakil Blamm on bogus terrorism charges, amid the Algerian authorities’ misuse of the criminal justice system to punish independent critical media voices. 

Since November 2025, the Algerian authorities have arbitrarily detained, prosecuted or convicted seven journalists and media workers solely based on their media work or for expressing their opinions. One was sentenced to prison; three were convicted and granted suspended sentences while three others remain in pretrial detention. 

This wave of repression stands in stark contrast to recent government claims. On 4 May 2026, during a ceremony for World Press Freedom Day, Communication Minister Zoheir Bouamama highlighted government efforts to guarantee freedom of expression “free from any pressure or restriction.”  

The Algerian authorities must stop misusing the justice system to punish journalists solely for carrying out their work or for expressing critical or controversial opinions. 

Diana Eltahawy, Deputy Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International.  

“While senior officials celebrate World Press Freedom Day and publicly commit to upholding freedom of expression, the reality for media workers critical of the authorities is strikingly different. They risk arrest, prolonged arbitrary detention, prosecution on terrorism and national security charges and travel bans solely for writing critical articles or communicating with other journalists and activists,” said Diana Eltahawy, Deputy Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International.  

“The Algerian authorities must stop misusing the justice system to punish journalists solely for carrying out their work or for expressing critical or controversial opinions. They must immediately release unjustly detained journalists and allow journalists to express their views without fear of harassment.” 

Abdelwakil Blamm, who is due to appear before the Dar El Beida tribunal in Algiers on 14 May, is accused of “participating in a terrorist organization,” “disseminating false information,” and “undermining national unity.” He has spent over 16 months in arbitrary pretrial detention following his arrest in December 2024. Authorities denied his family information about his fate and whereabouts for a week following his arrest, subjecting him to enforced disappearance. 

Security forces arrested Abdelwakil Blamm as part of a broader crackdown against an online protest movement campaigning for improved socio-economic conditions and an end to repression in the country. Authorities are prosecuting him for expressing support for the movement on his Facebook page, which has 15,000 followers, and for communicating online with other activists and journalists, including individuals designated as “terrorists” by the Algerian authorities. 

Amnesty International reviewed the case file and found that the prosecution presented no evidence of his involvement in any recognizable crimes, in accordance with international law and standards. In addition, the process of designating individuals or organizations as “terrorist” in Algeria remains contrary to international human rights law.  

The crackdown on independent voices had also targeted Hassan Bouras, a journalist and former member of the dissolved Algerian League for the Defence of Human Rights (LADDH), who has been in arbitrary pretrial detention since 12 April 2026.  

Bouras was arrested in front of his family home in El-Bayadh, 400km south of Algiers, and detained without access to a lawyer, which his family could not secure due to financial and geographical constraints. He suffers from cardiac issues, rheumatism, and asthma, which has worsened in prison where other detainees smoke.  

Authorities must ensure that Hassan Bouras, who started an open-ended hunger strike on 3 May in protest at his arbitrary detention, has access to adequate health care, provided in compliance with medical ethics, including the principles of confidentiality, autonomy, and informed consent. 

Hassan Bouras has previously been detained and convicted for his journalistic work on multiple occasions, most recently in November 2022. 

Other members of the press have faced politically motivated trials, including a foreign journalist.  

In December 2025 authorities confirmed a seven-year prison sentence for French sports journalist Christophe Gleizes for reporting on a football club in Tizi Ouzou and communicating with local football figures, including individuals designated as “terrorists” by the Algerian authorities due to their affiliation with the Movement for Self-Determination of the Kabylie (MAK). 

Media publisher and activist Abdelkrim Zeghileche is being prosecuted in five separate cases on bogus charges including “offending the president” and “publishing content likely to harm to national interest”, based on digital publications protected under the right to freedom of expression such as a Facebook post from 6 December 2025 in which he called for the release of political prisoners. He is expecting a verdict on 19 May in the first of these trials held on 5 May, while his trial hearings scheduled for 6 and 7 May were postponed to 3 and 4 June respectively.  

In a separate case on 30 September 2025, authorities sentenced him to a suspended prison term without a lawyer, following the decision by a prosecutor to refer him to trial immediately following interrogation which did not allow him adequate time, facility and access to information to prepare his defence. 

On 4 December 2025, the Bir Mourad Raïs tribunal in Algiers sentenced journalist Saad Bouakba to a three-year suspended sentence and a fine for “insulting and defaming the symbols of the National Liberation Revolution” and “disseminating false information likely to harm security and public order,” after holding him in arbitrary pretrial detention for a week. The journalist was already under a travel ban and suffering from a chronic illness. 

Saad Bouakba’s conviction was based on an interview he gave to online media channel Vision TV news on 20 November 2025 in which he discussed allegations of unlawful distribution of funds by Algeria’s first president Ahmed Ben Bella. The appeal trial is scheduled for 2 June 2026. 

In a further attack on independent media, the manager of Vision TV was also prosecuted as an accomplice and handed a one-year suspended prison sentence and a fine. The court also ordered the closure of the channel and the seizure of its equipment. Following this prosecution, the channel has stopped posting content.  

The authorities must stop using the criminal justice system as a tool to stifle the press.

Diana Eltahawy.

“Authorities are resorting to overly broad and vague charges such as insulting ‘national symbols’ that infringe on the right to freedom of expression to silence dissent. Insult is not a recognizable offence under international human rights law and imprisonment is never an appropriate penalty for defamation,” said Diana Eltahawy.

The authorities must stop using the criminal justice system as a tool to stifle the press.” 

Journalist Mustapha Bendjama also continues to be harassed by the authorities. In two separate cases in February and March 2026 courts handed him suspended prison sentences based on his journalistic work and critical social media posts including denouncing Abdelwakil Blamm’s detention. Even though a court lifted his four-year-long travel ban in March 2026, on 16 April 2026 border police prevented him from travelling. On 21 April 2026, police briefly arrested him and opened a preliminary investigation against him after questioning him about the sources for his reporting on a 2020 police shooting.  

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Fermina Stevens, 57, is a member of the Te-Moak Tribe of Western Shoshone. She was born and raised in Elko, Nevada, USA. Nevada’s stunning landscape of mountain ranges and valleys has been home to Indigenous Peoples for thousands of years. As Executive Director of the Western Shoshone Defense Project, Fermina works to defend her ancestral lands from the negative impacts of mining, which started over 200 years ago.

Here she tells Amnesty International why lithium mining threatens her community, and how it has become emblematic of the way the US government continues to ignore the rights of the Western Shoshone, despite an 1863 treaty that recognizes the community’s vast territory.

Northeastern Nevada, historically, is a gold mining area. I was a kid in the 1980s when I first noticed a gold boom in Elko. The gold mines are about 20 to 30 miles away. Since then, a lot of people have come into town and the town itself has grown.

We didn’t have a Walmart, for instance, before the boom. There has been an influx of people who work the mines, who may not share our community values. It’s hard to get them to understand the negative effects of mining when they really don’t want to hear about it because it affects their jobs and they see it as a threat to their livelihoods.

Over the years, there’s been a lot of backlash from non-Indigenous people. Because it’s a small town, you don’t want to rock the boat so much. But at the same time, we have to share our concerns about the negative effects of mining whether they like it or not, because it’s the reality we’re living in.

It hasn’t been very long since this lithium boom started, it’s only been about five years since we started hearing about critical minerals and mining for lithium. There’s one active lithium mine in central Nevada. But we have two proposed lithium mines closer to Elko – less than 100 miles from the town – that will be starting up in the next one to two years, possibly.

I haven’t heard too much about those mines and their status, but we anticipate they will take up a large amount of our ancestral land.

Our trees will be destroyed

When these mine companies come in, they start doing a lot of tree cutting. A lot of those trees are the pinyon trees which hold our pine nuts, a very valuable food source traditionally. Over the past few thousand years, pine nuts have been the staple of our sustenance.

Water, of course, is always an issue. Lithium mining requires much more water than gold mining. This concerns us, especially when we’re in a drought and living in the driest state.

It’s the cumulative effect of these mining projects that we worry about, because the state of Nevada is just riddled with gold mines, not just current, but previous ones. We know that there’s a lot of pollution in the ground and in the water. Mining started in Nevada around the 1840s – that’s almost 200 years of mining. Any continued extraction is going to have an effect. Lithium mining exacerbates what’s already been done in the past.

Protecting Shoshone territory

The Western Shoshone Defense Project was started by two Western Shoshone elders, Carrie and Mary Dann. They challenged the requirement to pay for a permit for their cattle to graze on land that’s recognized as ours by the 1863 Ruby Valley Treaty of Peace and Friendship.

This treaty, signed by tribal chiefs and the US federal government, recognizes Western Shoshone territory. While it granted certain rights and privileges to the US government, such as the right to explore for minerals, it did not cede any land to the US government, and our community didn’t give up our sovereignty over this territory.

This land is ours – whether people like it or not. We’re trying to protect the land and its resources for future generations.

Fermina Stevens

Within 10 years of this treaty being signed, one of the original signing chiefs went to Washington DC because he knew that the United States wasn’t upholding their end of the bargain on this treaty.

We aren’t being consulted on our land

The Defense Project is still trying to get the US government to respect this treaty and our land rights. We brought our case to theInter-American Commission on Human Rights and the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. Both determined that the human rights of the Western Shoshone were being violated by the US government.

An example of this is the lack of proper consultations about mining activities with the federal government. The United States government has an obligation to consult with the Tribes because we have sovereignty over this territory. But the government isn’t upholding its end of the deal when they send corporations in to carry out the consultations for them, or in lieu of them.

This land is ours – whether people like it or not. We’re trying to protect the land and its resources for future generations. We’re thinking 40, 60, 80 years from now. Will we even be able to practise our spirituality because of the poisoning that is happening to our land and to the water?

A shared Earth and a shared humanity

Humanity to me means that we’re all related, in some way, shape, or form. We might not be related through blood, but we’re related through kinship, not only in our families or communities, but with the Earth. Humanity, to me, is sharing the one thing that we all have in common, and that’s Mother Earth and what she provides for us.

As humans, we need to come together and open our minds and our hearts to what is real. With all the chaos and confusion that is happening politically today, the one thing that is real is the Earth.

And that’s where we need to find common ground.

Amnesty International has released the report, “We’re here to protect Mother Earth: Indigenous Rights and Nevada’s Lithium Boom” focusing on three massive lithium mining projects in Nevada and the impact it is having on Indigenous Peoples.

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Israel’s unlawful and wanton destruction of civilian high-rise buildings continues to have devastating consequences for displaced Palestinian families in the occupied Gaza Strip, where reconstruction remains a distant dream amid ongoing genocide and air strikes despite the October 2025 so-called ceasefire, said Amnesty International today.

To illustrate the gravity of the wanton destruction that Israeli forces have wreaked on Gaza, Amnesty International today releases an investigation of the Israeli military’s levelling of at least 13 multi-storey residential and commercial buildings across Gaza City between September and October 2025. The organization found that the Israeli military severely damaged and destroyed the high-rise buildings, which housed thousands of people – many of them internally displaced – by dropping multiple bombs on each building after forcing residents to leave with almost no notice, and called them to be  investigated as the war crimes of wanton destruction, collective punishment and direct attacks on civilian objects.

Statements by Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz in the immediate aftermath of some of the incidents of destruction offer further evidence that the buildings  were not destroyed for reasons of imperative military necessity but rather to inflict collective punishment and widespread devastation on the civilian population as means of exerting political pressure on Hamas and as part of a mass forced displacement campaign.

“In the month preceding the so-called ceasefire in October 2025, Israel expanded and escalated its relentless assault on Gaza City, causing one of the worst waves of mass displacement during the genocide. A key pattern of this assault was the deliberate destruction, through aerial bombardment, of multi-storey civilian buildings, levelling the homes of thousands of civilians, and destroying makeshift camps in their vicinity. All the available evidence indicates that Israel’s destruction of these 13 high-rise buildings was not ‘rendered absolutely necessary by military operations’ and as such must be investigated as war crimes,” said Erika Guevara Rosas, Amnesty International’s Senior Director for Research, Advocacy, Policy and Campaigns.

All the available evidence indicates that Israel’s destruction of these 13 high-rise buildings was not ‘rendered absolutely necessary by military operations’

Erika Guevara Rosas, Amnesty International’s Senior Director for Research, Advocacy, Policy and Campaigns

“The destruction of these high-rise buildings in Gaza City is part of a broader pattern of relentless destruction of critical infrastructure, which, alongside repeated waves of mass displacement under inhumane conditions and the denial of life-saving humanitarian aid, had been key features of Israel’s genocide, amounting to the prohibited act of deliberately inflicting on Palestinians in Gaza conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction, in whole or in part.”

Amnesty International interviewed 16 former residents and others displaced by the destruction as well as witnesses, and the organization’s Crisis Evidence Lab analysed satellite imagery and verified more than 25 videos to reveal a chilling pattern of deliberate destruction of the civilian structures by Israeli forces without requisite military necessity, as required by international humanitarian law. Amnesty International sent questions regarding the strikes and statements made to the Israeli defence ministry on 19 March 2026, but had not received a reply by the time of publication.

Amnesty International had previously documented a pattern of Israeli destruction of civilian areas between December 2023 and May 2024 without imperative military necessity during efforts to expand a “buffer zone” along the eastern perimeter of Gaza. The organization also verified through satellite imagery and video footage how Israeli forces completely razed what remained of the town of Khuza’a in southern Gaza over the course of two weeks in May 2025.

Since the so-called ceasefire in October 2025, Israeli forces have continued to carry out demolitions of homes and other buildings in areas over which they already exert full operational control east of the so-called “yellow line”. These are areas which Palestinians are prohibited from returning to and comprise more than 55% of Gaza’s total area. The boundaries of the “yellow line” are vague and constantly redrawn by the Israeli military.

“The impunity Israel has enjoyed in Gaza has given it free rein to repeat unlawful patterns elsewhere, most notably in Lebanon, where Israel’s defence minister invoked Gaza in his threats to accelerate the destruction of southern border villages. The Israeli military has already extensively destroyed thousands of civilian facilities, including homes, parks and football pitches across Lebanon,” said Erika Guevara Rosas.

The Fourth Geneva Convention prohibits collective punishments as well as the destruction of property by the occupying power “except where such destruction is rendered absolutely necessary by military operations”. International humanitarian law also prohibits attacks targeting civilian objects. “Extensive destruction and appropriation of property, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly” is a grave breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention, and a war crime. Intentionally directing attacks against civilian objects and carrying out collective punishments also are war crimes.

“These demolitions did not just level concrete; they reduced to rubble the homes, lives and memories of their residents, turning to ruins and dust some of Gaza City’s most distinguished urban landmarks. For Palestinians not allowed to return to their homes east of the so-called yellow lines, despite setting up their tents in the closest point possible on the other side, the ongoing bulldozing of their homes and lands have become a daily painful soundscape to a life where the fire never really ceased,” said Erika Guevara Rosas.

Officials celebrating destruction

In August 2025, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that Israel was accelerating military operations to pressure Hamas during ongoing ceasefire negotiations. Shortly thereafter, on 5 September 2025, the targeting of the high-rise buildings, known locally as towers, began as the Israeli army significantly escalated its military offensive to take over Gaza City.

On that same morning of 5 September, Defence Minister Katz stated on social media that “the bolt has been removed from the gates of hell” and explicitly linked the strikes to a requirement that Hamas accept Israel’s conditions.

This candid admission stands in stark contrast to Israeli forces’ usual claims – in these and many other cases without presenting any evidence – that buildings are targeted due to the presence of Hamas fighters or infrastructure.

For example, ahead of launching its tower-destruction campaign in Gaza City on 5 September, the Israeli military claimed that “in preparation for intensifying the assault against Hamas in Gaza City, the IDF, led by the Southern Command, conducted comprehensive intelligence research and identified significant Hamas terrorist activity within a wide range of infrastructure in Gaza City particularly in high-rise buildings.” The Israeli military failed to provide evidence for such claims.

In subsequent statements, Katz continued to threaten that Gaza would be destroyed if the hostages were not released and Hamas did not disarm, clearly indicating that the destruction was carried out to pressure Hamas rather than due to imperative military necessity during battlefield operations.

Today, a massive hurricane will hit the skies of Gaza City and the roofs of the terror towers will tremble

Israel Katz, Israel’s Defence Minister, in a post on his official X account on 8 September 2025

For example, on 8 September 2025, Katz posted on his official X account: “Today, a massive hurricane will hit the skies of Gaza City and the roofs of the terror towers will tremble. This is a final warning to the Hamas murderers and rapists in Gaza and in luxury hotels abroad: Release the hostages and put down your weapons – or Gaza will be destroyed and you will be annihilated.”

In other statements posted to his X account, Katz commented on the destruction of high-rise buildings and other civilian structures in a celebratory and gleeful tone and suggested that the destruction was carried out to “eliminate incitement,” which in itself cannot be considered to constitute an imperative military necessity that can justify the destruction of civilian property under international law.

For instance, on 14 September, he wrote, following an air strike on the Islamic University of Gaza: “The ‘Islamic’ university in Gaza is soaring to the heavens. Eliminating the sources of incitement and terrorism.”

He echoed this statement in a social media post celebrating the destruction of Al-Ghofari tower one day later: “The terror tower of Burj al-Ghofari crashes into the sea of Gaza. We are drowning the hotbeds of terrorism and incitement.”

“By explicitly linking the destruction of homes to political demands, the Israeli authorities, represented by the defence minister, have effectively admitted to using civilian suffering as a bargaining chip and collectively punishing the civilian population rather than carrying destruction justified due to imperative military necessity,” said Erika Guevara Rosas

No evidence of military objectives

Meanwhile, the Israeli military failed to provide sufficient evidence to substantiate their claims that the targeted towers were used by Hamas or other Palestinian armed groups for military purposes. Instead, a review by Amnesty International of the official page of the Israeli military found that a general standard comment by the Israeli military’s spokesperson was used following the destruction of each high-rise building, often failing to specify the targeted building or more specific details beyond the standard remark which reads:

“The IDF, led by the Southern Command, struck a high-rise building used by Hamas in Gaza City. Hamas terrorists had installed intelligence gathering equipment and established observation posts within the building to track IDF movements and facilitate terror operations against the State of Israel and against our forces. Prior to the strikes, measures were taken to mitigate to the extent possible the risk of harming civilians, including advance warning to the population, the use of precision-guided munitions, aerial surveillance and additional surveillance.”

Amnesty International wrote to the Israeli military on 19 March 2026 to ask what the reasons for the attacks on each of these particular buildings at the times they were attacked were and who and/or what the intended targets of these attacks were, but did not receive a reply.

The organization’s research did not find any evidence to indicate any fighters were using or staying in the buildings nor any evidence of military activity at these sites at the time the towers were destroyed, contradicting the Israeli military’s generic claims. Nor did the Israeli military present evidence that there were any other reasons that would meet the requirement that the destruction of these building was rendered absolutely necessary by military operations. While towers may hold strategic value during combat operations in urban areas, this potential future use does not rise to the legal requirement under international law of “imperative military necessity” to make the buildings’ destruction a proportional act.

Sowing panic

In most cases where high-rise buildings were destroyed, the Israeli army called one of the residents of the building they were about to bomb ordering him to warn residents or neighbours to leave the buildings at once or within a few minutes. The warnings caused mass panic, forcing thousands to flee in terror leaving behind all their belongings.

One resident, a university professor living at Mushtaha Tower 6, in the Rimal neighbourhood of Gaza City, described the terror of trying to evacuate the 76 families who lived in the building – some of whom were also hosting displaced relatives – after he received a warning call from the Israeli military.

He said: “You cannot imagine how I felt and the panic which ensued… We had no time to take anything. My parents are old, my father is 85 and is unable to walk. We lived on the eighth floor and I had to get some neighbours to help carry him downstairs. My children are young, the youngest only two years and also needed to be carried.

“Once we were out, we stood outside waiting and in the end it took a long time, maybe two hours, before the building was bombed. Had we known we could have taken some things with us. But once we were out, we could not dare to go back in. It was too dangerous.”

Many families had only recently returned home from the south during the January 2025 truce to repair their damaged apartments, only to see them completely destroyed months later.

The university professor described the impact on his seven-year-old son, Ibrahim, who was beside him when he got the call warning the building would be bombed and was left traumatized:

“Now he is obsessed with the phone. He checks all the time that the phone is working because he is afraid that somebody may call once more to tell us that the place where we are staying is going to be bombed.”

An attack the following day on 6 September 2025 led to the destruction of the 15 storey al-Soussi Tower in the industrial area of the west of Gaza City.

Mariam, who was staying with relatives in one of the apartments in al-Soussi Tower said residents were given 20 minutes to leave the building before it was bombed: “Suddenly people were screaming to get out immediately…everyone scrambled to get out without any time to take anything. People were stumbling over each other in the rush to get out.”

The Israeli military’s spokesperson posted the above-mentioned standard claim at 1.28pm to justify the destruction, without specifying the building or giving further details or any evidence. The date and time of posting the comment suggests that the military was indeed referring to the Soussi Building, but Amnesty International could not verify the presence of any military targets in the vicinity.

Israel also destroyed buildings housing civil society and media infrastructure, such as the al-Roya tower, which contained the headquarters of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), and the al-Ghofari Tower, Gaza’s tallest building which housed many commercial offices, including the office of the Lebanese media outlet Al Mayadeen.

A 17-storey Italian Tower complex, a landmark building rebuilt with Italian government funds in 2023, was also destroyed on 26 September despite being empty and locked. The standard justification was posted on the Israeli military’s official page that day, again without specifying the building or offering any evidence.

A 32-year-old IT engineer who lived with his wife and three children on the fifth floor of Al-Najm building, a 10-storey building in Market Street in the al-Shati refugee camp in Gaza City, told Amnesty International that at around 6pm on 11 September, one of his neighbours shouted to the residents to get out immediately because the building would be bombed in five minutes: “I was at home with my wife and our three children, the youngest only eight months old, when the neighbours started to scream and scramble to get out of the building. There was no time to collect any of our belongings. We took our children and rushed downstairs with only the clothes on our back.”

He described how the family are now living in a tent in Khan Younis in southern Gaza in dire conditions: “Our children are sick from the rain and cold. It is especially difficult to raise a baby in such disastrous conditions. We lack everything. My other children, a six-year-old girl and a seven-year-old boy, are traumatized; we had to run away from home and they saw it bombed into rubble in front of their eyes. They don’t understand and I can’t explain it to them.”

Another resident, a 33-year-old driver and father of three, told Amnesty International that at the time of the destruction there were 16 people staying at his home as he was hosting his displaced parents, two of his brothers and their wives and five children.

Israeli officials who ordered unlawful destruction, collective punishment or acts of genocide must be held accountable

Erika Guevara Rosas

“The widespread destruction of life-sustaining infrastructure, including homes, either through bombardment or demolitions with explosives, combined with Israel’s ongoing restrictions on the entry of shelter material into Gaza and the prohibition on the return to the areas east of the yellow line, have inflicted catastrophic suffering on Gaza’s population. Israel must allow immediate, unfettered access to indispensable aid and goods, including shelter material. Israeli officials who ordered unlawful destruction, collective punishment or acts of genocide must be held accountable,” said Erika Guevara Rosas.

Background

According to the final Gaza Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment, jointly conducted by the World Bank, Eu and UN and published on 20 April, approximately 371,888 homes across the Gaza Strip – over 76% of total homes – were damaged or destroyed in the first two years of the genocide, forcing 60% of Gaza’s total population to continue living without homes in an ongoing mass displacement under inhumane, unsafe and insanitary conditions.

According to an analysis by UNOSAT, the UN Satellite Centre, based on satellite imagery collected on 22-23 September 2025, 83% of structures in Gaza City were damaged or destroyed, indicating a 37% increase compared to the assessment conducted two months prior. This reflected the escalation of the military assault on Gaza City in mid-August.

The post Israel/OPT: Israel’s systematic destruction of high-rise buildings must be investigated as war crimes of wanton destruction and collective punishment appeared first on Amnesty International.

Following the confirmation of an International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant for former Philippines National Police (PNP) Chief, Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, Ritz Lee Santos III, Executive Director of Amnesty International Philippines, said:

“Following the ICC’s confirmation it has issued an arrest warrant for former PNP chief Ronald ‘Bato’ dela Rosa, the Philippines government should arrest him immediately. Similar to former President Rodrigo Duterte, he should then be surrendered to The Hague to answer for his alleged crimes.

“Dela Rosa held a key role in the implementation of the so-called ‘war on drugs’ under the administration of former President Duterte, responsible for command and direction over the police. He was also Chief of Police in Davao City, where Duterte allegedly established and oversaw the Davao Death Squad (DDS) while he was mayor. Now identified as wanted by the ICC, Dela Rosa should be surrendered to the Court’s custody urgently.

“Dela Rosa’s current position as Senator should not shield him from facing charges at the ICC. It is imperative that regardless of politics, the process of justice prevails.”

Background

On 11 May, the ICC confirmed it had issued an arrest warrant for former chief of the PNP and sitting Senator Ronald ‘Bato’ dela Rosa. The warrant states that the ICC’s Pre-Trial Chamber found there were “reasonable grounds to believe” Dela Rosa had committed the crime against humanity of murder, citing incidents in which 32 people were killed between 2016 to 2018. There is currently an ongoing stand-off over Dela Rosa’s arrest, after National Bureau of Investigations (NBI) officers attempted to apprehend him earlier on 11 May.

Republic Act No. 9851 (2009), criminalizing international crimes including genocide and crimes against humanity, requires the Philippine government to hand over those accused of committing crimes to international tribunals.

Dela Rosa is the second person issued with a confirmed ICC arrest warrant as part of the Court’s investigation on the Philippines. In March 2025, former President Rodrigo Duterte was arrested and transferred to The Hague to face charges of crimes against humanity. He is currently in detention and awaiting trial.

The ICC has been carrying out investigations into possible crimes against humanity in the Philippines including murders committed in the context of the deadly “war on drugs” under the administration of former President Duterte and murders in Davao City by the alleged DDS from 2011 to 2016.

The post Philippines: Police chief ‘Bato’ dela Rosa must be arrested and surrendered to ICC appeared first on Amnesty International.