After year-long genocide, Israeli military hires private firms to flatten buildings in Gaza

By Maryam Qarehgzolou

Following nearly 400 days of indiscriminate and relentless Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip, the city has been reduced to a haunting scene of desolation—an eerie wasteland of concrete, mangled steel, strewn wreckage, and fragments of everyday life.

Once-majestic buildings now stand as hollowed, skeletal shells, their facades torn away, revealing crumbling walls and broken windows. Clouds of dust hang thick in the air, stirred by the thudding sounds of distant explosions and the slow, unfeeling rumble of advancing military bulldozers.

These Israeli military bulldozers move through the devastation, massive blades pushing through the wreckage and knocking down any remnants of structures still standing. They plow through remnants of shops, homes, schools, mosques, and reducing what little is left to dust and flatland.

There is no sign of life in the city—only the mechanical, grinding march of the machines finishing what the bombs began, turning the once-vibrant cityscape into a barren, flattened wasteland.

In the Israeli regime’s 396 days of onslaught on Gaza as of Tuesday, two-thirds of the total structures in the narrow strip have been damaged, according to the United Nations Satellite Centre (UNOSAT).

Those 66 percent of damaged buildings in Gaza account for 163,778 structures in total.

On Sunday, Gaza-based journalist Younis Tirawi dropped another bombshell, sharing video footage and photos on X (formerly Twitter) that exposed a private Israeli company, Meshek Afar Ltd, contracted by the regime's military, which is demolishing the remnants of buildings in Gaza.

“Israeli military is employing private civilian companies & non-military personnel in flattening homes in Rafah,” he wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

“Meshek Afar Ltd has been in the city for 3 days. An employee now in Rafah uploaded this below & said that its CEO will flatten a mosque tomorrow,” he added, sharing a video of Meshek Afar CEO Alon Elgali and another company staff navigating through the rubble in Rafah, a city in southern Gaza.

The company employee stated in the video that they “have another year to go and not stop.”

‘Ethnic cleansing on industrial scale’

Following the initial reports of the Israeli military involving private civilian companies in demolishing homes in southern Gaza's city of Rafah, a massive outcry erupted on social media with people denouncing the actions as blatant acts of genocide and ethnic cleansing.

“The depravity knows no bounds. The goal has always been the ethnic cleansing of Palestine,” wrote Radia Hennessey, a human rights advocate, on X.

“Ethnic cleansing on an industrial scale, 1948 pales in comparison,” wrote another X user going by the handle ShamsusNYC, referring to the “Nakba,” the mass displacement and dispossession of Palestinians that occurred during Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories.

Some also pointed to the estimated 10,000 bodies trapped under the rubble of demolished houses in Gaza, drawing attention to the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of the relentless Israeli carpet bombing of Gaza that has killed more than 43,400 Palestinians so far.

“There are likely unrecovered bodies in these ruins, there appears to be no attempt to retrieve these remains and treat them accordingly. It’s also destroying evidence of war crimes,” a user under the handle catkibb wrote on X.

Social media users also highlighted the concerning statement made by a Meshek Afar employee in the video, in which he stated that the contract would last for a year.

Many interpreted this as clinching evidence that Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza is set to continue for another year, sparking further outrage and concern.

“I noticed ‘we have another year to go’ part and it’s just been a year since genocide started. They had said it would take 2 years and they are just executing the plan!” wrote an X user.

“Their demolition contract extends for a year?!?! Proof positive that [Israeli prime minister Benjamin] Netanyahu has absolutely no intention of negotiating for the remaining [Israeli captives], complying with any UN directives, reaching a ceasefire, ensuring basic human rights of Gazans are met,” wrote another user.

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More Israeli land grab

Author Nimer Sultany, a doctorate from Harvard Law School, said the destruction inflicted on Gaza by the Israeli regime is systematic, implying that the actions are part of a larger strategy to fully eradicate Palestinians from their homeland.

“The genocidal ‘flattening’ of Gaza, in the north and the south, is methodical,” Sultany wrote on X.

Other users also made similar comments saying that by razing Gaza buildings to the ground the Israeli regime is forcefully seizing land from its original inhabitants, subsequently driving them out and leaving them unable to reclaim or rebuild their homes.

“Land grab, eradication of a people who can never afford to rebuild even if they get the chance to move back into their land,” one user wrote.

Huwaida Arraf, Palestinian-American human and civil rights attorney, and the co-founder of International Solidarity Movement, said Meshek Afar is “undoubtedly” seeking contracts to construct settlements in Gaza and called for divestment from the company.

“This is no doubt one of the companies salivating over contracts to build settlements in Gaza. Any international business or investments they have should be targeted for divestment,” she wrote.

She further noted that Alon Elgali, the CEO of Meshek Afar, must not evade legal accountability, as civilians are also subject to prosecution for war crimes under the jurisdiction of both the International Criminal Court (ICC) and national courts.

“As for its CEO, civilians can be prosecuted for war crimes too, both by the ICC and by national courts,” she added.

According to Gaza reporter Tirawi, Elgali demonstrates his disregard for the people of Gaza by sharing dehumanizing posts and content on his social media accounts, scoffing at the anguish of Gazans.

“Heartbreaking. He and his wife teach these innocent children racist and dehumanizing stuff already,” Tirawi wrote, sharing a video where Elgali, his wife, and two children were seen signing a song taunting the torment of Palestinians in Gaza.

“‘This was my home, with no electricity or gas, was my home, and Ahmad’s & Fatma’s & Abed’s & Salim’s’ mocking civilian suffering in Gaza,” Tirawi added.

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UK government complicity

Following the reports of Meshek Afar’s involvement in flattening buildings in Gaza, British author, activist and columnist Michael Rosen called on UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy to explain what is happening to address the UK’s complicity in Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza.

“Could David Lammy please explain to us what is going on here?” he wrote in a post on X.

“David Lammy look! Here’s more of that ‘self-defense’ you’re sending weapons for. Exactly how stupid do you think we are? [It is a] rhetorical question,” wrote one on the matter in the comment section of Rosen’s post.

“He’s too busy counting all the money he’s raised from the Zionists to be blind and deaf towards the genocide,” another user said.

Earlier this year, harrowing testimonies, mostly provided anonymously by Israeli soldiers to the local media, including +972 Magazine and Local Call and Haaretz, revealed that Israeli military commanders have ordered soldiers to set fire to abandoned Gaza homes without legal approval.

“Before you leave, you burn down the house — every house,” an unnamed soldier told the magazine.

“This is backed up at the battalion commander level. It’s so that [Palestinians] won’t be able to return, and if we left behind any ammunition or food, the terrorists won’t be able to use it.”

According to the soldier, they had “burned hundreds of houses.”

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www.presstv.co.uk