The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) warns against the accelerating escalation by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) in targeting the remaining residential blocks, particularly in the central Gaza Strip. This area had, throughout previous phases of aggression, remained among the least affected by widespread destruction. However, the recent attacks form part of an escalating policy aimed at resuming the destruction of the remaining residential neighborhoods and civilian infrastructure across the Strip, and at inflicting living conditions that make the continuation of normal human existence impossible, both now and in the future.
IOF’s intensification of attacks targeting residential neighborhoods and the widescale destruction of homes and service infrastructure, coupled with the undermining of essential humanitarian services, attacks against humanitarian personnel, and the targeting of civilian and security protection systems through the killing of police officers, forms part of a complementary pattern aimed at turning the Gaza Strip into an environment incompatible with human life. These policies seek to create material and humanitarian conditions that forcibly push the population to leave the Gaza Strip under any designation or circumstances. This constitutes one of the most dangerous manifestations of the crime of forced displacement linked to the ongoing crime of genocide against the Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip.
Lawyer Raji Sourani, PCHR’s Director, said:
“Israel’s ongoing policies are not limited to the widescale destruction of homes and residential neighborhoods, but extend systematically to dismantling the civilian infrastructure necessary for life through disrupting the functioning of hospitals, schools, and universities, while imposing severe restrictions on the entry of materials and supplies necessary for reconstruction in a manner that prevents the restoration of even the bare minimum of normal living conditions. At the same time, humanitarian work is being continuously undermined through the recurrent targeting of relief workers as part of a broader policy aimed at entrenching the humanitarian crisis and depriving the population of the basic means of survival. Taken together, these practices constitute an integrated structure of the ongoing crime of genocide, particularly in light of Israel’s continued pursuit of ethnic cleansing policies backed by declared and explicit statements issued by official Israeli authorities.”
In one of the latest crimes reflecting this pattern, a resident received, at approximately 22:05 on Friday, 22 May 2026, a phone call from the IOF ordering the evacuation of an entire residential block extending from the intersection connecting Eastern 20 Street and Block A in Al-Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, in preparation for an imminent attack.
Approximately twenty-five minutes later, Israeli warplanes launched an airstrike targeting a four-storey house belonging to the Abu Seif family, completely destroying its upper two floors and causing extensive damage to nearby homes and shops, including buildings located beneath and surrounding the targeted house.
In the same attack, five people sustained varying degrees of injury and were transferred to Al-‘Awda Hospital in Al-Nuseirat refugee camp for treatment, while the area witnessed a large wave of forced displacement involving dozens of families amid widespread fear and panic. Many families were left without shelter due to the damage inflicted on homes and the targeted area.
‘Alaa Othman Ismail Al-‘Amasi, 52, gave the following testimony to PCHR’s field researchers:
“I used to live in an apartment inside my extended family’s five-storey house before it was bombed at the end of October 2023, which led to the destruction of its eastern part, including my apartment. I am currently staying in a commercial shop beneath the remaining part of the house, while my brothers, their families, and a number of displaced persons live in the remaining floors. The house currently shelters around 60 people, including 29 women and 15 children. At approximately 22:05, I heard screams and warnings ordering people to evacuate, before learning that one of the neighbors had received a phone call from the IOF ordering the evacuation of several family homes and the entire residential block. We were therefore forced to leave the area without being able to take any of our basic necessities. Around 30 minutes later, the area was subjected to a very violent airstrike. When we returned, we found that the Abu Seif family house had been targeted, while my family’s house and the surrounding area had sustained severe damage.
The scene of women and children fleeing was extremely painful, amid the fear and panic that overwhelmed residents during the evacuation and bombardment.”
Salah Ahmed Mahmoud T’eimah (37) told PCHR’s field researcher that he had received a call from the IOF instructing him to evacuate his family home and to inform his neighbors to leave the area as well, including the families of Abu Seif, Al-‘Amasi, and Al-Shreihi, along with the evacuation of the entire residential block. He explained that the caller ordered them to stay 300 to 500 meters away from the area without specifying the intended target. He noted that dozens of families left the area amid widespread fear and panic. He added that he later received further calls instructing them to move even farther away, shortly before an Israeli airstrike caused a massive explosion. When residents returned, they found that the Abu Seif family house had been targeted, resulting in extensive damage to the surrounding homes. He further explained that rumors of new strikes prompted people to evacuate again, spending hours exposed in the open, while the full scale of destruction became apparent the following morning, leaving additional families homeless.
PCHR emphasizes that this pattern of attacks is inseparable from Israel’s broader policy of comprehensively targeting civilian infrastructure and the essentials necessary for human survival, undermining humanitarian services, disrupting relief operations, and targeting civilian institutions and their personnel. Through these policies, a catastrophic living reality is being created in the Gaza Strip that renders survival increasingly impossible and imposes coercive pressures aimed at forcing the population into permanent displacement or leaving the Gaza Strip altogether.
This goes hand in hand with the ongoing policy of systematic killings, assassinations, and recurrent attacks targeting the civilian population, as part of a continued pattern of acts aimed at imposing a catastrophic living reality in which life with dignity and stability has become impossible in the Gaza Strip, both now and in the future. These policies are gradually turning the Gaza Strip into an environment that drives the population out and imposes coercive conditions aimed at emptying the Strip of its population under whatever designation.
PCHR stresses that evacuation threats do not provide any legal legitimacy for attacks carried out by the IOF against civilian areas, including the destruction of residential blocks and the infliction of extensive harm on civilians and civilian objects. PCHR further underscores that military warnings do not negate the protection guaranteed to civilians under the rules of international humanitarian law.
PCHR emphasizes that the suspension and reduction of relief and humanitarian operations by organizations, including World Central Kitchen, together with the recurrent targeting of humanitarian personnel, coincide with the systematic targeting of police officers and civilian bodies responsible for maintaining public order and securing the population’s basic needs, in a manner that fuels chaos and contributes to the collapse of the foundations of internal stability.
In this context, Israeli warplanes bombed a police site in al-Twam area north of Gaza at noon today, Saturday, killing five police officers in addition to a child namely Saber Abdulrahman Jarbou’a, who was in the vicinity of the site. This attack comes as part of a continued policy aimed at dismantling civilian structures and depriving the population of any means of protection and social organization.
PCHR warns that the restrictions imposed on the movement of the population and on entry into and exit from the Gaza Strip, particularly in light of information indicating that only a few hundred people have managed to enter the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the war, while tens of thousands have left the Strip since 7 October 2023, reflect a dangerous trend linked to the imposition of forced demographic change within the context of policies of forced displacement and population transfer prohibited under international law.
PCHR calls on the international community to take urgent action to halt the escalating Israeli crimes in the Gaza Strip, impose effective international measures to ensure the protection of civilians, guarantee the unrestricted flow of humanitarian aid, hold those responsible for the crimes committed accountable, and take tangible steps to prevent the continuation of the policies of widespread destruction and forced displacement that threaten the Palestinian presence in the Gaza Strip.
