The Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) continue to intensify their policy of destroying the remaining homes and residential blocks in the Gaza Strip while expanding the scope of their military control by advancing the so-called “yellow line” in eastern Gaza. These measures form part of efforts to impose new facts on the ground aimed at entrenching a long-term occupation and creating conditions conducive to the forced displacement of the Palestinian population, within the context of the ongoing crime of genocide in the Gaza Strip.
PCHR’s field researchers have, over the past several days, documented a significant escalation in the demolition of homes, civilian institutions, and infrastructure within the so-called “yellow line,” which now extends more than 60% of the total area of the Gaza Strip. This escalation comes as the IOF continue to expand demolitions and enforce forced displacement in the remaining areas, where more than two million Palestinians are confined to approximately 30% of the Gaza Strip’s territory. Most of them are living in tents under catastrophic humanitarian conditions, with no safe areas available to them.
These attacks come at a time when Israeli officials are openly expressing their intentions regarding the future of the Gaza Strip. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz has stated that Israel “will never leave Gaza ” and will maintain “a wide security zone” in the Strip. He also referred to the possibility of establishing organized settlement outposts in the northern Gaza Strip in the future1. These statements further demonstrate that what IOF’s conduct on the ground cannot be viewed in isolation from a systematic policy aimed at imposing permanent geographic and demographic changes in the Gaza Strip, including the seizure of land and the prevention of the Palestinian population from returning to it.
Among the latest incidents documented by our field researchers:
In a separate incident, at approximately 20:45 on the same Thursday, another resident received a similar phone call ordering him to notify the residents of a residential block located south of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah to evacuate the area. Approximately 40 minutes later, Israeli warplanes targeted agricultural land in the middle of a densely populated residential area. The attack caused extensive damage to nearby homes and infrastructure and left a crater measuring more than 20 meters in diameter and over 15 meters in depth. The strike enticed widespread panic, forcing dozens of families to flee their homes.
It should be noted that both areas are among the most densely populated areas in the Gaza Strip, sheltering large numbers of displaced persons as a result of repeated evacuation orders issued by the IOF and ongoing attacks that continue to drive civilians into forced displacement in search of safer places.
On the same morning, IOF moved the markers demarcating the so-called “yellow line” in al-Tuffah neighborhood, east of Gaza City, more than 100 meters westward along a stretch exceeding 300 meters. This expanded the area under their control, within which they continue to carry out the destruction of residential blocks. This measure resulted in the displacement of dozens of residents, who were forced to search for new places of shelter.
As part of the ongoing attacks against civilians, at approximately 12:30 on Monday, 8 June 2026, an Israeli drone targeted people gathered in Martyr Anwar ‘Aziz Square in Jabalia Refugee Camp, northern Gaza Strip. The attack killed three Palestinians, including 8-year-old Jad Yousef Suleiman Suleiman, and injured several other civilians, among them members of a medical team working at a nearby medical point. Jad was on his way home from an educational point when the attack occurred.
At around 10:30 on the same day, an Israeli drone also targeted a group of people near al-Ard al-Tayyiba Camp, southwest of al-Mawasi in Khan Younis, killing two Palestinians: Eyad Mohammed ‘Abdulaziz Nofal (41) and Ahmed Abdulhamid Hamad Ma’arouf (34), while they were sitting in front of Nofal’s tent.
In a separate incident, at approximately 13:40 on Sunday, 7 June 2026, an Israeli drone struck a police point at al-Nasr Intersection west of al-Mawasi, Khan Younis—an area densely populated with displaced persons, tents, and commercial shops. The attack killed five Palestinians, including 12-year-old Mustafa Rami Mohammed Younis, and injured 17 others with varying degrees of severity.
The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) reiterates that phone calls made by IOF instructing residents to evacuate their homes do not grant any legal legitimacy on subsequent demolitions. Rather, they further underscore that the primary objective of these measures lies in the destruction of civilian property and the imposition of forced displacement on the civilian population. Such prior warnings issued by the IOF do not exempt them from legal responsibility for the crimes committed.
PCHR emphasizes that the continued escalation in the demolition of residential blocks, the expansion of buffer zones within the Gaza Strip, and the targeting of civilians alongside Israeli officials’ statements calling for a permanent presence in Gaza and the establishment of settlement outposts therein—clearly reveal Israel’s systematic policy aimed at altering the demographic and geographic composition of the Gaza Strip. These actions seek to impose conditions of life calculated to forcibly displace Palestinians and prevent their return to their areas of origin, constituting the core of the genocide ongoing for more than 32 months.
PCHR reiterates its call on the international community to take immediate and effective measures to halt the ongoing crime of genocide in the Gaza Strip, end policies of forced displacement and widespread destruction of civilian objects, and ensure the provision of international protection for civilians in the Gaza Strip, as well as to hold those responsible for the crimes committed accountable and end impunity.
