An Israeli researcher to Anadolu: Tel Aviv's goal is to make Gaza uninhabitable.

The head of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD), anthropologist Jeff Halper, stated that Tel Aviv is seeking, through its military operations since October 2023, to make the Gaza Strip uninhabitable through the systematic destruction of homes and infrastructure.

Halper explained that Israel has destroyed approximately 300,000 homes in Gaza since the outbreak of its latest aggression, as part of a policy of "ongoing ethnic cleansing" aimed at displacing Palestinians and establishing a "unified Zionist Israel."

He pointed out that since the Nakba of 1948, Israel has demolished nearly half a million buildings belonging to Palestinians, including homes, mosques, churches, and schools, emphasizing that the destruction in Gaza "exceeds military objectives to completely eliminate the foundations of civilian life."

Halper criticized the Israeli and international plans proposed for the reconstruction of the sector, indicating that Palestinians are completely excluded from these projects, and that some of them "serve the interests of foreign investors and illegal settlers."

The researcher estimated the cost of reconstructing Gaza at about $80 billion, warning that any process managed from abroad without Palestinian participation would be "a disguised new colonialism."

Halper also warned of a threat to religious sites in Gaza after the destruction of many historical mosques and churches, stating that "there is a real danger of converting mosques into synagogues if Israel continues to impose the reality of a complete Jewish state on Palestine."