Euro-Med
Human Rights Monitor documented dozens of deliberate killings and new field
executions carried out by Israeli occupation forces against numerous civilians
in northern Gaza.
Smoke rises from a residential building
folloiwng an Israeli strike in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza Strip, 1
November 2024 (AFP)
These
actions are part of the ongoing escalation and the broader framework of
genocide perpetrated against Palestinians for over 13 months.
For
the past 43 days, the Israeli army has been conducting its third incursion and
military offensive against northern Gaza and its residents, committing heinous
atrocities. These include killing and terrorising civilians, forcibly evicting
them from their homes, and displacing them outside northern Gaza province. This
constitutes one of the largest cases of forced displacement in modern history.
Among
the numerous atrocities committed by Israeli forces—ranging from bombing homes
with residents inside, to mass killings of displaced civilians in shelters, and
the targeting of gatherings and vehicles—Euro-Med Monitor’s field team
documented harrowing incidents of direct killings and extrajudicial executions
of civilians by Israeli soldiers, carried out with no justification whatsoever.
Euro-Med
Monitor’s field team documented the killing of Khaled Mustafa Ismail Al-Shafai
(58) and his eldest son Ibrahim (21) by Israeli forces. They were shot inside
their home in Beit Lahia in front of their family on Wednesday, 13 November
2024.
Tamam
Abdel Maqadmeh (61), a resident of Beit Lahia, shared the harrowing details of
the crime with the Euro-Med Monitor team.
“Conditions
worsened in Al-Shemaa Street, Beit Lahia, due to heavy artillery and aerial
bombardment. As a result, we moved from our home near Al-Shemaa Clinic to the
Abbas Kilani area in the middle of Al-Shemaa Street. I went to my sister’s
house, who is married to a member of the Omar family, as did my sister Haifa,
her husband Khaled Al-Shafai, and their nine children. We gathered in the
two-story house; my sister married to the Al-Shafai family, her husband, and
children stayed on the ground floor, while I stayed with my family and my
sister married to the Omar family on the first floor,” Maqadmeh recounted.
“On Wednesday, Israeli occupation
forces began advancing into the area where we were sheltering. We stayed
trapped in the house, and less than two hours later, the forces blew open the
door and stormed the building. I stayed upstairs with my family, while my
sister Haifa, her husband Khaled Mustafa Ismail Al-Shafai (58), and their
children remained on the ground floor. We heard gunfire but were too afraid to
look and stayed huddled together in a single room upstairs. Within minutes, the
soldiers entered and ordered us to evacuate quickly towards the eastern area
near Beit Lahia Stadium and Abu Tammam School.”
Maqadmeh
continued:
“When we descended to the ground
floor, I found my brother-in-law Khaled lying dead with two gunshots to his
abdomen, blood streaming from him. His eldest son, Ibrahim (21), had been shot
in the head. I stood in shock for moments before a soldier threatened me to
move or be shot. We were about 26 people in total. My sister Hiyafa was
collapsed over her husband and son, begging to say goodbye to them, but the 12
soldiers present refused. We tried to pull her away as she kept saying, ‘They
executed them in front of me. We rushed out of the house as a quadcopter drone
hovered above us, with approximately 15 soldiers stationed around the house. My
sister kept repeating, ‘They executed them in front of me.’ On our way out, my
sister recounted that as soon as the soldiers blew open the door and stormed
in, they immediately shot her husband and son while they stood at the side of
the room. They killed them without them moving a muscle.”
The
wife of the victim said:
“They ordered us to leave quickly. I
tried to pull my husband and son, but they refused to let anyone near them,
threatening us with guns to leave. This happened in front of the small
children—four boys and four girls—who witnessed their father and brother
executed before their eyes.”
The
Euro-Med Monitor team noted that Haifa and her children continue to suffer from
severe psychological trauma, with Haifa refusing to speak to anyone.
At
the time of documenting this testimony, the bodies of the man and his son
remain at the site of their execution, as the family and rescue teams have been
unable to retrieve them.
Thousands
of other Palestinians trapped in northern Gaza suffer from hunger and fear.
Those
injured are often unable to receive treatment or even be transported to medical
facilities, leading many to die slowly due to the lack of life-saving medical
care.
Euro-Med
Monitor documented dozens of victims who perished under the rubble after their
homes were bombed, as Israeli forces have prevented humanitarian teams from
working for 25 consecutive days.
A.J.
(54 years old) – whose name Euro-Med Monitor has withheld for his safety as he
remains in a high-risk area – provided testimony about the siege, starvation
tactics, and field executions carried out by the Israeli military in Beit
Lahia: “For the past 10 days, Beit Lahia has been under an extensive Israeli
campaign, forcing people from their homes into specific gathering points
designated by the military. The Israeli army raids homes, detains some
residents, and orders others to move to the eastern part of the town near Abu
Tammam School. Currently, the residents of Beit Lahia are concentrated in three
adjacent shelters near the Beit Lahia Municipal Stadium: Abu Tammam School,
Beit Lahia Preparatory School, and Beit Lahia Secondary School,” he said.
“I sleep in the entrance of Abu Tammam
School because of overcrowding in the shelter. My wife, who was seriously
injured earlier, suffers from a severe deterioration in her condition. She is
bedridden but is forced to lie on the floor due to the lack of a bed, despite
her dire need for one as she is paralyzed. Any resident attempting to return to
their home to sleep is targeted; their house is bombed, and artillery shells
are fired to force them out. Currently, there is no food available for the
approximately 5,000 people sheltering in the three schools. To secure food,
displaced people risk venturing out to their homes to retrieve any remaining
supplies. Dozens who attempted to do so have not returned, as they were
executed in the streets.”
Euro-Med
Monitor also highlighted the testimony of a Palestinian from the Hamouda family
who managed to reach his home near the western roundabout and retrieve a bag of
flour. On his way back, he recounted:
“While returning, I saw dogs mauling
the corpses of five young men lying on the roadside—people I knew from the
Zayed and Rajab families.”
He
added:
“Beside one of the victims, there was
a bag of flour. It seems he had successfully retrieved it from his home, but
the Israeli army shot him as he was returning to the shelter. The food
situation in the three shelters is extremely dire. Any food we manage to secure
from nearby homes is distributed primarily to children, followed by the elderly
in smaller portions. Young adults receive, at best, a single loaf of bread per
day.”
Euro-Med
Human Rights Monitor reaffirms that the international community’s reluctance to
take decisive action against Israel’s massacres in the Gaza Strip, particularly
in northern Gaza, makes it complicit in these crimes and grants Israel a green
light to escalate its genocide. This also reflects a shocking disregard for the
lives and dignity of Palestinians.
The
international system, including the International Criminal Court, the European
Union, and various United Nations bodies, has collectively failed to achieve
the fundamental goals and principles upon which they were founded.
Over
the past 13 months, they have demonstrated a disgraceful failure to protect
civilians and halt the genocide Israel is perpetrating against Palestinians in
Gaza, a duty that lies at the core of their mission and existence.
Euro-Med
Human Rights Monitor calls on the United Nations and the international
community to immediately intervene to save hundreds of thousands of residents
in northern Gaza, stop Israel’s ongoing genocide for the second consecutive
year, impose a comprehensive arms embargo on Israel, hold it accountable for
all its crimes, and take all practical measures to protect Palestinian
civilians in the strip.
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