Occupied Palestinian Territory – In recent days, the Israeli military has intensified the use of booby-trapped armoured vehicles loaded with tons of explosives to demolish central residential neighbourhoods in Gaza City. This escalation forms part of its declared objective to destroy the city and forcibly displace its residents, and represents a grave escalation of the ongoing genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, now in its 24th consecutive month.
Euro-Med Monitor's teams documented the detonation of ten booby-trapped armoured vehicles this morning, Wednesday, 17 September, between residential homes in Street 8, south of Tel al-Hawa neighbourhood, one of Gaza City's central residential areas. At least three other vehicles were detonated among homes in al-Nafaq Street east of the city, along with several more in the vicinity of Sheikh Radwan Pool in northern Gaza City.
While these vehicles were previously detonated during dawn hours, the Israeli army has recently begun deploying them around the clock, significantly increasing the likelihood of casualties in addition to the vast destruction they cause.
The army has converted decommissioned American-made M113 armoured personnel carriers into booby-trapped robots, each loaded with no less than seven tons of explosives, and directed them to explode in the midst of densely populated neighbourhoods. This represents a more extreme and brutal adaptation of tactics once used by ISIS in Syria and Iraq, widely condemned at the time, yet now permitted for Israel to employ on a larger scale and with greater devastation, without accountability, reflecting stark double standards in the international system.
The catastrophic impact of these vehicles extends beyond large-scale physical destruction and displacement, amounting to systematic psychological terror. The explosions create deafening blasts that shake the entire city, causing surviving buildings to tremble under violent shockwaves, and plunging civilians into relentless fear, trauma, and a constant sense of insecurity.
Testimonies from residents reveal the horror. Khalil Islim, told Euro-Med Monitor: "We had become somewhat accustomed to air and artillery strikes, but these explosions feel like an earthquake every time. Debris flies hundreds of metres, the smoke and dust are overwhelming, and the destruction is immense."
Khadija al-Masri, a displaced woman in Tel al-Hawa added to Euro-Med Monitor's field team: "Every time one of these robots explodes, I feel my soul leave my body. My children scream hysterically, and I try to calm them but often fail because I find myself screaming too."
Samer Abdul Aal described being thrown against a wall and injured when one exploded near Street 8, noting that the sound was far more terrifying than anything experienced in over 23 months of bombardment.
At the current pace, entire neighbourhoods of Gaza City could be wiped out within weeks, with each vehicle capable of destroying around 20 housing units either completely or severely. This means hundreds of thousands of people are at imminent risk of losing their homes and being displaced again under deadly conditions, with no means of survival. The blasts are so powerful that they can be heard over 40 km away, beyond the boundaries of the Gaza Strip itself.
The unprecedented scale of destruction highlights Israel's determination to carry out its plan of erasing Gaza City. This has been enabled by the absence of any meaningful international pressure or accountability, reinforcing impunity and undermining international law's capacity to protect civilians from crimes of genocide.
Booby-trapped vehicles fall under the category of indiscriminate weapons prohibited under international humanitarian law, as their wide-scale blast effects inevitably strike civilians and civilian property in violation of the principles of distinction and proportionality. Their use in populated areas constitutes a war crime, and when resulting in widespread killing, forced displacement, or deprivation of life essentials as part of a systematic attack against civilians, also constitutes a crime against humanity. The systematic deployment of these vehicles to destroy residential areas and deprive civilians of the conditions for survival renders them a direct tool of genocide, falling squarely within acts defined by the Genocide Convention, particularly the deliberate imposition of living conditions calculated to bring about the physical destruction of a group in whole or in part.
Beyond mass killing and forced displacement, these methods aim to obliterate entire neighbourhoods and infrastructure, erasing the possibility of life returning to the city and undermining the Palestinian people's right to remain on their land and return to their homes.
Booby-trapped vehicles are just one of many tools employed by the Israeli military in its campaign to erase Gaza's cities. Others include heavy aerial bombardment, continuous artillery shelling, dropping bombs and explosive crates via drones, planting explosives inside buildings before demolishing them, and bulldozing remaining structures with military and civilian machinery.
Over 800,000 Palestinians in Gaza City now face existential threats to their lives amid this campaign of destruction, deliberate starvation, and forced displacement, while the international community remains silent in the face of an unprecedented atrocity.
Immediate international action is required. The UN General Assembly must convene an emergency special session under its historic Resolution 377 A(V) "Uniting for Peace," which empowers it to act when the Security Council fails to do so due to vetoes or lack of consensus. The Assembly should adopt a resolution to form and deploy a peacekeeping force in Gaza to halt crimes against civilians, guarantee unhindered humanitarian aid, protect health and relief facilities, end the blockade, and facilitate reconstruction.
All states, individually and collectively, must urgently act to stop the genocide in Gaza, fulfil their legal obligations to protect Palestinian civilians, and ensure Israel's compliance with international law and the binding rulings of the International Court of Justice.
