Urbicide in Israel’s War on Gaza: Architecture of Erasure and the Unmaking of Urban Life (2023–2025)
Abstract
This article investigates the role of urbicide—defined as the systematic destruction of urban environments—in Israel’s military strategy during the war on Gaza from 2023 to 2025. It explores how the erasure of infrastructure, housing, and essential services served not only as a means of military incapacitation but as a deliberate strategy to dismantle Gaza as a space of urban life, memory, and sovereignty. The scope of the research moves beyond physical damage to examine the strategic, political, and symbolic implications of urbicide within the broader settler-colonial framework. Methodologically, the study adopts a mixed empirical and theoretical approach, combining: satellite imagery analysis and damage assessment reports (UNOSAT, UNDP, OCHA) to map patterns of destruction; quantitative data from the World Bank, FAO, and the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) to assess demographic and infrastructural impacts; and theoretical insights from critical urban studies, settler-colonial theory, and postcolonial geography. Findings reveal that over 70% of Gaza’s built environment has been destroyed or rendered non-functional, with entire districts rendered uninhabitable. The unmaking of urban life is shown to be not collateral, but integral to a strategic logic aimed at disabling civic infrastructure, displacing populations, and erasing the viability of future sovereignty. Yet, the study also identifies countercurrents of symbolic and spatial resistance, as civil society, local actors, and communities reconstitute forms of endurance and political meaning from within the ruins. The study concludes that urbicide is a structural tool of domination in settler-colonial warfare, and calls for further research on post-urbicidal urban recovery, the politics of memory, and spatial justice in colonial and postcolonial contexts.
References
- Arman Karasu, Mithat ithat. “Bir Kentin Ölümü: Kentkırım (Bosna-Hersek Örneği).” Çağdaş Yerel Yönetimler 17, no. 3 (Temmuz 2008): 51–64.
- Aslan, Şeniz, Metin Zafer, and Fethi Güngör. “Uluslararası Sosyal Çalışma Bağlamında Kentkırım.” İDEALKENT, no.48 (2025) : 639-667.
- Coward, Martin. Urbicide: The Politics of Urban Destruction. London: Routledge, 2009.
- Duggal, Hanna, and Marium Ali. “Israel Hamas Ceasefire: What’s Left of Gaza and Its People?” Al Jazeera, 16 January 2025. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/1/16/israel-hamas-ceasefire-whats-left-of-gaza-and-its-people.
- Forensic Architecture, “A Cartography of Genocide: Israel’s Conduct in Gaza since October 2023,” 2024, https://forensic-architecture.org/investigation/a-cartography-of-genocide
- Graham, Stephen. Cities Under Siege: The New Military Urbanism. London: Verso, 2010.
- Hage, Ghassan. Against Paranoid Nationalism: Searching for Hope in a Shrinking Society. London: Pluto Press, 2003.
- Khalidi, Rashid. Under Siege: PLO Decisionmaking during the 1982 War. New York: Columbia University Press, 2014.
- Khalidi, Raja, and Qais Iwidat. “Assessing the Economic and Social Impacts of Israel’s War on Palestine.” Journal of Palestine Studies 7, no. 1 (January/February 2024): 77–86.
- Masalha, Nur. The Politics of Denial: Israel and the Palestinian Refugee Problem. London: Pluto Press, 2003.
- Marei, Fadi G. “Dahiya Doctrine.” In Conflict in the Modern Middle East: An Encyclopedia of Civil War, Revolutions, and Regime Change, edited by I. William Zartman, 75–76. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2020.
- Mbembe, Achille. “Necropolitics.” Public Culture 15, no. 1 (2003): 11–40.
- Molavi, Shourideh C. Environmental Warfare in Gaza: Colonial Violence and New Landscapes of Resistance. London: Pluto Press, 2024. Nixon, Rob. Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2011.
- Pappé, Ilan. The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine. Oxford: Oneworld, 2006.
- Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) and UNOSAT. Damage Assessment, April–July 2025. https://www.pcbs.gov.ps.
- Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) and Environment Quality Authority (EQA), Press Release by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) and Environment Quality Authority on World Environment Day under the theme “Gaza in WED: Stifling Environmental and Humanitarian Crisis” (Ramallah: PCBS and EQA, June 5, 2025), https://environment.ps/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/World-Environment-Day-en.pdf
- Sipahi, Esra Banu, and Rabia Çakar. “Soykırımın Mekândaki İz Düşümü Olarak Kentkırım Anlatıları: Bosna Hersek Örneği Üzerinden Belgesel Film Analizi.” İnsan ve Toplum: The Journal of Humanity and Society 13, no. 1 (2023): 159-195.
- Tuck, Eve, and K. Wayne Yang. “Decolonization Is Not a Metaphor.” Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society 1, no. 1 (2012): 1–40.
- United Nations OCHA and UNOSAT. Gaza Damage Assessment Overview Map. April 2025. https://unosat.org/static/unosat_filesystem/4130/UN-OCHA_026_UNOSAT_A3_GazaStrip_CDA_04April2025.pdf
- UNOSAT (United Nations Satellite Centre). Gaza Strip Comprehensive Damage Assessment: As of 04 April 2025. Published 7 May 2025. https://unosat.org/static/unosat_filesystem/4130/UN-OCHA_026_UNOSAT_A3_GazaStrip_CDA_04April2025.pdf
- Veracini, Lorenzo. Settler Colonialism: A Theoretical Overview. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010.
- Wahono, Angelica. “Erasing Gaza’s Future: Why the ICC Must Explicitly Charge All Forms of Reproductive Violence in Gaza — Including as Genocide.” Women’s Initiatives for Gender Justice, 5 May 2025. https://4genderjustice.org/our-latest-posts/erasing-gazas-future/#_ftnref20
- Weizman, Eyal. Hollow Land: Israel’s Architecture of Occupation. London: Verso, 2007.
- ———. The Least of All Possible Evils: Humanitarian Violence from Arendt to Gaza. London: Verso, 2011.
- Wolfe, Patrick. “Settler Colonialism and the Elimination of the Native.” Journal of Genocide Research 8, no. 4 (2006): 387–409.
- World Bank, United Nations, and European Union. Gaza and West Bank Damage, Loss, and Needs Assessment Report. 18 February 2025. https://thedocs.worldbank.org/en/doc/133c3304e29086819c1119fe8e85366b-0280012025/original/Gaza-RDNA-final-med.pdf
- ———. Gaza and West Bank Interim Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment (Interim Report). 18 February 2025. https://thedocs.worldbank.org/en/doc/133c3304e29086819c1119fe8e85366b-0280012025/original/Gaza-RDNA-final-med.pdf
- Yılmaz, Fırat Harun, and Ali Şahin. “Kentsel Yıkımın Bosna ve Filistin Örnekleri Üzerinden Kentkırım Kapsamında Değerlendirilmesi.” Sosyal Bilimler Meslek Yüksekokulu Dergisi 21, no. 1 (Nisan 2018): 92-106.
- Ziadah, Rafeef, Craig Jones, Omar Jabary Salamanca, Samia Al-Botmeh, Sami Hermez, and Rania Jawad. “Disruptive Geographies and the War on Gaza: Infrastructure and Global Solidarity.” Geopolitics, published online June 2025. https://doi.org/10.1080/14650045.2025.2510319
Urbicide in Israel’s War on Gaza: Architecture of Erasure and the Unmaking of Urban Life (2023–2025)
Abstract
This article investigates the role of urbicide—defined as the systematic destruction of urban environments—in Israel’s military strategy during the war on Gaza from 2023 to 2025. It explores how the erasure of infrastructure, housing, and essential services served not only as a means of military incapacitation but as a deliberate strategy to dismantle Gaza as a space of urban life, memory, and sovereignty. The scope of the research moves beyond physical damage to examine the strategic, political, and symbolic implications of urbicide within the broader settler-colonial framework. Methodologically, the study adopts a mixed empirical and theoretical approach, combining: satellite imagery analysis and damage assessment reports (UNOSAT, UNDP, OCHA) to map patterns of destruction; quantitative data from the World Bank, FAO, and the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) to assess demographic and infrastructural impacts; and theoretical insights from critical urban studies, settler-colonial theory, and postcolonial geography. Findings reveal that over 70% of Gaza’s built environment has been destroyed or rendered non-functional, with entire districts rendered uninhabitable. The unmaking of urban life is shown to be not collateral, but integral to a strategic logic aimed at disabling civic infrastructure, displacing populations, and erasing the viability of future sovereignty. Yet, the study also identifies countercurrents of symbolic and spatial resistance, as civil society, local actors, and communities reconstitute forms of endurance and political meaning from within the ruins. The study concludes that urbicide is a structural tool of domination in settler-colonial warfare, and calls for further research on post-urbicidal urban recovery, the politics of memory, and spatial justice in colonial and postcolonial contexts.
References
- Arman Karasu, Mithat ithat. “Bir Kentin Ölümü: Kentkırım (Bosna-Hersek Örneği).” Çağdaş Yerel Yönetimler 17, no. 3 (Temmuz 2008): 51–64.
- Aslan, Şeniz, Metin Zafer, and Fethi Güngör. “Uluslararası Sosyal Çalışma Bağlamında Kentkırım.” İDEALKENT, no.48 (2025) : 639-667.
- Coward, Martin. Urbicide: The Politics of Urban Destruction. London: Routledge, 2009.
- Duggal, Hanna, and Marium Ali. “Israel Hamas Ceasefire: What’s Left of Gaza and Its People?” Al Jazeera, 16 January 2025. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/1/16/israel-hamas-ceasefire-whats-left-of-gaza-and-its-people.
- Forensic Architecture, “A Cartography of Genocide: Israel’s Conduct in Gaza since October 2023,” 2024, https://forensic-architecture.org/investigation/a-cartography-of-genocide
- Graham, Stephen. Cities Under Siege: The New Military Urbanism. London: Verso, 2010.
- Hage, Ghassan. Against Paranoid Nationalism: Searching for Hope in a Shrinking Society. London: Pluto Press, 2003.
- Khalidi, Rashid. Under Siege: PLO Decisionmaking during the 1982 War. New York: Columbia University Press, 2014.
- Khalidi, Raja, and Qais Iwidat. “Assessing the Economic and Social Impacts of Israel’s War on Palestine.” Journal of Palestine Studies 7, no. 1 (January/February 2024): 77–86.
- Masalha, Nur. The Politics of Denial: Israel and the Palestinian Refugee Problem. London: Pluto Press, 2003.
- Marei, Fadi G. “Dahiya Doctrine.” In Conflict in the Modern Middle East: An Encyclopedia of Civil War, Revolutions, and Regime Change, edited by I. William Zartman, 75–76. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2020.
- Mbembe, Achille. “Necropolitics.” Public Culture 15, no. 1 (2003): 11–40.
- Molavi, Shourideh C. Environmental Warfare in Gaza: Colonial Violence and New Landscapes of Resistance. London: Pluto Press, 2024. Nixon, Rob. Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2011.
- Pappé, Ilan. The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine. Oxford: Oneworld, 2006.
- Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) and UNOSAT. Damage Assessment, April–July 2025. https://www.pcbs.gov.ps.
- Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) and Environment Quality Authority (EQA), Press Release by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) and Environment Quality Authority on World Environment Day under the theme “Gaza in WED: Stifling Environmental and Humanitarian Crisis” (Ramallah: PCBS and EQA, June 5, 2025), https://environment.ps/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/World-Environment-Day-en.pdf
- Sipahi, Esra Banu, and Rabia Çakar. “Soykırımın Mekândaki İz Düşümü Olarak Kentkırım Anlatıları: Bosna Hersek Örneği Üzerinden Belgesel Film Analizi.” İnsan ve Toplum: The Journal of Humanity and Society 13, no. 1 (2023): 159-195.
- Tuck, Eve, and K. Wayne Yang. “Decolonization Is Not a Metaphor.” Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society 1, no. 1 (2012): 1–40.
- United Nations OCHA and UNOSAT. Gaza Damage Assessment Overview Map. April 2025. https://unosat.org/static/unosat_filesystem/4130/UN-OCHA_026_UNOSAT_A3_GazaStrip_CDA_04April2025.pdf
- UNOSAT (United Nations Satellite Centre). Gaza Strip Comprehensive Damage Assessment: As of 04 April 2025. Published 7 May 2025. https://unosat.org/static/unosat_filesystem/4130/UN-OCHA_026_UNOSAT_A3_GazaStrip_CDA_04April2025.pdf
- Veracini, Lorenzo. Settler Colonialism: A Theoretical Overview. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010.
- Wahono, Angelica. “Erasing Gaza’s Future: Why the ICC Must Explicitly Charge All Forms of Reproductive Violence in Gaza — Including as Genocide.” Women’s Initiatives for Gender Justice, 5 May 2025. https://4genderjustice.org/our-latest-posts/erasing-gazas-future/#_ftnref20
- Weizman, Eyal. Hollow Land: Israel’s Architecture of Occupation. London: Verso, 2007.
- ———. The Least of All Possible Evils: Humanitarian Violence from Arendt to Gaza. London: Verso, 2011.
- Wolfe, Patrick. “Settler Colonialism and the Elimination of the Native.” Journal of Genocide Research 8, no. 4 (2006): 387–409.
- World Bank, United Nations, and European Union. Gaza and West Bank Damage, Loss, and Needs Assessment Report. 18 February 2025. https://thedocs.worldbank.org/en/doc/133c3304e29086819c1119fe8e85366b-0280012025/original/Gaza-RDNA-final-med.pdf
- ———. Gaza and West Bank Interim Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment (Interim Report). 18 February 2025. https://thedocs.worldbank.org/en/doc/133c3304e29086819c1119fe8e85366b-0280012025/original/Gaza-RDNA-final-med.pdf
- Yılmaz, Fırat Harun, and Ali Şahin. “Kentsel Yıkımın Bosna ve Filistin Örnekleri Üzerinden Kentkırım Kapsamında Değerlendirilmesi.” Sosyal Bilimler Meslek Yüksekokulu Dergisi 21, no. 1 (Nisan 2018): 92-106.
- Ziadah, Rafeef, Craig Jones, Omar Jabary Salamanca, Samia Al-Botmeh, Sami Hermez, and Rania Jawad. “Disruptive Geographies and the War on Gaza: Infrastructure and Global Solidarity.” Geopolitics, published online June 2025. https://doi.org/10.1080/14650045.2025.2510319
Details
| Primary Language | English |
|---|---|
| Subjects | Middle East Studies |
| Journal Section | Research Article |
| Authors | |
| Submission Date | July 11, 2025 |
| Acceptance Date | December 22, 2025 |
| Publication Date | December 31, 2025 |
| Published in Issue | Year 2025 Issue: 18 |
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. Click for more information.
Indexes / Databases: SCOPUS| EBSCO| INDEX ISLAMICUS| MLA | INDEX COPERNICUS | CEEOL | SCIENTIFIC INDEXING | DRJI | İSAM | ASOS İNDEKS
Filistin Araştırmaları Dergisi- FAD
[Bulletin of Palestine Studies]
[כתב העת ללימודים פלסטיניים]
[مجلة دراسات فلسطينية ]
ISSN: 2587-2532
E-ISSN 2587-1862