CITIZENS NEWS

Israeli contractors paid thousands to demolish Gaza homes, fueling deadly attacks on civilians

By isabelle // 2025-07-14

• Israeli contractors earn up to $9,000 monthly to demolish Gaza homes, escalating destruction for profit.
• Bulldozer operators admit motives shifted from money to revenge as demolition chaos intensifies.
• Contractors provoke clashes near aid sites, leading soldiers to massacre civilians searching for food.
• Extremist settlers celebrate demolitions on social media, fueling a culture of eradication.
• No accountability exists as Israel turns Gaza’s annihilation into a lucrative industry.

The Israeli Ministry of Defense is paying private contractors exorbitant sums of up to $9,000 monthly to operate heavy machinery in Gaza, systematically demolishing Palestinian homes and infrastructure while soldiers execute desperate civilians searching for food, according to Israeli media reports. Since the start of the war on Gaza, Israeli forces have relied heavily on civilian-operated bulldozers and armored bulldozers to level entire neighborhoods. TheMarker, an Israeli business publication, revealed that contractors receive between $360 and $1,500 per day for demolition work, depending on the size of the buildings destroyed.

A demolition frenzy fueled by profit

For demolishing a three-story building, contractors earn $750 but taller structures fetch $1,500 apiece. One operator admitted to TheMarker, "At first I did it for the money. Then for revenge. The work there is very hard and unpleasant. The army doesn’t operate smartly, it just wants to destroy as much as possible and doesn’t care about anything," This demolitions-for-profit scheme has spiraled into violent chaos. Contractors push deeper into Gaza’s ruins, forcing Israeli soldiers to provide armed escorts and often triggering deadly clashes with starving Palestinians who approach aid distribution points in search of food. One Israeli soldier told Haaretz, "For a contractor to earn another 5,000 shekels [~$1,500] by bringing down a house, it’s considered acceptable to kill people who are just looking for food."

Contractors provoke massacres while soldiers follow orders

Private contractors act "like a kind of sheriff," roaming Gaza unimpeded, demolishing at will. But their presence near aid sites such as those set up by the U.S. and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has led to routine massacres. When contractors move too close to crowds, Israeli soldiers who are tasked with protecting them open fire indiscriminately and provoke security incidents in order to gain additional military protection, Haaretz reported. "And people are killed." An unnamed soldier admitted that commanders often approve lethal force without justification: "Sometimes merely asking the question annoys the commanders."

A culture of demolition celebrities

Many operators are recruited from extremist settler communities. Rabbi Avraham Zarbib, a settler from Beit El, has become a social media star, posting celebratory videos of himself destroying Palestinian homes. "We will defeat this damn village until the end, until the victory, until the settlement!" Zarbib declared in one video filmed in Khan Younis. "We will not give up until this village is wiped out." Far-right politicians even eulogize fallen operators, praising their destruction. MP Tzvi Sukkot of the Religious Zionist Party honored David Libi, a settler killed while demolishing homes, calling him "directly responsible for the greatest achievement of the war in wiping out tens of thousands of homes." Two civilian-run operations, under the Ministry of Defense’s umbrella, oversee Gaza demolitions—one for northern Gaza, led by ex-military officer Golan Vach (brother of Yehuda Vach, allegedly responsible for enforcing "kill zones"), and another for southern Gaza, overseen by Bezalel Zini, whose brother is Netanyahu’s controversial pick to lead Shin Bet. No accountability exists, only profit-driven erasure. More than 56,200 Palestinians have been killed since October, many buried under the rubble contractors helped create. The Israeli government actively incentivizes annihilation, turning war into a for-profit enterprise. Families starve while bulldozers escorted by trigger-happy soldiers cash in on their misery, and the rest of the world is doing nothing to stop it. Sources for this article include: MiddleEastEye.net MiddleEastMonitor.com NewArab.com

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