The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) condemns in the strongest terms the Israeli Occupation Forces’ (IOF) destruction of many bulldozers and heavy machinery used in rescue operations, road clearance, and rubble removal in the Gaza Strip. Such equipment is essential for saving lives and facilitating the movement of ambulance and civil defense crews. These acts by IOF blatantly reflect their policy of deliberately inflicting on Palestinians conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction, in whole or in part, constituting integral act of the crime of genocide ongoing for over 18 months.
During the ongoing military aggression on the Gaza Strip, PCHR staff have documented the IOF’s direct and deliberate attacks on the few remaining bulldozers and heavy machinery in the Strip. This embodies a systematic policy aimed at obstructing and hindering rescue operations and road clearance, further exacerbating the suffering of besieged Palestinian civilians and preventing the delivery of humanitarian aid to devastated areas.
According to our researchers’ field documentation on the latest attacks in the Gaza Strip, at around 22:45 on Monday, 21 April 2025, Israeli warplanes bombed a plot of land in al-Mawasi area, where four bulldozers were parked, completely destroying them. On Tuesday dawn, 21 April 2025, Israeli warplanes targeted several heavy machineries parked at the end of Bank of Palestine Street in central Khan Yunis, destroying a truck and severely damaging three bulldozers, two trucks, and two cars, all owned by Palestinians.
At approximately 01:00 on Monday, Israeli warplanes launched several missiles at the 3-dunum Jabalia al-Nazlah Municipality Garage, located next to Halima al-Sa’diyah School in Jabalia al-Nazla, northern Gaza Strip. As a result, nine bulldozers that had been brought into Gaza from Egypt during the ceasefire were burned and destroyed while parked on the western side of the garage, along with another bulldozer belonging to the Jabalia al-Nazla Municipality. Additionally, a potable water truck was burned, while a garbage collection truck and a wastewater suction truck owned by the municipality sustained severe damage, along with five vehicles for the municipality staff and two electric generators.
One of the workers inside the garage stated that at midnight on Tuesday, one of the garage’s neighbors from the western side received a phone call from the IOF, ordering him to evacuate his house, go to the nearby Halaima al-Sa’diya School, located next to the garage on the eastern side, and inform the displaced families there to evacuate, along with the garage’s nearby houses, without being given any details about the location that would be targeted. About an hour later, Israeli warplanes fired several missiles at the garage, causing strong explosions that destroyed and burned the bulldozers and trucks. The worker also said that about 20 minutes later, civil defense and ambulance vehicles arrived at the scene. However, the IOF, who continued to contact the garage’s neighbor, told him to inform the civil defense and ambulance teams not to enter the garage until an hour after it had been targeted. As a result, the flames completely engulfed the bulldozers.
It is worth noting that the Egyptian bulldozers were brought into the Gaza Strip to be used in rescue operations, rubble removal, and road clearance during the ceasefire that came into effect on 19 January 2025 and was unilaterally terminated by Israel on 18 March 2025.
Last night and in the early hours of Tuesday, Israeli warplanes bombed several heavy machinery and equipment owned by Gaza Municipality and various private companies in Gaza City. According to our researchers’ documentation, three bulldozers belonging to a local contracting company, three other bulldozers and a backhoe loader belonging to a local company working for the Arab Authority for Reconstruction, and three Egyptian backhoe loaders brought into the Strip during the ceasefire were all targeted while parked on the street opposite the Gaza Municipal Park. Additionally, three backhoe loaders belonging to a local company and parked on Jamal Abdel Nasser Street (al-Thalathini) in the al-Sabra neighborhood were also targeted. These targeted attacks resulted in the complete destruction of all the equipment, rendering them entirely inoperative.
These attacks come while famine is spreading amid Israel’s continued closure of Gaza’s crossings, blocking the entry of goods and humanitarian aid for 52 consecutive days alongside the ongoing mass killings by targeting tents for displaced people, residential houses, and shelters. The Israeli airstrikes, only over the past 24 hours, have killed 26 people and injured 60 others. This raises the death toll since 18 March to 1,890, with 4,950 wounded, while the number of Palestinians killed since 7 October 2023 has risen to 51,266, with 116,991 wounded, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health (MOH).1
Since the onset of the military aggression on the Gaza Strip, the IOF have systematically targeted civil defense vehicles, as well as many bulldozers and machinery belonging to municipalities and private companies. In recent hours, the IOF has continued to destroy the remaining machinery, which will obstruct and weaken the ability of civil defense crews to carry out rescue operations following Israel’s targeting of houses, buildings, and shelters on top of their residents, as happens daily. This also prevents the reopening of roads that have become blocked due to the destruction of buildings and houses.
The Gaza Strip is urgently needing the entry of hundreds of heavy machineries, including bulldozers, backhoe loaders, and rubble removal machinery to enable rescue teams and medical crews to retrieve thousands of bodies trapped under the rubble. Additionally, these machineries are essential for rapid rescue operations following strikes, reopening roads, and removing tens of thousands of tons of rubble to enable 2.3 million people to return to their residential areas that have been completely destroyed.
PCHR affirms that targeting this equipment not only constitutes a war crime under the provisions of international humanitarian law, particularly the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits the targeting of civilian objects and relief means but also represents a blatant violation of the principle of distinction between civilian and military objects. It further embodies Israel’s systematic and declared intent to destroy the Gaza Strip and its population, eradicate any chances for life and survival, and forcibly displace those who remain alive, as part of its ongoing genocide.
PCHR calls on the international community to take decisive and urgent measures to stop the ongoing genocide and hold the Israeli leaders accountable for their atrocious crimes before the international justice. PCHR also urges the State Parties to the Genocide Convention to fulfil their legal obligations and take urgent action to protect the Palestinian civilians from the genocide, mass killings and serious human rights violations.
