Dozens in North Gaza Dying Under Rubble as Israel Blocks Rescue Missions
Israeli forces are carrying out field executions of civilians in north Gaza and causing dozens to die under the rubble as Israel carries out its horrific all-out siege of the region, a rights group has reported.
According to a report by Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, Israeli forces are “terrorizing” civilians in north Gaza, forcing them to evacuate their homes and killing Palestinians on sight in some cases, in front of their families.
The forced evacuation of the region “constitutes one of the largest cases of forced displacement in modern history,” the group warned.
“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,” the group said.
The report included a harrowing testimony by a woman and her sister about an Israeli execution targeting their family. Last week, Israeli forces killed a 58-year-old man, Khaled Mustafa Ismail Al-Shafai, and his 21-year-old son, Ibrahim, inside their home in Beit Lahia, as the man’s wife and their young children watched.
“My sister Hiyafa was collapsed over her husband and son, begging to say goodbye to them, but the 12 soldiers present refused,” Tamam Abdel Maqadmeh said of the killing. Israeli forces were besieging the area where the family was sheltering in Beit Lahia when they broke into the house and immediately shot the two men.
“My sister kept repeating, ‘They executed them in front of me,’” Maqadmeh said. Euro-Med Monitor noted that Hiyafa and her children now have “severe psychological trauma” and that Hafiya refuses to speak to people.
In addition to those killed directly by soldiers, Israeli forces are killing untold numbers of Palestinians as a result of their blockade of humanitarian aid and targeting of rescue workers.
Euro-Med Monitor’s field team has documented dozens of Palestinians dying under rubble, the group said. For weeks, Israeli forces have blocked the UN from entering the region to rescue people from under collapsed buildings while Israel’s violence has forced civil defense teams to halt altogether in north Gaza.
Just on Sunday and Monday, Israeli forces killed at least 70 people taking shelter in Beit Lahia and Gaza City in strikes on residential buildings. Rescuers pulled at least 34 bodies from the rubble of a building destroyed by a strike on Beit Lahia on Sunday.
Meanwhile, thousands in the region are starving, as Israel has been blocking all food aid from entering the region since it began its eliminationist siege at the beginning of last month. According to one man sheltering in north Gaza, Euro-Med Monitor found, there are roughly 5,000 people sheltering in three schools in Beit Lahia. There is no food or other basic supplies at any of the shelters, and many who go out to seek supplies never return, according to the witness Euro-Med Monitor refers to as A.J.
“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,” A.J. said. “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.”
Because the Gaza government is unable to count deaths of those not reported through official sources like hospitals, deaths caused by starvation or being trapped under rubble are likely going uncounted.