12PM Gaza Time
The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) military attacked on the Gaza Strip continued for 18 days today. Attacks on civilians and civlian structure have caused high numbers of civilian casualties, making up 79% of the total casualties. In a new IOF crime, artillery shells were fired into an IDPs shelter operated by the UN agency UNRWA, killing at least 11 civilians; including six children and two women, and injuring at least 100. The IOF's attack on the town of Khuza'a, in the east of Khan Younis district, continued to claim more civilian lives due to IOF attacks that breach international law. Attacks on unarmed civilians as they were fleeing their homes, or trying to approach they evacuated homes to bring essentials also contined. More attacks on ambulances were also reported, with IOF also preventing ambulances from evacuating the injured.
There are at least 200,000 displaced people in the Gaza Strip; more than 100,000 of whom were sheltered in UNRWA schools. The rest sought shelter in government schools or with relatives and friends. Many IDP's were killed from IOF attacks on houses or shelters they resorted to during the past few days.
According to the field investigations by Al Mezan Centre for Human Rights, as of 12pm today, on Friday 25 July 2014, at least 828 Palestinians have been verified as killed by the IOF; including 191 children and 103 women. According to Al Mezan's initial investigations 659 (i.e. 79.9%) of the victims are civilians. Many others were people known to be affiliated by Palestinian factions, but not taking part in any hostilities. At least 389 (47%; 136 children and 88 women) were killed inside their houses; and two other disabled women were killed in an attack on a rehabilitation NGO's office. Of the 389, eighteen were combatants and the rest were civilians. Another 118 people were killed in the vicinity of their houses; including in situations where they were trying to flee from their homes as a result of IOF attacks. Three of those were identified as combatants.
Moreover, at least 4,081 other people were injured during the same period; of whom at least 1,138 were children and 832 women. At least, 3,844 houses were destroyed or damaged during this period; of which 486 were destroyed completely as the IOF directly and deliberately attacked 719 of the total number of damaged houses. For example, the Al Salam apartment building is counted as one house in the total number above. The numbers of casualties and houses are not final, but only those verified by Al Mezan thus far. They are expected to rise as the verification of more cases is on-going. IOF attacks also damaged or destroyed 56 schools, 77 mosques, an ambulance centre, 20 NGO offices, 39 fishing boats and 7 hospitals.
The IOF incursion into the eastern parts of Khan Younis district continued in the town of Khuza'a and Al-Zanna area in the east of Bani Suhaila town as well as the Al Qarara town. Ground incusrions also continued in the eastern neighborhoods of Gaza City; including the Al Sheja'ya, Al Sha'af and Al Tuffah, and in parts of the northern Gaza towns of Beit lahiya and Beit Hanoun close to the borderline between Gaza and Israel. Ambulances are still targeted and paramedics are obstructed from performing their duties. Dozens of citizens are being detained while there are reports about arresting hundreds of people. Furthermore, communication between hundreds of residents in these areas have been cut , the fate of the residents remain unknown. The IOF stopped an ambulance and arrested people from inside it.
Despite prior coordination with the IOF to evacuate the dead and the wounded in Khuza'a, the Israeli forces held two Red Crescent ambulances and one Red Cross ambulance at around 10 am on Thursday 24 July 2014. After two hours of searching the vehicles and the paramedics using sniffer dogs , IOF allowed them to enter the town and later arrested four people who were accompanying the wounded. The medical crews were only able to recover four bodies from under the rubble and four others who were wounded during the allotted two hours. Those who were dead were identified as:
- Rasmi Salim Abu Reideh, 55;
- Ahmed Mohammed Iqdeeh, 19;
- Rami Ra'ed Iqdeeh; 18; and
- Bader Hatem I'meish; 9.
At approximately 1:25 pm on Thursday 24 July 2014, an Israeli drone fired a missile targeting a man, Khader Al Llouh, 52, who was inBeit Lahiya town in the north of the Gaza Strip. Khader was killed in the strike. Khader is a resident of the area where the attack took place.
At around 1:30 pm on Thursday 24 July 2014, Israeli drones fired at least one missile at Tamam Mohammed Hamad, 66, who was standing on the roof of her house in Beit Hanoun town, north Gaza. She was killed, and her body was torn to pieces as a result of the attack.
At around 1:30 pm on Thursday 24 July 2014, Israeli drones fired at least one missile at a group of children who were on the Al Qaraman Street in Beit Hanoun town, north of the Gaza Strip. Three of the children were killed: Mohammed Jehad Matar, 12; his sister Amna, 11, and one child was fatally injured: Do'aa Raed Abu Odeh, 17, as a result of the attack. Medical sources at Beit Hanoun Hospital described her injury as 'critical' and transferred her to the Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, but she succumbed to her injury a few hours later. Ameer Youssef Abu Odeh, 28 was critically injured in the attack. According to Al Mezan's initial field investigations, the victims are residents of the area of the attack and had just returned to their evacuated houses to bring some basicneeds for their displaced families and leave again.
At around 2 pm on Thursday 24 July 2014, two dead bodies for persons from the Al Iskafi family; Anas Akram Al Skafi, 18, and his twin brother Sa'eed, were found under the rubble of their house in the Sheja'iya neighborhood in the east of Gaza City. They were transferred to the Shifa Hospital in the city.
At approximately 2:55 pm on Thursday 24 July 2014, IOF the IOF fired six shells at a UN school turned shelter for IDPs in the town of Beit Hanoun, north of the Gaza Strip. Eleven civilian IDPs who were inside the school were killed in the shelling, including six children. They are:
- Meryam Shayboub Al Shenbari, 11;
- Abed-Rabbo Shayboub Al Shenbari, 16;
- Ali Shayboub Al Shenbari, 9;
- Abed-Rabbo Jamal Al Shenbari, 17;
- Soha Abed-Rabbo Meslih, 2;
- Mohammed Akram Al Kafarneh, 15;
- Fatima Mohammed Al Shenbari, 47;
- Falasteen Hussein Al Shenbari, 40,
- Bilal Tawfeeq Al Shenbari, 21;
- Awad Abdel Majeed Abu Odeh, 39, and
- Hassan Abdallah Al Athamna, 62.
The shelling also injured about 110 including 55 children and 31 women. According to Al Mezan’s initial investigation into this attack, there were about 200 IDPs in the school at the time of the attack. They were preparing to evacuate the shelter when IOF shells hit them. One of the shells fell in the middle of the school, which had a UN flag and was converted into a shelter IDPs from Beit Hanoun following IOF's warnings ordering civilians to evacuate their houses. As a standard procedure, UNRWA provides the Israeli military with accurate details about the locations of its shelters and applies strict security measures to ensure that all the IDPs inside the shelters are unarmed civilians.
At approximately 3:20 pm on Thursday 24 July 2014, IOF fired an artillery shell at a group of civilians near the market in the Shejai'ya neighborhood, east of Gaza City, killing Tha'ir Shamali, 19, as he was shopping for food in the market.
At approximately 3:30 pm on Thursday 24 July 2014, Israeli artillery fired a shell at a group of people in the Al Shejai'ya neighborhood, east of Gaza City. One person, Abdel Azeez Nour, 21, was killed in the attack.
At around 4:30 pm on Thursday 24 July 2014, rescue teams recovered the dead body of Amer Abedel Ra'ouf Al Azab, 25, from Wadi AlSalqa village, south east Deir Al Balah town in the Middle Gaza district. He had been killed in a previous IOF attack.
At approximately 5:50 pm on Thursday 24 July 2014 , an Israeli drone fired a missile at a man who was walking on the street between the town of Rafah and the city of Khan Younis near the Al Sa'ada weddings hall. Residents in the area rushed to aid the injured man; however, another missile was fired at them, killing five:
- Mohammed Abdullah Al Najjar, 50;
- Ahmed Mohammed Al Najjar, 17 (his son);
- Ahmed Talal Al Najjar, 29;
- Ashraf Ibrahim Al Najjar, 22; and
- Mahmoud Jihad Abdeen, 12
Seven others were wounded, and were taken to both Nasser and the Gaza European hospitals.
At approximately 5:55 pm on Thursday 24 July 2014, IOF fired several artillery shells at the Al Satar Al Gharbi area in Khan Younis City. They exploded near the Al Astal family home. As a result, a woman, Sanaa Hassan Ali Al Astal, 45, was killed with her two sons, Ashraf Mahmoud Al Astal, 28; and Nabeel Mohammed Al Astal, 13.
At approximately 6:50 pm on Thursday 24 July 2014, Israeli warplanes bombarded and completely destroyed the house of Ahmed Atta Asfour in the town of Absan, east of Khan Younis district. As a result, two people were killed:
- Hani Jalal Asfour, 34; and
- Mohammed Yousef Al Qarra, 39.
On Thursday 24 July 2014, medical sources at the Gaza European Hospital in Khan Younis announced dead Laila Zoroub, 40. Laila was injured in an Israeli airstrike at around 4:05 am on Friday 18 July 2014 which targeted the house of Mohammed Zoroub without prior warning in north of Rafah. The house was completely destroyed and the house owner's child, Seham Zoroub, 11, was killed. Mohammed and his wife, Noura, 45, and his sons Tamer, 21, Ezziddine, 19; Azza, 17and ; Hamed, 13, were all injured in the airstrike. Four other people were also injured.
At approximately 10 pm on Thursday 24 July 2014, Israeli jet fighters fired one missile at a building next to the Deir Al Latin Church in the Al Zeitoun neighborhood, east of Gaza City. One person, Ibrahim Abu Laban, 27, was killed in the attack.
At approximately 8:45 pm on Thursday 24 July 2014, an Israeli drone fired three missiles at a group of people in the area of Ma'an southern Khan Younis. As a result five people were killed. They were identified as:
- Mohammed Rateb Abu Jazar, 26;
- Hisham Mohamed Abu Jazar, 23;
- Mohammed Farhan Abu Jazar, 19;
- Mahmoud Selmi Abu Rwishid, 49; and
- Shadi Suleiman Kawari', 31.
At approximately 9:00 pm on Thursday 24 July 2014, Israeli drones fired one missile at a group of people in the Tal Al Sultan neighborhood, west to Rafah town in the south of the Gaza Strip. Ra'ed Hussein Abedel 'Aal, 33, was injured moderately. Another two people were also injured: Mohammed Salman Al Mishwakhi, 22, and Mohammed Issam 'Abed, 16. They both sustained critical injuries.
At approximately 9:30 pm on Thursday 24 July 2014, medical sources at the Shifa Hospital announced the death of Mahmoud As'ad Ghaben, 23, who succumbed injuries he had sustained when, on Saturday 19 July 2014, IOF artillery shells were fired at the Beit Lahiya Square, killing a youngman and a child on the spot.
At approximately 2:30 am on Friday 25 July 25 2014, an Israeli warplane fired one missile at a house that belongs to Ibrahim Jamal Al Sheikh Ali, 28,which is located in Deir Al Balah town in the Middle Gaza district. The two-story-house which lies on an area of 180 square meters is inhabited by two families of five members. The house was completely destroyed in the attack. One woman, Shaimaa' Hussein Al Sheikh Ali, 23, was killed. The house owner Ibrahim and his sisters Soha, 30, and Mona,26; and his brother Mu'taz, 24, were all injured as a result of the attack. Several neighboring houses were also damaged including a house that belongs to the Basala family resulting in injuring Ahmed Ibrahim Basala, 19. Shaimaa', who was killed in the attack, was 9 months pregnant and her baby was delivered alive. Hospital sources informed Al Mezan that the baby was in a difficult condition, had a decent chance to survive.
At approximately 3 am on Friday 25 July 2014, medical sources at the Gaza European Hospital in Khan Younis announced the death of Rasha Abed-Rabbo Afana, 28, who succumbed to injures she had sustained on Monday, 21 July 2015 in Israeli artillery attack on houses in eastern Rafah. The attack resulted in injuring Ahmad Fayez Afana, 20; Rana Abed-Rabbo Afana, 27, and Mohammed Fayez Afana, 27, when they were inside their homes.
At approximately 3:15 am on Friday, 25 July 2014, an Israeli drone fired one missile at the house of the Fayyad family in the town of Deir Al Balah. One woman, Maram Fayyad, 26, was killed in the attack. Her grandmother, Futtoum, 70, and one of her relatives, Shifa, 45, were both injured. The house was completely destroyed, and several adjacent houses were damaged.
At approximately 6:30 am on Friday, 25 July 2014, Israeli drones bombarded the house of Mohammed Abu Qtifan, 48, which is located in Deir Al Balah town. The shelling injured Mohammed and his wife, Sanaa, 42. Mohammed’s son Eid, 23, was killed in the attack and his daughter, Anwar, 17, and his other son, Abdullah, 21, were both injured.
At approximately 7:00 am on Friday 25 July 2014, Israeli jet fighters fired two missiles targeting a house which belongs to a member of the Al Quds Brigades, the military wing of Islamic Jihad, Salah Abu Hassanein, 47. The house is located in Al Shaboura refugee camp in Rafah and was completely destroyed in the attack. Abu Hassanein and his two children Hadi, 12, and Abdel Azeez, 14, were all killed in the airstrike. Another 17 people were injured including 9 children.
At approximately 8:00 am on Friday 25 July 2014, IOF artilleryfired one shell at a cattle farm east of the Tal Az Za'tar neighborhood in Jabaliya, north of the Gaza Strip. Ibrahim Abedel Rahman Al Sama’na, 17, was killed in the attack while he was working on the farm. The cattle farm was damaged. The IOF were positioned east of the farm.
At around 8:30 am on the same day, two ambulances were allowed to enter several neighborhoods in the town of Khuza'a after coordinating with the IOF via the ICRC. Several wounded civilians were evacuated and a body of a disabled man called Fadi Yousef Al Najjar, 27, who had died due to IOF's heavy bombardment in the area, was recovered. A number of the town's residents gathered in a group and were able to leave under heavy IOF shooting.
At approximately 10:10 am on Friday 25 July 2014, Israeli drones fired at least one missile at a group of civilians who were near the Al Ehsan mosque in Jabalia, north of Gaza. Four people were injured, including one woman. Their injuries were described between moderate and light by medical sources at the Kamal Odwan Hospital. According to Al Mezan's initial field investigations, the victims are IDPs and were returning to their houses which had evacuated to bring basic needs for their families and return to their shelter.
Al Mezan reiterates the condemnation of IOF serious violations of international law including the extensive, sometimes indiscriminate, use of artillery and air attacks on civilian targets; especially families who were attack when they were inside their homes. Al Mezan strongly condemns the attacks civilian objects including hospitals, IDP shelters, electricity facilities, ambulances, and houses.
Al Mezan expresses serious concern by the continued failure of international community to provide the due protection for the civilian population in the Gaza Strip, and its failure to clearly condemn IOF's flagrant violations of international law. This failure has encouraged serious violations of international law, which is reflected in human lives, to continue.
Al Mezan therefore calls on the international community to:
- Condemn with the strongest terms Israel's grave breaches of IHL in the context of Operation Protective Edge;
- Take immediate, effective action to provide the due protection of civilians in the Gaza Strip from military attacks and prosecution;
- Express unequivocal support and play a positive role in ensuring that credible, independent investigations into the suspected violations of human rights and IHL in the context of the operation Protective Edge to ensure accountability for those who committed them, and redress for their victims; and
- Press for an immediate end of Israel's unlawful closure and blockade of the Gaza Strip.