Gaza Herald – As international efforts to investigate atrocities committed during Israel’s war on Gaza continue, a new concern is emerging across the devastated enclave: the disappearance of the very evidence investigators may need to establish what happened.
Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor said Israeli forces, working alongside Israeli civilian contractors, are carrying out a large-scale operation to demolish, crush, and remove rubble from neighborhoods and civilian facilities destroyed during the war. The debris is being transported from areas under Israeli military control to locations outside the Gaza Strip before independent investigators have been able to inspect or document the sites.
According to the organization, the operation is taking place without public records documenting how much debris has been removed, where it is being transported, or what ultimately happens to the material. It also said independent forensic teams and investigative bodies have not been granted access to many of the affected areas before the rubble is cleared, raising concerns that crucial physical evidence and the remains of victims still buried beneath collapsed buildings could be lost.
Euro-Med Monitor said the operation is not part of organized humanitarian efforts to recover missing people, reopen roads, or prepare for reconstruction. Instead, it described a process in which damaged buildings are demolished, debris is crushed and mixed together, and truckloads of rubble are removed before forensic experts, crime-scene investigators, and unexploded ordnance specialists can examine and preserve the sites.
The scale of the destruction is immense.
The Gaza Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment, published jointly by the World Bank, the United Nations, and the European Union in April 2026, documented approximately 68 million tons of rubble across Gaza based on destruction recorded through October 2025. The assessment does not include additional devastation caused by subsequent military operations.
Based on its own field documentation, Euro-Med Monitor said at least 10 million tons of rubble have already been removed, crushed, or relocated from areas under Israeli military control, which now cover roughly 66 percent of the Gaza Strip.
The organization also documented the operation of approximately 400 heavy machines—including excavators, crushers, and transport equipment—run by Israeli civilian companies under military protection across eastern and southern Gaza.
According to Euro-Med Monitor, nearly 100 Israeli trucks have been leaving Gaza every day in recent weeks carrying debris to undisclosed locations inside Israel and areas south of the occupied West Bank.
The organization said Israeli authorities have not disclosed the amount of material being removed, the transportation routes, the final destinations, or how the rubble is being used. It also noted that independent observers have not been allowed to monitor the weighing, sorting, or transport process, making it extremely difficult to trace the debris, recover potential evidence, or locate human remains that may have been transported with it.
For investigators, the concern extends far beyond broken concrete.
Euro-Med Monitor said removing rubble on such a scale before forensic documentation is completed risks erasing evidence linked to some of the gravest crimes committed during the war, including the killing of civilians, summary executions, and attacks that wiped out entire families. The organization said many destroyed neighborhoods, hospitals, shelters, and residential buildings may still contain crime scenes, mass graves, human remains, and other physical evidence that could prove critical to future international investigations.
Forensic Evidence at Risk
Euro-Med Monitor warned that the large-scale removal and destruction of rubble could permanently erase evidence from locations that may later serve as key crime scenes.
According to the organization, many destroyed neighborhoods, residential buildings, hospitals, shelters, and other civilian sites contain evidence that could help reconstruct what happened during military attacks, including locations where entire families were killed, suspected mass graves, and the remains of people still trapped beneath collapsed structures.
The report said these sites may preserve crucial forensic material capable of identifying the types of weapons used, the sequence of attacks, firing directions, the positions of victims, biological traces, shell fragments, spent ammunition, and personal belongings that could help identify victims.
Euro-Med Monitor said crushing, mixing, and transporting debris before forensic teams are able to examine these locations risks permanently altering or destroying crime scenes. It also warned that removing rubble disrupts the chain of custody, making it significantly more difficult to connect physical evidence to individual incidents or victims during future legal proceedings.
The organization stressed that photographs, satellite imagery, and witness testimony cannot replace physical evidence, which remains essential for investigating international crimes and establishing accountability.
Thousands of Missing Palestinians
The report also expressed concern over the fate of thousands of Palestinians believed to remain beneath the rubble across Gaza.
According to Gaza’s Civil Defense, approximately 8,500 people were still missing as of July 2026. Euro-Med Monitor warned that the use of heavy excavation equipment and crushing machinery before humanitarian and forensic teams conduct proper surveys could destroy or scatter human remains, separate them from personal belongings and identification documents, and transport them to unknown locations where recovery may never be possible.
The organization said this deprives families of their right to know the fate of missing relatives and to recover and bury their loved ones with dignity.
Euro-Med Monitor added that such practices conflict with international standards governing investigations into potentially unlawful deaths, including the Minnesota Protocol, which requires crime scenes to be secured, documented, and examined using scientific methods while preserving evidence and maintaining its chain of custody.
More Than Concrete
The organization emphasized that Gaza’s rubble represents far more than destroyed buildings.
According to the report, the debris contains private homes, public buildings, recyclable construction materials, official records, property deeds, personal documents, and belongings that form part of Palestinians’ history, identity, and legal ownership.
Euro-Med Monitor said removing or commercially exploiting these materials without the owners’ consent or compensation may amount to unlawful confiscation or pillage under international humanitarian law, including Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention and provisions of the Rome Statute.
The report added that much of the material being removed could play a vital role in rebuilding homes, roads, schools, hospitals, and public infrastructure during Gaza’s future reconstruction.
The report placed the rubble removal campaign within what it described as a broader pattern of actions carried out throughout the war, including the destruction of locations believed to contain mass graves, damage to hospitals and medical facilities that later became potential crime scenes, continued demolition inside areas under Israeli military control, and restrictions on access for international investigators and independent media to some of Gaza’s most heavily devastated areas.
Euro-Med Monitor warned that removing or altering potential crime scenes before they can be examined could undermine ongoing international investigations and make future accountability efforts significantly more difficult.
The organization noted that the International Criminal Court (ICC) continues to investigate crimes committed in the State of Palestine, while additional proceedings are underway in national courts under the principle of universal jurisdiction. It said the destruction or removal of physical evidence before investigators complete their work could permanently eliminate material essential to establishing the facts and prosecuting those responsible.
The report also referenced Article 70(1)(c) of the Rome Statute, which identifies the deliberate destruction of, tampering with, or interference in the collection of evidence as conduct that obstructs the administration of justice before the ICC. Euro-Med Monitor urged the Court’s Prosecutor to examine whether the ongoing rubble removal operations amount to deliberate interference with evidence linked to the court’s investigation into the Situation in the State of Palestine.
Beyond the legal implications, the organization said the large-scale removal of debris is reshaping Gaza’s physical landscape. It warned that clearing away rubble also erases neighborhood boundaries, home foundations, streets, and landmarks that document generations of Palestinian presence and property ownership.
According to the report, the destruction of these physical markers makes it more difficult for displaced Palestinians to return to their communities, verify property boundaries, and rebuild neighborhoods as they existed before the war.
Euro-Med Monitor called on the international community, including the United Nations Security Council, the UN General Assembly, and states parties to the Rome Statute, to intervene immediately to halt the removal and transport of rubble until independent forensic and criminal investigators are granted full access to destruction sites.
The organization also urged full transparency regarding the operation, including public disclosure of the quantities of debris removed, transportation routes, destination sites, companies and contractors involved, machinery used, financial arrangements, and any recycling or commercial use of materials taken from Gaza.
It further recommended that no rubble or recyclable material be removed from the Strip until an independent Palestinian and international mechanism is established to safeguard property rights, preserve evidence, and ensure that any materials removed unlawfully are either returned or fully compensated.
The report said reconstruction efforts should be led by Palestinians and carried out in consultation with local communities, property owners, and the families of missing people. It stressed that rebuilding Gaza should proceed alongside the recovery of human remains, preservation of forensic evidence, clearance of unexploded ordnance, protection of property records, and restoration of neighborhoods without altering the territory’s demographic or geographic character.
Euro-Med Monitor concluded that ceasefire agreements or future political arrangements do not erase crimes or diminish the need for accountability. It said preserving evidence, determining the fate of missing Palestinians, recovering property, and ensuring justice and reparations for victims must remain central to any future reconstruction process in Gaza.
