Collective punishment is the Israeli practice of punishing entire Palestinian families, neighbourhoods, communities or cities for the act of one or a few.
Forms of punishment include the sealing or demolishing of homes, imposing curfews, erecting roadblocks, confiscating personal property, uprooting trees, destroying agricultural land and infrastructure (e.g. water systems) and closing commercial, education and cultural sites. In Gaza, collective punishment of the people has resulted in a massive humanitarian crisis.
Collective punishment is expressively forbidden by article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention and by Israel’s own laws.