(((Destroying Civilian Infrastructure)))

As of 2026, Israel has 147 Jewish-only settlements and 224 "outposts" built on confiscated Palestinian land. Over 123,060 Palestinian homes have been demolished by the Israeli government since 1967. According to the UN, 46,000 Palestinians have been forcibly displaced in the last three years since 2026.

Israeli military doctrine

Mowing the grass - Mowing the grass is a military doctrine, coined by Efraim Inbar and Eitan Shamir, to describe periodic Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip, targetting civilians and civilian infrastructure in the Gaza Strip. Eclairs in a bakery in Modi'in with icing reading: 'Let the IDF mow them down!':

Caterpillar D9 - The IDF Caterpillar D9 is a buldozer specifucally designed for the army to demolish Palestinian homes.

During raids, the IDF targers water wells to prevent Palestinians from getting water, as they did at the village where Rachel Corrie was killed.

Arson - Settlers and/or the IDF set fire to Palestinians villages, and then the Israeli government moves to make the area off limits before tearing everthing down and rebuilding a Jewish settlement.

Dahiya doctrine - The Dahiya doctrine (named after a Lebanese suburb abliterated by Israel) is state sanctioned military doctrine specifically for Lebanon developed after the 2006 Lebanon War, advocating for the use of disproportionate, overwhelming force and destruction of civilian infrastructure. It involves targeting economic interests and civilian power centers in the hopes of forcing the population to turn on its military.

''Power targets'' - The IDF refers to high-rises and residential buildings as "power targets". According to three intelligence sources the purpose of targeting high-rises is to harm Palestinian civil society in order to exert “civil pressure” and “lead civilians to put pressure on Hamas in accordance with the Dahiya doctrine. 

The IDF also targets what they categorize as “family homes,” in order to assassinate a single resident suspected of being a Hamas or other resistance operative.

Habsora AI (Infrastructure) - The IDF uses an AI called Habsora, which generates targets to be bombed, while calculating  and displaying how many civilian causalities would be killed, one case describing Israeli military command knowingly approved the killing of hundreds of civilians in an attempt to assassinate a single Hamas commander: +972 source: “The numbers increased from dozens of civilian deaths [permitted] as collateral damage as part of an attack on a senior official in previous operations, to hundreds of civilian deaths as collateral damage... Nothing happens by accident... When a 3-year-old girl is killed in a home in Gaza, it’s because someone in the army decided it wasn’t a big deal for her to be killed — that it was a price worth paying in order to hit [another] target. We are not Hamas. These are not random rockets. Everything is intentional. We know exactly how much collateral damage there is in every home.”

Since Oct. 7 the number of civilians allowed to be killed per strike was raised from 5 to 20.

Abandonment of roof knocking - According to Airforce chief of staff, Omer Tishler, since October 7 Israel abandoned the practice of roof knocking (initial strike warning civilians to leave building) in areas with resistance fighters after Oct 7. 

There are “cases in which we shell based on a wide cellular pinpointing of where the target is, killing civilians. This is often done to save time, instead of doing a little more work to get a more accurate pinpointing... We are asked to look for high-rise buildings with half a floor that can be attributed to Hamas... Sometimes it is a militant group’s spokesperson’s office, or a point where operatives meet. I understood that the floor is an excuse that allows the army to cause a lot of destruction in Gaza. That is what they told us. If they would tell the whole world that the [Islamic Jihad] offices on the 10th floor are not important as a target, but that its existence is a justification to bring down the entire high-rise with the aim of pressuring civilian families who live in it in order to put pressure on terrorist organizations, this would itself be seen as terrorism. So they do not say it,”

Timeline

(2003) Izbet al-Tabib village - In 2003, 23-year-old American activist was purposefully crushed to death by an IDF bulldozer while trying to prevent the demolition of a Palestinian doctor's home, during the demolitoin of property and a well the village of Izbet al-Tabib.

(2006) Lebanon War - 15,000 civilian homes (houses and apartments) were completely destroyed, and an overall total of 125,000 residential units were either damaged or destroyed.

(2008) Cast Lead - After humiliation in Lebanon, Israel took out its frustration on Gaza's civilian populatoin. Between 2,100 and 3,540 residential buildings were destroyed. Between 2,100 and 3,540 residential buildings are destroyed.

''We will wield disproportionate power against every village from which shots are fired at Israel, and cause immense damage and destruction. What happened in the Dehiya quarter of Beirut in 2006 will happen in every village from which Israel is fired on. This isn't a suggestion, this is a plan that has already been authorized.'' - Gadi Eizenkot, Head of IDF Northern Command.

''The IDF should decide on a neighborhood in gaza and level it.'' - Meir Sheetrit, Interior Minister

According to the UN fact-finding mission following the 2008 invasion the purpose was simply ''to punish humiliate and terrorize a civilian population.'' 

''It should be possible to destroy gaza so they will understand not to mess with us. It is a great opportunity to demolish thousands of houses thousands of houses tunnels and industries will be demolished.'' - Eli Yishai, Deputy Prime Minister

IDF bulldozer operator: ''Our objective was to demolish houses. We were secured by heavy armored personnel carriers and tanks. In this case, the tanks were assigned to us rather than the other way around. The area was completely empty. Everything was empty... we demolished a lot. There were people who had been in Gaza for 2 days, constantly demolishing one house after the other. And we're talking about a whole battalion.''

'''If they didn't like the looks of some house, if it disturbed or threatened them, then it would be taken down.'' 

Interviewer: ''But that was for operational needs?'' 

''Operational needs? I don't know, maybe half of them. Sometimes the company commander would give the D9 something to demolish just to make them happy.''

(2010) Demolition of Al Araqib Village - Around 1,300 armed Israeli police officers and Israel Land Administration (ILA) personnel stormed the village.

(2014) Protective Edge - 18,000 Gazan homes are destroyed; 2,200 Gazans killed, 1,500 of which were civilians and 550 were children.

(2020) Silwan demolitions - In 2020, four Palestinian families were forced to destroy their own homes by decree of the Israeli municipality of Jerusalem.

(2023) Gaza War - 92% of Infrastructure damaged or destroyed. Sewage facilities were hit, leaving solid waste accumulating in the streets.

Netenyahiu to The Jerusalem Post: "We are destroying more and more homes. They have nowhere to return to. The only inevitable outcome will be the desire of Gazins to immigrate outside of the Gaza Strip.''

''Gaza will eventually turn into a city of tents. There will be no buildings'' - Unamed defence official to Channel 13.

The Jabalia refugee camp, according to AP, was been razed to the ground. The camp had a population of 100,000 in just one half of one square mile. Its population density was higher than that of Manila, the highest of any city in the world.

In November 2023, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported seven water facilities across the Gaza Strip were directly hit and sustained major damage, including three sewage pipelines in Gaza City, two water reservoirs, and two water wells.

Demolition of Jenin - The demolitions and destruction in Jenin primarily occurred during Operation Home and Garden, a massive 48-hour Israeli military incursion into the Jenin Refugee Camp and Jenin city on 3–5 July 2023. displacing around 3,500 people (500 families). Over 40 families remained permanently displaced immediately following the raid.

(2024) Destruction of Al-Aqsa University - Al-Aqsa University in Khan Yunis, Southern Gaza Strip, was completely destroyed by Israel. 

(2025) Burning of Taybeh - settlers burned down Taybeh, the last entirely Christian Palestinian town in the occupied West Bank, which has faced a wave of systematic attacks, arson, and encroaching blockades by Israeli settlers.

12 Day War - More than 3,000 homes were struck and 377 were entirely destroyed in Iran by Israeli air operations.

The  UN reports 2,242 buildings with partial damage and 9,311 buildings with minor damage, altogether racking up an estimated $1.38 billion in direct architectural wreckage.

(2026) Morag Water Station -  In 2026 Israeli forces detonated the Morag Water Station in Rafah today, cutting off water for roughly 70,000 people—one-third of the city's pre-war population. The station was funded by the Turkish Red Crescent and inaugurated in 2010. In 2025, it had been slated for urgent repairs by Oxfam and Gaza’s water utility.

Iran War - An estimated 11,095 buildings have been completely destroyed in southern Lebanon during the 2026 war, according to a joint rapid damage assessment

The Iranian Red Crescent Society reported that more than 125,000 non-military facilities have been damaged or destroyed across Iran, with independent human rights assessments identifying over 3,211 residential units completely flattened.