Domicide

The destruction of more than a third of Gaza's buildings in Israel's Hamas bombing campaign has prompted international law experts to propose the introduction of a new legal concept of "domicide", the mass destruction of residential units to render a territory uninhabitable.

Independent experts estimate that in the war in Gaza, which began after the Hamas attack on southern Israel on October 7, as much as 40 percent of the housing stock has already been destroyed or damaged. The United Nations has reported that 1,8 million people are internally displaced within Gaza. Many of them ended up in overcrowded UN reception centers in the south of the country.

Gaza has been demolished and rebuilt several times in the past, mostly with the financial help of the Gulf countries, but this cannot be compared to the scale of the current destruction.

The question arises whether the destruction of infrastructure on such a scale is an unintended consequence of the campaign against Hamas or whether there is a hidden plan at work to drive the Palestinians out of Gaza, which would eliminate the possibility of rebuilding a more or less sustainable society in the territory of Gaza in the foreseeable future.

Domicide, a term that has more and more supporters in academic circles, has not yet been defined as a separate category of crime against humanity in international law. The UN special rapporteur on housing published a report in October of last year in which he states that it is a "big failure in the field of human rights protection" that must be corrected.

This issue has attracted legal attention in recent years due to the destruction of houses in Aleppo in the Syrian civil war, the demolition of Rohingya settlements in Myanmar and the bombing of Mariupol in Ukraine.

"We must raise the question of armed actions that are carried out with full knowledge that they lead to the systematic destruction and damage of civilian housing units and infrastructure, due to which entire settlements - such as Gaza City - become uninhabitable for the civilian population," he told Guardian Balakrishnan Rajagopal, UN rapporteur and professor of law at MIT in Boston.

Rajagopal believes that this is an oversight in international law. The destruction of civilian homes is covered by the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, which defines war crimes in conflicts between states, but does not yet have the status of a crime against humanity in conflicts within one state or between non-state actors.

"This is particularly relevant in light of the massive destruction of housing stock in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in Gaza," Rajagopal said. "Israel will argue that this is not an interstate armed conflict because it does not recognize Palestine as a state."

Rajagopal says that in the period after the Second World War, the conflicts with the highest number of civilian victims were mostly those that could not be qualified as interstate, and that the conflict between Russia and Ukraine is an exception that confirms the rule.

He also said that a similar omission for the crime of starvation had recently been corrected. In the Rome Statute, starvation is a war crime, but not a crime against humanity, which is why non-state actors were absolved of responsibility. Switzerland demanded that the statute be amended to include starvation as a crime against humanity, which was done in 2022.

Rajagopal concludes: "I call on all countries that oppose what is happening in Gaza, such as South Africa and Spain, to do the same, to correct this failure and ensure that the perpetrators of the destruction in Gaza can be prosecuted."

He added that based on the facts from the field and the statements of Israeli officials, he believes that the intention behind the destruction of this scale is not only to eliminate Hamas, but that it is a plan to make Gaza uninhabitable.

Israel reiterates that the destruction of buildings and civilian casualties are deplorable, but cannot be avoided because Hamas calculatedly hides in schools and hospitals and refuses to surrender. Israeli officials claim that they are taking all measures to warn the population in time of planned attacks.

Estimates of the extent of destruction in Gaza are disputed, but new satellite images show that by November 29, when the cease-fire began that has since been suspended, 98.000 buildings had already been damaged.

The estimate is based on an analysis of images from the European Space Agency's Copernicus-Sentinel-1 satellite by Corey Scher of the City University of New York and Jamon van den Hoek of Oregon State University. Several media houses, from the BBC to the Washington Post, refer to their analyses, which speaks of the difficulties journalists have when mapping the actual consequences of the bombing.

Instead of photographs, publicly available satellite radar data were used, as well as a dedicated algorithm for assessing the stability of the infrastructure and determining the degree of damage. The advantage of this method is that buildings are shown from multiple angles instead of just directly from above.

Images from north to south show 47-59 percent damage in northern Gaza between October 7 and November 22, 47-58 percent in Gaza City itself, 11-16 percent in Deir Al Balah, 10-15 percent in Khan Yunis and 7-11 percent in Rafah, the zone closest to the border with Egypt. That's between 67.000 and 88.000 buildings, which means that about 70 percent of the buildings remained undamaged. The numbers for Khan Yunis must have risen after the end of the ceasefire and the refocusing of Israeli military operations to the south.

Among the completely or partially destroyed buildings is the central Palestinian court in Gaza, known as the Palace of Justice, the Legislative Council complex, as well as 339 schools and 167 religious buildings. Out of 35 hospitals, 26 are no longer in operation.

Hugh Lovatt of the European Council on Foreign Affairs claims that Israel "deliberately and methodically destroyed the civilian institutions and infrastructure necessary for the organization of state administration and the stabilization of Gaza in the post-conflict period."

Satellite images also reveal the destruction of orchards, greenhouses and agricultural land in northern Gaza. Human Rights Watch reported on Monday: “In northeastern Gaza, north of Beit Hanun, once green fields are gray and desolate. Fields and orchards were destroyed in the clashes after the Israeli ground invasion at the end of October. The bulldozers broke new roads clearing the passage for Israeli military vehicles."

Leaks from the Israeli government, including the intelligence ministry, show officials are considering how to force Palestinians to leave Gaza, either voluntarily or by force. The Department of Intelligence does not have a high profile in the government, but American conservatives such as John Bolton, the former national security adviser, are heavily developing variations of such plans.

Giora Eiland, former head of Israel's National Security Council, wrote in the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper: "The State of Israel has no choice but to turn Gaza into a place that is temporarily or permanently uninhabitable. Causing a major humanitarian crisis in Gaza is inevitable in order to achieve that goal... Gaza will be a place where human life is not possible."

The United States has repeatedly rejected such ideas, partly because it knows that its two allies in the region, Jordan and Egypt, do not want to accept new refugees, even temporarily.

(The Guardian; Peščanik.net; translation: Đ. Tomić)