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Israeli forces bombed and leveled the building housing the headquarters of a top Palestinian human rights group on Monday, just days after the organization was sanctioned by the Trump administration for its participation in an International Criminal Court (ICC) case against Israeli officials.
On Monday, Israeli military spokesperson Avichay Adraee issued a warning that Israeli forces would be attacking the Al-Roya Tower in Gaza City in a post on social media. Adraee posted a graphic highlighting the building, a 12-story civilian building.
The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights’s (PCHR) office was located on the top floor, and has already been “bombarded and extensively damaged” as well as used by Israeli forces as a military base. The group’s other two offices, in Khan Yunis and Jabalia, had already been completely destroyed by Israeli raids, the group said.
Along with PCHR’s office, the tower hosts “media offices, medical clinics, sports facilities, and other civilian offices and companies,” the group said.
Just a few hours later, Israel bombed the building, completely collapsing it to the ground, video footage showed. The building was situated next to an area full of tents housing displaced Palestinians. One person was reportedly killed in the strike.
“PCHR’s Headquarters Office in Gaza City, located in Al-Roya Tower, has just been completely destroyed by IOF’s warplanes, as part of Israel’s ongoing systematic attacks targeting high rise buildings in the City, in another war crime committed against the Palestinian people and their institutions,” the group said in a post after the strike.
Indeed, Israel has targeted numerous high rise buildings in Gaza City, many of them residential or otherwise civilian, in the past weeks of its escalated raid of the populous region. Residents have described having just minutes to evacuate areas that Israel has threatened.
Israel’s Defense Minister, Israel Katz, threatened even more violence in a post on social media on Monday, as the official death toll nears 65,000 people, including nearly 19,500 children.
“A mighty hurricane will hit the skies of Gaza City today,” he said. “Release the hostages and lay down your weapons — or Gaza will be destroyed, and you will be annihilated.”
PCHR has been crucial in documenting Israel’s atrocities from the ground amid the genocide. Just on the day of the strike, the group issued a report documenting Israel’s siege on Gaza City, noting Israeli bombings and killings and recording testimony from Palestinians who had witnessed attacks.
The attack comes just four days after Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that the U.S. would be placing sanctions on PCHR and two other top Palestinian human rights groups, Al-Haq and Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights. He cited the groups’ participation in “efforts by the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute Israeli nationals, without Israel’s consent.”
Al-Mezan condemned the strike. “A few days after being unjustly sanctioned by the United States for our legitimate accountability work, Israel bombed and destroyed the building that housed the headquarters of PCHR. Full solidarity with our colleagues,” the group said.
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