Israel/OPT: HD Hyundai must immediately ensure that its machinery is not linked to human rights abuses in the occupied Palestinian territory

The HD Hyundai Group, including HD Hyundai and Hyundai Infracore (formerly Doosan Infracore), must suspend the sale of its products in Israel until it can ensure that its machinery is not linked to violations of human rights and international humanitarian law resulting from home demolitions in the occupied Palestinian territory (OPT), Amnesty International Korea said today ahead of HD Hyundai’s annual shareholder meeting.

Amnesty International Korea is also calling on the shareholders and all other investors of HD Hyundai to require the company to conduct heightened human rights due diligence in accordance with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. The findings should be published in a formal report on how the company will address the risk of its machinery being used in severe violations of human rights and grave breaches of international humanitarian law.

In response to a letter from Amnesty International, HD Hyundai XiteSolution, the parent company of HD Hyundai CE and HD Hyundai Infracore, stated that it includes a prohibition on illegal sales in its supply contracts and asserts that it is not involved in the violations described below.

Israeli forces demolish Palestinian homes with HD Hyundai Group’s machinery

In collaboration with local human rights organizations^[1], Amnesty International Korea collected visual evidence documenting demolitions of Palestinian-owned structures in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Gaza involving HD Hyundai machinery. Amnesty International Korea and Amnesty international’s Evidence Lab verified 347 images and videos of demolitions and identified a total of 59 Palestinian owned structures, homes and businesses, that were demolished using HD Hyundai and Hyundai Infracore heavy machinery between September 2019 and February 2025, resulting in the forced displacement of approximately 250 Palestinians and damage to their livelihoods.

Notably, one of the verified demolitions, involving Hyundai Infracore machinery, took place in Rafah, Gaza, on 1 November 2024, during the ongoing genocide.

This is a conservative estimate, given that more visual evidence is available.

Furthermore, in October 2024, Amnesty International Korea, in collaboration with the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem, gathered testimonies from eight victims whose homes and businesses were destroyed by HD Hyundai bulldozers in eight instances across the West Bank (Jericho, Bethlehem, and Hebron governorates and East Jerusalem), from June 2022 to September 2024.

HD Hyundai Construction Equipment and HD Hyundai Infracore stated in their response to Amnesty International’s findings that they believe the equipment used at the site is “second–hand” and that in these circumstances, as the manufacturer, they do not intervene in the use of their products. However, the HD Hyundai Group did not provide further information to demonstrate the basis for their belief that the machinery documented being used in unlawful demolitions in the OPT was purchased on the second–hand market.

These demolitions, regardless of their formal pretext, are part of a broader policy by Israeli authorities to displace Palestinians and serve as a key tool in Israel’s system of apartheid.

According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Israel has demolished over 12,000 structures including homes, agricultural roads, and essential infrastructure in the West Bank since 2009, affecting over 770,000 Palestinians and displacing at least 20,000.^[2]

In tandem with Israel’s genocide in occupied Gaza after 7 October 2023,^[3] demolitions in the West Bank have surged significantly. In 2023 alone, a total of 1,177 structures were destroyed in the West Bank, surging to a record high of 1,768 demolitions in 2024, the highest number since the UN began documenting demolitions in 2009.^[4]

Under international humanitarian law, Israel, as the occupying power, is prohibited from destroying the private property of Palestinians in occupied territory, unless it is rendered necessary by militarily operations.^[5] Israel is also prohibited from forcibly displacing the occupied population except as part of a temporary evacuation for their security or for imperative military reasons.^[6] In the absence of military necessity, demolitions of private property belonging to Palestinians in occupied territory may constitute grave breaches of international humanitarian law that amount to war crimes.^[7]

In its most recent advisory opinion in July 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) rejected Israel’s claim that such home demolitions are lawful due to the residents’ alleged lack of a building permit.

The ICJ concluded that “Israel’s planning policy in relation to the issuance of building permits [in the OPT], and its practice of property demolition for lack of a building permit, constitutes differential treatment of Palestinians in the enjoyment of their right to be protected from arbitrary or unlawful interference with privacy, family and home, as guaranteed under Article 17, paragraph 1, of the International covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which Israel is a party to, and “prohibited discrimination, in violation of Articles 2, paragraph 1, and 26 of the ICCPR, Article 2, paragraph 2, of the ICESCR, and Article 2 of CERD.”^[8]

The ICJ further stated that Israel’s policies and practices in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, including its planning policy, implements a “separation between the Palestinian population and the settlers transferred by Israel to the territory” which “constitute a breach of Article 3 of CERD” prohibiting racial segregation and apartheid.^[9]

Amnesty International has also found that the repeated destruction of civilian objects and infrastructure and of cultural and religious sites after Israel had gained military control over them, including through bulldozing and controlled demolitions, indicates genocidal intent by the Israeli authorities.^[10]

 

Testimonies from victims of home demolitions in the OPT

Amnesty International Korea, in collaboration with B’Tselem, interviewed residents and documented testimonies from Palestinians whose homes were destroyed using HD Hyundai machinery. The full stories are available on the Amnesty International Korea blog site.^[11]

Our house was demolished, and we are completely financially drained.”

Sohaib Rajab, a 33 year old man who lives in the Beit Hanina neighborhood of East Jerusalem, owned a two-story building built in 1996 with his wife, three children, and his father’s extended family of six others. His house was destroyed by HD Hyundai bulldozers twice, in 2021 and 2023, for lack of a building permit. As a result, the families now live in two rented homes, each costing $1,500 a month. This has placed a huge financial burden on Sohaib and his family. Nearly 70% of Palestinian families in East Jerusalem live below the poverty line.

Palestinian families whose homes are demolished by the authorities are also charged hefty demolition fees. Faced with such financial penalties, many Palestinians in East Jerusalem have little alternative but to demolish their homes with their hands.

“In early 2023, two Hyundai bulldozers demolished our home. We appealed, but the court rejected it and issued a final demolition order, requiring us to demolish the house ourselves. We refused, and now the authorities will charge us for the bulldozer rental and labor costs.When we refused to demolish the house in 2021, we were charged 174,000 shekels ($48,800). If we refuse to pay these additional costs now, we fear what legal consequences we may face. Our home was demolished, and we are completely financially drained. This is both a psychological and financial burden.”

Hyundai bulldozer destroyed the water well we’ve used for 20 years.”

Osama Abu Aram, a 28-year-old man who lives near the town of Yatta in the southern West Bank, had recently been told by his lawyer that the implementation of the demolition order against his home had been postponed. However, on October 9, 2024, two Hyundai excavators and a bulldozer from another manufacturer, as well as Israeli military and civil administration vehicles, arrived without warning to demolish his home.

“I told the person in charge of the demolition that my lawyer was working on the case, but he ignored it and said, ‘In three minutes, the demolition will start; you have seven minutes to remove what you can from inside the house. They cut the electricity wires, and one bulldozer destroyed the roof of the well I built 20 years ago. I had been planning to marry and start my family in this house, which I built three years ago to live independently and with dignity. I had invested years of hard work and 240,000 shekels ($68,800) into the house, but the excavator flattened the house in 30 minutes. The bulldozer then dumped debris into the well, making the water unusable before leaving.”

We sheltered in a tent after our home was demolished, and even that was taken away [confiscated].”

Yaaqoub Barqan, a 35-year-old plumber lived in the village of Birin near the city of Hebron in the southern West Bank with his wife and three children. After their first house was demolished in 2019, they built a new house in 2020, which also received a demolition order that same year. Although Yaaqoub prepared land registration documents with his lawyer to prevent the demolition, the Israeli military nevertheless arrived on July 4, 2024, and turned this home into rubble.

“About 30 armed soldiers arrived in military jeeps, along with three pieces of heavy equipment, including a Hyundai excavator. The excavator destroyed the 90 square meter brick and tin house in less than 20 minutes. That day, nine more houses in the village were demolished. The villagers who lost their homes set up five tents and sat inside them, but [at] around 10 p.m., settlers in military uniforms came, pointed guns at us, and caused a disturbance. A few days later, the military came back and seized all of our tents.”

My wife fainted watching our home being destroyed and is still receiving psychiatric treatment.”

Saher Hajahjeh, a 54-year-old man, built a house with his father in the village of Tuqu in Bethlehem governorate in the southern West Bank, to live in with his wife and four children. However, about a year after the house was built, he received a demolition order from the Israeli military’s Civil Administration. He filed an appeal to halt the demolition with support from human rights organizations, but while Saher was at work on August 20, 2024, the military arrived and started destroying his home.

“When the demolition started, my wife, Nada, watched from the window of my uncle’s house next door. She couldn’t bear to see the house being destroyed and fainted. She was treated in an ambulance and taken to the hospital, where she was given a sedative. She is still receiving psychiatric treatment.”

 

HD Hyundai’s Responsibility to Respect Human Rights  

Following Amnesty International’s research in 2023 showing the use of HD Hyundai Group’s machinery in Israel’s illegal demolitions^[12], the HD Hyundai group has failed to take the necessary steps to prevent the use of their machinery in these abuses in accordance with its responsibility to respect human rights.

There is a clear global consensus that all companies have a responsibility to respect human rights throughout their global operations as reflected in the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, and the HD Hyundai Group is no exception^[13]. The corporate responsibility to respect human rights applies over and above obligations to comply with domestic laws and regulations.^[14]

While the HD Hyundai group told Amnesty that they have added provisions related to the protection of human rights in their standard contracts, this responsibility also requires companies to conduct human rights due diligence throughout their entire value chain to identify, prevent, and mitigate any actual or potential involvement in human rights abuses.^[15] According to the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, corporate actors also have an obligation to abide by international humanitarian law when their operations are connected to areas of armed conflict and occupation.^[16]

The standard of human rights due diligence required is heightened with respect to business activity impacting conflict-affected areas, including occupied territories, because business operations in these regions carry a higher risk of involvement in human rights violations.^[17]

In these contexts, heightened human rights due diligence requires that companies conduct an ongoing assessment of the conflict more broadly, including by reviewing independent reporting on the conflict by inter-governmental organizations, international and local NGOs, and community groups to identify and log all instances of involvement of their products in incidents of suspected violations of international human rights and humanitarian law.

The HD Hyundai Group is thus required to conduct due diligence throughout their entire value chain, from the point of origin to the end users of their machinery to determine whether their operations, products or services may be directly linked to human rights abuses. The term “directly linked” is defined to include a wide range of substantive connections to a company‘s operations, products or services; as such, a human rights harm may be directly linked to a company’s products via indirect business relationships beyond the first tier.^[18]

The HD Hyundai Group’s products may be directly linked to human rights abuses not only where an unlawful demolition was conducted with machinery purchased from its Israeli distributor EFCO but also where the company or its agents provide maintenance or other post-sale services, such as enabling its Hi-Mate telematics remote management system developed in 2008 that provides real-time usage data to customers^[19], even when the product was purchased on the second-hand market. If there is such a direct link, the HD Hyundai Group should use the leverage it has with its business relationships, including with its Israeli distributor EFCO, to prevent the use of its machinery in unlawful demolitions in the OPT or, if it lacks said leverage, to either seek to increase its leverage or to responsibly end those business relationships.^[20]

In response to Amnesty International’s letter presenting the HD Hyundai Group with its findings, the company said that in their view the recommendation to halt exports to Israel and investigate its use in the region was “an unreasonable demand”.

Since the HD Hyundai Group’s machinery continues to be used in unlawful demolitions in the OPT despite it being placed on notice and provided a reasonable opportunity to respond, it appears that the HD Hyundai Group has either not carried out heightened human rights due diligence or it has taken inadequate action in response to any findings from such a process which have failed to prevent the use of its machinery in violations of international human rights and humanitarian law.

Therefore, Amnesty International Korea concludes that the HD Hyundai Group has failed to abide by its responsibility to respect human rights in accordance with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.

 

Unanswered Questions 

Amnesty International Korea first contacted HD Hyundai Construction and Equipment in March 2023 to inform the company about the use of its machinery in unlawful home demolitions in the OPT and inquire about the company’s human rights due diligence and compliance measures with regard to its Israeli distributor, EFCO. Hyundai CE had stated at the time that it was not “engaged in Israeli settlement activities”, but did not provide details on any human rights due diligence conducted.^[21]

In March 2024, in a response to media inquiries, HD Hyundai claimed that it had reviewed its dealer’s records before Amnesty International Korea’s 2023 press conference, asserting that no sales records to government agencies, such as for demolition work in Israel, were found and compliance regulations were in place.^[22]

However, Amnesty International Korea’s investigation has revealed at least 32 shipments of HD Hyundai heavy machinery to EFCO were made between October 2021 and October 2023, along with 12 shipments of Hyundai Infracore equipment to Emcol Ltd during the same period.^[23]

Amnesty International Korea contacted HD Hyundai again on 16 October 2024 and 17 March 2025 on its implementation of human rights due diligence, as well as availability of specific compliance regulations.

HD Hyundai XiteSolution (the parent company of HD Hyundai CE and HD Hyundai Infracore) sent a response on 25 March 2025 where it claimed that it “has no involvement with activities in the said conflict regions.” However, the company did not respond directly to the questions posed^[24] by Amnesty International Korea. The full response from HD Hyundai to Amnesty International’s findings is included at the bottom of this publication as an appendix.

Amnesty International Korea also wrote to EFCO, HD Hyundai CE’s sole distributor in Israel and to Emcol, Hyundai Infracore’s major distributor in Israel on 17 March 2025, but at the time of publication no response had been received.

Amnesty International Korea calls on the HD Hyundai Group to immediately suspend the distribution of its products in Israel until it conducts heightened human rights due diligence to ensure that its machinery is not directly linked to violations of international law.

Amnesty International Korea also calls on the shareholders and all other investors of HD Hyundai to ensure that heightened human rights due diligence is conducted in accordance with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and that the company publishes a formal report on how it will address the risk of its machinery being used in severe violations of human rights and grave breaches of international humanitarian law. This report should make transparent the full text of all relevant clauses in the company’s contract with EFCO and in their sales contracts with their customers that prevents the use of machinery in unlawful demolitions. Provision should be made in these contracts for termination of maintenance and other post-sale services when a customer has been found to have used machinery in high-risk areas for human rights abuses.

Amnesty International Korea Campaign director Garam Jang Park said, “HD Hyundai Group’s machinery is still being used in unlawful demolitions in the OPT, indicating a clear breach of its international obligations to protect human rights wherever it operates. HD Hyundai must take all possible measures to ensure that the human rights harms. linked to its products are prevented and mitigated.”

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[Appendix]  

The full response from Hyundai XiteSolution  

 HD Hyundai Construction Equipment and HD Hyundai Infracore have stated multiple times that we include compliance regulations in our contracts to prohibit illegal sales and have no involvement with activities in the mentioned conflict regions.

We have added provisions related to ‘human rights protection’ in our standard contracts and have confirmed to Amnesty International that HD Hyundai is not involved.

The equipment used at the site is believed to be second-hand, and as the manufacturer, we cannot intervene in the use or intellectual property rights of second-hand products.

The request to halt exports to Israel and send a fact-finding mission to the conflict regions to retrieve the equipment is considered an unreasonable demand in view of employee safety and the management rights of a private company.

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1. Active Stills, B’Tselem

2. UN OCHA. “Demolition Database.” https://www.ochaopt.org/data/demolition

3.<‘You Feel Like You Are Subhuman’: Israel’s Genocide Against Palestinians in Gaza, 2024, https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/mde15/8668/2024/en/ (Index: MDE 15/8668/2024); Amnesty International, Israel: Palestinian armed groups must be held accountable for deliberate civilian killings, abductions and indiscriminate attacks, 12 October 2023, https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2023/10/israel-palestinian-armed-groups-must-be-held-accountable-for-deliberate-civilian-killings-abductions-and-indiscriminate-attacks

4. UN OCHA. “Demolition Database.” https://www.ochaopt.org/data/demolition

5. Geneva Convention (IV) Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, 12 August 1949, Article 53; Regulations concerning the Laws and Customs of War on Land, The Hague, 18 October 1907, as annexed to Convention (IV) respecting the Laws and Customs of War on Land, Article 23(g).

6. Geneva Convention (IV) Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, 12 August 1949, Article 49(1).

7. Geneva Convention (IV) Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, 12 August 1949, Article 147; Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, 17 July 1998, Articles 8(2)(a)(iv), 8(2)(a)(vii), 8(2)(b)(viii), 8(2)(b)(xiii).

8. International Court of Justice, Advisory Opinion, Legal Consequences Arising from the Policies and Practices of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, 19 July 2024, paras. 220-222.

9. International Court of Justice, Advisory Opinion, Legal Consequences Arising from the Policies and Practices of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, 19 July 2024, para. 229. ‘You Feel Like You Are Subhuman’: Israel’s Genocide Against Palestinians in Gaza, 2024, p.31.

10. Amnesty International, ’You Feel Like You are Subhuman’: Israel’s Genocide Against Palestinians in Gaza, p. 31, https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/mde15/8668/2024/en/ (Index: MDE 15/8668/2024).

11. //campaign/What-to-Know-About-HD-Hyundais-Alleged-Role-in-Palestinian-Home-Demolitions/

12. Amnesty International. 2023. “Israel/OPT: Hyundai CE Must End Link with War Crimes in Masafer Yatta.” Amnesty International, March 16, 2023. https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2023/03/israel-opt-hyundai-ce-must-end-link-with-war-crimes-in-masafer-yatta/

UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, Principles 11 and 14.

13. UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, Commentary to Principle 11.

14. UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, Principle 1

15. UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, Principle 17.

16. International Committee of the Red Cross, Private Business and Armed Conflict: An Introduction to Relevant Rules of International Humanitarian Law, 2024.

17. United Nations Development Programme, Heightened Human Rights Due Diligence for business in conflict-affected contexts: A Guide, 2022, https://www.undp.org/publications/heightened-human-rights-due-diligence-business-conflict-affected-contexts-guide

18. Expert letters and statements on the application of the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises and UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights in the context of the financial sector, Note by the Chair of the Negotiations on the 2011 Revision of the Guidelines, regarding the Terminology on “Directly Linked”, June 2014, https://mneguidelines.oecd.org/global-forum/GFRBC-2014-financial-sector-document-3.pdf

19. HD Hyundai Construction Equipment. “Hi-MATE: Hyundai’s Advanced Remote Management System.” HD Hyundai Construction Equipment, Web. 7 Mar. 2025. https://www.hd-hyundaice.com/en/media/newsletter/view?detailsKey=1358

20. UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, Commentary to Principle 19.

21. The Fact News, “HD 현대건설기계…이스라엘-하마스 전쟁 뜻밖에 ‘난관'” , 2024. 3. 29, https://news.tf.co.kr/read/economy/2086579.htm

22. Amnesty International. 2023. “Israel/OPT: Hyundai CE Must End Link with War Crimes in Masafer Yatta.” Amnesty International, March 16, 2023. https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2023/03/israel-opt-hyundai-ce-must-end-link-with-war-crimes-in-masafer-yatta/

23. [HD Hyundai Infracore shipment results], Retrieved March 12, 2025, via Sayari, a commercial risk intelligence provider

24. Letter to HD Hyundai from Amnesty International Korea