Credits: Anadolu
By Shraddha Dubey
The Gaza strip has been under continuous and widespread violent attack from Israeli forces since 7th October 2023, reducing it to a site of destruction and suffering. But in the memory of Palestinians, Gaza, an ancient city on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean, has been a bustling centre of social, cultural, and economic prosperity at the crossroads of the Asian and African continents. Cities, such as Gaza itself, are not just spaces of inhabitation but repositories of human life, traditions, culture, and value. As an ancient urban hub, Gaza has witnessed the emergence of various civilisations and rule of multiple empires including the Greeks, Romans, Egyptian Pharaohs, Byzantines and Islamic dynasties. Monuments and sites ranging from the Anthedon port to the Great Omari Mosque and the Church of Saint Porphyrius, are a testament to its rich history. However, the face of Gaza has changed significantly since 1948.
As a consequence of the Nakba, a mass exodus of Palestinians during the Arab-Israeli war following the formation of the state of Israel in 1948, thousands of displaced and fleeing Palestinians took refuge in Gaza. This influx resulted in a three-fold increase in Gaza’s population to around 200,000. By 1967 when Israel occupied Gaza leading to the Middle East war, Gaza’s population had risen to 394,000 with at least 60% of them being refugees. This population has continuously risen and currently stands at 2.3 million, making Gaza a densely populated region.
Over the decades that followed, the Gaza strip experienced Israeli military rule, a brief truce with a failed promise of self-autonomy and its eventual reduction into an open-air prison. Since 2005, the heavily inhabited Gaza strip, along with its airspace, borders and territorial waters, has been under the full control of Israel. Through these transitions, a landscape that was once marked with geographical openness and historical urbanity has evolved into a mosaic of villages, refugee camps and densely populated cities, far distinct from its prosperous ancient existence.
In the face of continuous persecution and occupation, Gaza and its inhabitants built and rebuilt life sustaining ecosystems. Despite the unceasing offensive, the Gaza strip, consisting of five governorates, has ensured the subsistence of its 2.3 million trapped population with its schools, universities, hospitals and other vital infrastructures. At the heart of Gaza city, the largest of the five governorates, is the Al Shifa Hospital in the Rimal neighbourhood, which was raided by Israeli forces and is now run with the support of the World Health Organisation. The other infrastructure around the hospital includes the Office of the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process (UNSCO) and the UN Development Programme (UNDP) along with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). The neighbourhood of Rimal also houses Gaza’s leading universities namely the Islamic University of Gaza, Al-Azhar University – Gaza and the Al-Aqsa University. Gaza’s biggest refugee camp known as the Shati or Beach camp is also located along Gaza city’s Mediterranean coast. All these structures have suffered devastation in the ongoing attacks leading to a sustained violation of Palestinian’s right to adequate housing, access to healthcare and education by Israel.
Destruction
Since the beginning of the attack after 7th October 2023, international law scholars have repeatedly highlighted violations of the law of armed conflict in the destruction of civilian infrastructure carried out by Israel. Disproportionate attacks on schools and hospitals ostensibly on the suspicion of them being military objects have been vehemently opposed and condemned. The destruction of infrastructures of cultural heritage and historical sites, prohibited under both International Humanitarian Law and International Criminal Law, in Gaza have been unprecedented. Until now, the above-mentioned Great Omari Mosque, an ancient and one of the most important mosques in Palestine, the Church of Saint Porphyrius, believed to be the third oldest church in the world have been destroyed. A 2000 year-old Roman cemetery excavated last year in Northern Gaza and the Rafah Museum were also damaged by Israeli airstrikes. Each of such destructions deny Palestinians in Gaza their right to partake in cultural life, scientific research and creative activity.
Amongst the most concerning of all destruction, has been the destruction of homes and neighbourhoods across Gaza. It is reported that over 60% housing units in Gaza have been destroyed rendering almost 75% of its population displaced with no place to return. The increasing use of destruction of homes as a form of modern warfare is clearly evidenced from the unfolding events in Gaza. Alongside the widespread forced displacement created by destruction of homes, it has also obliterated memories of past experiences, remembrances of life’s intimate moments, feelings of familiarity and people’s shared humanity. The systematic and indiscriminate annihilation of homes in Gaza and previously in other sites of conflict, have made scholars call for their destruction, referred to as domicide, to be considered as a crime against humanity.
Enumeration of international law violations in Gaza are endless. In an attempt to intervene in the indiscriminate and endless offensive in Gaza, South Africa filed an application instituting proceedings in the International Court of Justice against Israel. In response to this, the Court instituted provisional measures ordering Israel to prevent the commission of genocide amongst other measures.
While the violations in Gaza invoke different international law regimes and rules, the impact of all these violations is collective and uniform - the destruction and devastation of city life. In this context it is useful to think about what constitutes a ‘city’. With massive urbanisation and migration to urban spaces, a city can be understood as spaces and built infrastructure that support life and livelihood. These include food systems, schools, universities, water pipelines, electricity grids, research institutes among others. It is these structures and spaces that, when destroyed, obliterate memories, identities, and culture, each of them woven together.
The term ‘urbicide’ is often used to convey such a tactical approach involving premeditated violence on infrastructures. The objective for such an approach lies in the understanding that structures and buildings hold meaning, and become containers of experiences and histories of its inhabitants. Cities also contain spaces that allow production of knowledge, nurture art and science and nourish human life and experiences. Such destruction of city life or ‘urbicide’ has also been recorded in other armed conflicts such as in Bosnia, Syria, and more recently, Azerbaijan and Ukraine. The indiscriminate destruction of city spaces and infrastructures, then, effectively entails a denial of the Right to the City; a right which has been consistently eroded for the Palestinians in Gaza.
Military strategies deployed by Israel in Gaza encompass all features of an urbicide. Its pumping of water into a network of tunnels to purportedly destroy Hamas’ underground terrorist infrastructure could damage Gaza’s groundwater on which the entire population is dependent. With a total blockade, including on food and water, this move would render its population bereft of any source of potable water. This accompanied with repeated attacks on hospitals and health care systems have meant that the population in Gaza is entrapped in constant suffering and trauma.
(Promise of) re-construction
While destruction of homes have led to massive forced displacement, the devastation of schools, libraries, universities, museums and monuments have deprived Palestinians of their cherished history and avenues to indulge in collective memory and meaning. As further attacks and violations continue by Israel against Palestinians, the world can only hope for adherence to international legal obligations and an eventual ceasefire in Gaza. However, one cannot help but wonder what lies beyond a ceasefire for Palestinians - with no homes to go back to, no hospitals for treatments, no schools and universities for education, and no history to sustain a collective memory. Thus, even after the cessation of hostilities, Palestinians will continue to be deprived of a Right to the City in Gaza. The occupation of Gaza had already systemically compromised this right, and the attacks since 7th October may have destroyed the possibility of ever exercising this right meaningfully. It is this cycle of destruction and reconstruction, which has trapped the region in a perpetual state of devastation, that needs to be broken.
Bio:
Shraddha Dubey is currently an Academic Fellow at National Law University Delhi where she teaches and researches in International Law and Legal Theory. She pursued an Advance Masters in Public International Law from Leiden University, The Netherlands and subsequently worked at the T.M.C. Asser Instituut, The Hague. Her research interests include Human Rights, International Development and Urban Studies.