Gaza Herald _ As Gaza’s genocide grinds into its second year, new reports reveal a shocking dimension of Israel’s campaign: organized theft and looting by Israeli soldiers inside Palestinian homes. What began as a military invasion has morphed into a campaign of humiliation and plunder, in which civilians are stripped not only of their loved ones and homes but also of their last remaining possessions.
According to a detailed investigation by Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, Israeli forces deployed across the Gaza Strip have systematically looted personal belongings, cash, and gold from the homes of Palestinians during raids. Soldiers have been documented not just committing extrajudicial killings and arbitrary arrests, but also engaging in what Euro-Med describes as “a deliberate campaign of theft, vandalism, and collective punishment.”
Systematic Looting During Raids
Testimonies gathered by Euro-Med Monitor show that soldiers routinely steal from houses they raid, taking laptops, jewelry, and large sums of money. The organization estimates that the value of the stolen property may reach tens of millions of dollars, adding yet another layer of crime to Israel’s already extensive record of atrocities in Gaza.
Thabet Salim, 40, recounted how Israeli troops stormed his home in Gaza City’s Zaytoun neighborhood, arresting him and his two sons. “They took everything,” Salim told investigators. “More than ten thousand dollars in cash, and nearly the same amount in gold belonging to my wife and daughter-in-law.” His sons remain missing.
Another victim, Umm Muhammad Gharbiyya, from Gaza’s Al-Shuja’iya neighborhood, said Israeli forces broke into her home earlier this month, ransacked the family’s belongings, and stole all her gold jewelry before arresting her husband and eldest son.
In northern Gaza, Hussein Al-Tanani returned to find his house looted after Israeli soldiers had raided it while his family sought refuge in a nearby UN school. “Our savings and computer were gone,” he said. “They left behind only destruction and filth.”
Evidence of Organized Plunder
The looting is not random. Euro-Med Monitor linked the testimonies to an internal Israeli military unit known as the “Intelligence Collection and Technical Spoils” division, tasked with confiscating valuables from Gaza. According to a report in Yedioth Ahronoth, this unit officially “seized” over five million Israeli shekels (about $1.35 million USD). Human rights observers say this figure represents only a fraction of the real amount.
Disturbing footage circulating on social media, some posted by soldiers themselves, shows Israeli troops mocking and displaying stolen possessions, from Palestinian jewelry to electronics. In one video, three soldiers are seen selling gold in a West Bank shop, allegedly taken from Gaza homes. Another soldier films himself holding a silver necklace engraved “Made in Gaza,” boasting that he’ll gift it to his girlfriend.
One woman, Alia Al-Najjar, said she recognized her own jewelry, including a 24-carat gold bracelet shaped like a leaf that she bought with her first teaching salary, in a soldier’s video. “He showed it inside my mother’s purse,” she said. “When I commented that they were thieves, the video disappeared.”
Theft as Psychological Warfare
Beyond the financial devastation, Palestinians describe the looting as another form of psychological warfare. The act of desecrating homes and stealing treasured family heirlooms is meant to deepen humiliation to send a message that nothing, not even private memory or dignity, is beyond Israel’s reach.
Euro-Med Monitor said these acts are part of a broader policy of collective punishment, combining theft, destruction, and humiliation to erase Palestinian identity and history within Gaza’s shattered neighborhoods. “It is a moral collapse,” one investigator said. “When soldiers rob the dead and the displaced, it ceases to be a war; it becomes organized crime.”
Calls for Accountability
Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor called for a full international investigation into what it described as “grave violations of international law and moral norms.” It urged the International Criminal Court and UN human rights mechanisms to hold Israel accountable for systematic looting, property destruction, and enforced disappearances.
“The Israeli army has turned Gaza into an open field for crimes without consequence,” the organization said. “Looting, burning, and desecrating civilian homes in the middle of genocide are not isolated incidents; they reflect an official culture of impunity.”
As Gaza continues to suffer under siege, hunger, and occupation, even the gold, savings, and keepsakes of its people have become targets. In a land already stripped of safety, the theft of what remains memories, dignity, and home completes the picture of a genocide not only of bodies, but of lives and legacies.
