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.
Amnesty International and Human Rights First today published a joint letterto Poland’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior urging an end to the Polish government’s cooperation with the US administration’s unlawful mass deportations of immigrant communities.
According to information gathered by Amnesty International and Human Rights First, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) passed through Polish airports and travelled through Polish territory during at least two operations to remove more than 50 people to Ukraine – an active war zone – in November 2025 and March 2026.
Since the letter was sent, a further ICE flight with an unknown number of people on board has landed at Rzeszów-Jasionka Airport in Poland on 30 April 2026, marking another transfer of Ukrainians via Poland.
The organizations call on the Polish Government to stop cooperating with the Trump administration’s anti-immigrant practices and violations of international law, and for reparations to be made to the individuals forcibly removed.
“Poland has stood by Ukraine’s side since Russia began its war of aggression, providing temporary protection to nearly 1 million Ukrainian refugees. Poland should play no role in these unlawful operations that rip families apart, divide communities and put people’s lives at risk” said Anna Błaszczak-Banasiak, Director of Amnesty International Poland.
“Poland has stood by Ukraine’s side since Russia began its war of aggression, providing temporary protection to nearly 1 million Ukrainian refugees. Poland should play no role in these unlawful operations that rip families apart, divide communities and put people’s lives at risk.”
Anna Błaszczak-Banasiak, Director of Amnesty International Poland.
“Forcibly transferring Ukrainians into an active war zone, where missiles strike nationwide, shocks the conscience and violates international law. Human Rights First staff who have travelled to Ukraine’s frontlines dozens of times since February 2022 can attest that no area is safe. Poland, which has offered generous safe haven to so many Ukrainian refugees, should refuse to facilitate the Trump administration’s cruel forced transfers that send Ukrainians back to life-threatening circumstances,” said Uzra Zeya, CEO and President of Human Rights First.
In the letter, which was sent to the Polish authorities on 17 April 2026, Amnesty International and Human Rights First detail their concerns about two operations from Phoenix, Arizona to Rzeszów-Jasionka Airport. As the Polish authorities have not responded to the letter, the organizations have decided to publish it.
On 17 March 2026, according to data gathered by Human Rights First’s ICE Flight Monitor, two ICE flights landed at the Rzeszów-Jasionka Airport carrying a number of Ukrainian nationals whose whereabouts are currently unknown.
On 18 November 2025, another ICE flight landed in Poland. The 50 people on board were then taken to the Shehyni-Medyka border checkpoint and into Ukraine. According to media reports, US officials flew the group to Poland and transported them to the Ukrainian border, while Polish officials escorted them across the border.
Further reports state that some of those on board went to the United States under the Uniting for Ukraine humanitarian programme – established in 2022 under the Biden Administration to provide a pathway for Ukrainian citizens to stay in the United States– and had pending applications to renew their stay. As a result of their removal, they were separated from family members who remain in the United States.
In a separate incident on 18 August 2025, ICE announced the removal of an undisclosed number of Ukrainian nationals back to Ukraine, posting two photos on X. This post has now been deleted.
Under international law, Poland has an obligation not to expel or return people to places where their lives or freedom could be at risk. Amnesty International and Human Rights First have repeatedly warned that conditions in Ukraine are not currently safe for returns, though large numbers of Ukrainians will hopefully be able to return safely to their country in the future once the situation on the ground changes. Due to the ongoing armed conflict, the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, also calls on states not to forcibly return people to Ukraine.
Amnesty International and Human Rights First are calling on the Polish government to stand for human rights, justice, and the dignity of all people. The government must deny the Trump administration’s cruel and inhumane mass removal campaign any form of facilitation, cooperation or tolerance.
“The Polish authorities must investigate these incidents, ascertain the whereabouts of individuals involved and ensure they are protected from refoulement, treated with dignity, and provided with an effective remedy,” said Anna Błaszczak-Banasiak.
Background
Since 20 January 2025, the Trump administration has launched a widescale attack on migrants’ rights and ability to remain in the United States by ending humanitarian parole programmes and Temporary Protected Status for many nationalities, putting more than 1.5 million people at risk of deportation.
The Trump Administration has also targeted the Uniting for Ukraine (U4U) humanitarian parole programme – which granted 280,000 Ukrainians entry to the United States and is currently indefinitely suspended for new applications. Ukrainians have faced processing issues and delays on U4U related applications. Ukrainians are increasingly in legal limbo without options for status amid rising uncertainty.
Amnesty International and Human Rights First also recently raised concerns about the use of Shannon Airport in Ireland as a refuelling stopover for unlawful removal flights by ICE.
Note to editors
ICE Flight Monitor is a data-driven initiative that systematically tracks and documents U.S. immigration enforcement flights based at Human Rights First – see ICE Flight Monitor – Human Rights First. Human Rights First is a U.S.-based, non-partisan non-profit, organization that advocates for human rights globally and for U.S. compliance with its domestic and international human rights commitments.
Responding to the latest figures from The United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH) on people killed and injured during security operations against armed gangs in Haiti, including drone attacks reportedly supported at times by a private military company, Ana Piquer, Americas Director at Amnesty International, said:
“The use of armed drones in densely populated urban areas sets an alarming precedent in Haiti and places the population, especially children, at direct risk. Their use is resulting in probable extrajudicial executions. Haitian authorities must prevent their unlawful use and clarify who is operating these drones and under what legal framework they are being deployed.”
“The use of armed drones in densely populated urban areas sets an alarming precedent in Haiti and places the population, especially children, at direct risk.”
Ana Piquer, Americas Director at Amnesty International
Amnesty International warned in a public statement that this new pattern of violence is deepening the crisis already devastating children in Haiti. According to the organization’s February 2025 report, children are being recruited by criminal gangs, subjected to sexual violence and killings, and deprived of access to education, healthcare and even the most basic protection.
“Using armed drones indiscriminately against children is simply shocking and profoundly cruel,” said Ana Piquer. “The Haitian state must protect children, not expose them to new forms of violence through the use of lethal technology. While resources are being directed toward militarization, millions of children are living with fear, hunger and without the possibility of attending school. Protecting children must be at the center of any response to the crisis.”
The Haitian state must protect children, not expose them to new forms of violence through the use of lethal technology. While resources are being directed toward militarization, millions of children are living with fear, hunger and without the possibility of attending school. Protecting children must be at the center of any response to the crisis.”
Ana Piquer, Americas Director at Amnesty International
For more information or to arrange an interview, please contact press@amnesty.org
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.
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.
Harmony Tower in Gaza, which was bombed in September 2025
“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.
Residents of Mushtaha Tower 6 in Gaza City told Amnesty International how they had to flee for their lives
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.
The Al-Roya Tower – which contained the headquarters of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights – was destroyed
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.
