New investigation examines five Israeli attacks during 7-10 October, revealing evidence of suspected war crimes
Pattern of Israeli military conducting airstrikes without providing warnings to civilians, or giving only confusing or inadequate advance notice
‘For 16 years, Israel’s illegal blockade has made Gaza the world’s biggest open-air prison – the international community must act now to prevent it becoming a giant graveyard’ – Agnès Callamard
As Israeli forces intensify their cataclysmic assault on the occupied Gaza Strip, Amnesty International has documented unlawful Israeli attacks in Gaza – including indiscriminate ones – which caused mass civilian casualties and must be investigated as suspected war crimes.
In its investigation into five Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip which take place between 7 and 10 October (see below), Amnesty researchers interviewed 17 survivors and other eyewitnesses, as well as six relatives, while also analysing satellite imagery and verifying photos and videos of the attack sites.
The attacks caused horrific destruction, and in some cases wiped out entire families. In each incident, the Israeli military violated international humanitarian law, including by failing to take feasible precautions to spare civilians, or by carrying out indiscriminate attacks that failed to distinguish between civilians and military objectives – or by carrying out attacks that may have been directed against civilian objects.
In one attack, on the extremely busy Jabalia market, people had left their homes in response to an “evacuation” order, only to be killed in the place to which they had fled.
Amnesty repeatedly found that the Israeli military had either not warned civilians at all, or issued warnings which were inadequate. In some instances, they informed a single person about a strike which affected whole buildings or streets full of people – or issued unclear “evacuation” orders which left residents confused about the timeframe. In no case did Israeli forces ensure civilians had a safe place to which to evacuate.
The relentless bombardment of Gaza has brought unimaginable suffering to people who are already facing a dire humanitarian crisis. After 16 years under Israel’s illegal blockade, Gaza’s healthcare system is already close to ruin, and its economy is in tatters. Hospitals are collapsing, unable to cope with the sheer number of wounded people, and lack life-saving medication and equipment.
Amnesty is calling on the international community to urge Israel to end its intensified blockade – which has cut Gazans off from food, water, electricity and fuel – and urgently allow humanitarian aid into Gaza. The international community must also press Israel to lift its longstanding blockade on Gaza which amounts to collective punishment of Gaza’s civilian population, is a war crime, and is a key aspect of Israel’s system of apartheid. The Israeli authorities should also rescind their “evacuation order” which may amount to forced displacement of the population.
Since 7 October, Israeli forces have launched thousands of air bombardments in the Gaza Strip, killing at least 3,793 people, mostly civilians, including more than 1,500 children, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza. Approximately 12,500 people have been injured, and more than 1,000 bodies are still trapped beneath the rubble.
In Israel, more than 1,400 people, most of them civilians, have been killed and some 3,300 others injured, according to the Israeli Ministry of Health, after armed groups from Gaza launched an unprecedented attack against Israel on 7 October. They fired indiscriminate rockets and sent fighters into southern Israel who committed war crimes, including deliberately killing civilians and hostage-taking. The Israeli military says that fighters took more than 200 civilian hostages and military captives back to Gaza.
Hours after the attacks began, Israeli forces started their massive bombardment of Gaza. Since then, Hamas and other armed groups have also continued to fire indiscriminate rockets into civilian areas in Israel in attacks that must also be investigated as war crimes. In the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, at least 79 Palestinians, including 20 children, have also been killed by Israeli forces or settlers amid an upsurge in the use of excessive force by the Israeli army and an escalation in state-backed settler violence.
Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General, said:
“In their stated intent to use all means to destroy Hamas, Israeli forces have shown a shocking disregard for civilian lives.
“They have pulverised street after street of residential buildings, killing civilians on a mass scale and destroying essential infrastructure, while new restrictions mean Gaza is fast running out of water, medicine, fuel and electricity.
“Testimonies from eyewitness and survivors highlighted – again and again – how Israeli attacks decimated Palestinian families, causing such destruction that surviving relatives have little but rubble to remember their loved ones by.
“The five cases presented barely scratch the surface of the horror that Amnesty has documented and illustrate the devastating impact that Israel’s aerial bombardments are having on people in Gaza.
“For 16 years, Israel’s illegal blockade has made Gaza the world’s biggest open-air prison – the international community must act now to prevent it becoming a giant graveyard.
“We are calling on Israeli forces to immediately end unlawful attacks in Gaza and ensure that they take all feasible precautions to minimise harm to civilians and damage to civilian objects.
“Israel’s allies must immediately impose a comprehensive arms embargo, given that serious violations under international law are being committed.
“We are calling on Hamas and other armed groups to urgently release all civilian hostages, and to immediately stop firing indiscriminate rockets.
“There can be no justification for the deliberate killing of civilians under any circumstances.
“Our research points to damning evidence of war crimes in Israel’s bombing campaign that must be urgently investigated.
“Decades of impunity and injustice and the unprecedented level of death and destruction of the current offensive will only result in further violence and instability in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
“It is vital that the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court urgently expedites its ongoing investigation into evidence of war crimes and other crimes under international law by all parties.
“Without justice and the dismantlement of Israel’s system of apartheid against Palestinians, there can be no end to the horrifying civilian suffering we are witnessing.”
FIVE UNLAWFUL ISRAELI ATTACKS
Al-Zeitoun attack
At around 8:30pm on 7 October, Israeli forces struck a three-storey residential building in the al-Zeitoun neighbourhood of Gaza City, where three generations of the al-Dos family were staying. Fifteen family members were killed, seven of them children. The victims included Awni and Ibtissam al-Dos, and their grandchildren and namesakes Awni, 12, and Ibtissam, 17; and Adel and Ilham al-Dos, and all five of their children. Baby Adam, just 18 months old, was the youngest victim.
Mohammad al-Dos, whose five-year-old son Rakan was killed in the attack, said:
“Two bombs fell suddenly on top of the building and destroyed it. My wife and I were lucky to survive because we were staying on the top floor. She was nine-months pregnant and gave birth at al-Shifa hospital a day after the attack. Our entire family has been destroyed.”
Amnesty interviewed a neighbour whose home was damaged in the attack. Like Mohammad al-Dos, he said he had not received a warning from Israeli forces. “It was sudden, boom, nobody told us anything,” he said.
The fact the building housed civilians at the time of the airstrike supports the testimony of survivors who said Israeli forces didn’t issue a warning. It took relatives, neighbours and rescue teams more than six hours to remove bodies from beneath the rubble.
Amnesty’s research has found no evidence of military targets in the area at the time of the attack. If Israeli forces attacked this residential building knowing there were only civilians present at the time of the attack, this would be a direct attack on a civilian object or civilians, which is prohibited and constitutes a war crime. Israel has offered no explanation over the incident. It is incumbent on an attacker to prove the legitimacy of their military conduct. Even if Israeli forces targeted what they considered a military objective, attacking a residential building when it contained many civilians in the heart of a densely-populated civilian neighbourhood in a manner that caused this number of civilian casualties would be an indiscriminate attack and a war crime.
Nuseirat refugee camp attack
On 8 October, an Israeli airstrike struck the Nuseirat refugee camp in the centre of the Gaza Strip, killing Mohammed and Shuruq al-Naqla, and two of their children, Omar, three, and Yousef, five, and injuring their two-year-old daughter Mariam and their three-year-old nephew Abdel Karim. Around 20 other people were also injured in the strike.
Ismail al-Naqla, Mohammed’s brother and father of Abdel Karim, told Amnesty that their neighbour received a call from the Israeli military at around 10:30am, warning that the neighbour’s building was about to be bombed. Ismail and Mohammed and their families left their own building immediately, as did their neighbours. By 3:30pm, there had been no attack, so the al-Naqlas and others went home to collect some of their belongings. As they did so a bomb struck the neighbour’s building, destroying the al-Naqlas’ home and damaging others nearby. Mohammed and his family were still in their courtyard when they were killed. Ismail described seeing part of his five-year-old nephew Yousef’s brain “outside of his head”, and said three-year-old Omar’s body could not be recovered from under rubble until the next day. He told Amnesty that Mariam and Abdel Karim, the two surviving children, were discharged from hospital quickly as all hospitals were overwhelmed by the number of casualties.
Giving a warning does not free armed forces from their other obligations under international humanitarian law. In this case, given the time that had elapsed since a warning was issued, those carrying out the attack should have checked whether civilians were present before proceeding with the attack. If, as appears, this was a direct attack on a civilian object, this would constitute a war crime.
Jabalia market attack
At around 10:30am on 9 October, Israeli airstrikes hit a market in Jabalia refugee camp, located a few miles north of Gaza City, killing at least 69 people. The market is known to be one of the busiest commercial areas in northern Gaza. That day it was more crowded than usual, as it was filled with thousands of people from nearby areas who’d fled their homes earlier that morning after receiving text messages from the Israeli army.
According to the Israeli military, they were targeting “a mosque in which Hamas members had been present” when they struck the market, but they have provided no evidence to substantiate this claim. Regardless, membership in a political group does not in itself make an individual targetable. Satellite imagery analysed by Amnesty also showed no mosque in the immediate vicinity of the market street. Based on witness testimony, satellite imagery, and verified videos, the attack was indiscriminate and must be investigated as a war crime.
Imad Hamad, aged 19, was one of those killed in the Jabalia market attack as he was on his way to buy bread and mattresses for his family. His father, Ziyad Hamad, described to Amnesty how the previous day the family had left their home in Beit Hanoun after receiving a warning message from the Israeli army, and had walked several miles to a UN-run school, which was operating as a shelter, in Jabalia camp. On the walk, Ziyad’s son, Imad, had carried his toddler brother on his shoulders. The next day, Ziyad told Amnesty that he was carrying Imad’s dead body on his own shoulders, taking his son to be buried.
Ziyad described the hellish scenes he encountered at the morgue where he found his son’s body, along with many others:
“The bodies were burned. I was scared of looking. I didn’t want to look. I was scared of looking at Imad’s face. The bodies were scattered on the floor. Everyone was looking for their children in these piles. I recognised my son only by his trousers. I wanted to bury him immediately, so I carried my son and got him out. I carried him.”
When Amnesty spoke to Ziyad and his displaced family, they were at a UN-run school sheltering displaced people. He said there were no basic services or sanitation, and that they had no mattresses.
Since Amnesty researchers interviewed Ziyad on 10 October, conditions for internally-displaced people in Gaza have deteriorated further, due to the scale of the displacement and the extent of the destruction and devastating effects of Israel’s total blockade imposed on 9 October. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the number of internally-displaced people in Gaza had reached one million by 19 October, including more than 527,500 staying in UN emergency shelters.
Al-Sahaba Street attack
On 10 October, an Israeli airstrike on a family home killed 12 members of the Hijazi family and four of their neighbours in Gaza City’s al-Sahaba Street. Three children were among those killed. The Israeli military said they struck Hamas targets in the area but gave no further information and did not provide evidence of the presence of military targets. Amnesty’s research has found no evidence of military targets in al-Sahaba Street at the time in question.
Amnesty spoke to Kamal Hijazi, who lost his sister, his two brothers and their wives, five nieces and nephews, and two cousins in the attack. He said:
“Our family home, a three-storey house, was bombed at 5:15 pm. It was sudden, without any warning. That is why everyone was at home.”
Ahmad Khalid Al-Sik, 37, one of the Hijazi family’s neighbours, was also killed, and his three young children were all injured in the attack. Ahmad’s father described what happened:
“I was at home in our apartment and Ahmad was downstairs when the house opposite [belonging to the Hijazi family] was bombed, and he was killed. He was going to have his hair cut at the barber, which is next to the entrance of our building. When Ahmad left to go get a haircut, I could not imagine that I would not see him again. The bombing was sudden, unexpected. There was no warning; people were busy with their daily tasks.”
The barber who was going to cut Ahmad’s hair was also killed.
According to Amnesty’s findings, there were no military objectives in the house or its immediate vicinity, indicating that this may have been a direct attack on civilians or a civilian object which is prohibited and a war crime.
Sheikh Radwan attack
At 4:30pm on 10 October, an Israeli airstrike hit a six-storey building in Sheikh Radwan, a district of Gaza City, completely destroying the building and killing at least 40 civilians. Satellite imagery suggests damage to buildings on this street sometime between 12:11UTC on 10 October and 7:30UTC on 11 October. Amnesty experts geolocated two videos posted to social media that corroborate the destruction of homes in Sheikh Radwan. One of the videos, which was posted on 10 October, shows people pulling the body of a dead infant from the rubble.
Amnesty spoke to Mahmoud Ashour whose daughter, Iman, and her four children, six-month-old Hamza, Ahmad, two, Abdelhamid, six, and Rihab aged eight, were all killed in the attack. He said:
“My daughter and her children came here to seek safety because this area was relatively safe in previous attacks. But I couldn’t protect them, I have no trace left of my daughter. I’m talking to you now as I’m trying to remove the rubble with my hands. We cannot even count our dead.”
Fawzi Naffar, 61, said that 19 of his family members, including his wife, children and grandchildren, were all killed in the airstrike. When Amnesty spoke to Fawzi five days after the attack he had only been able to retrieve the remains of his daughter-in-law and his “son’s shoulder”.
Amnesty’s research found that a Hamas member had been living on one of the floors of the building but was not there at the time of the airstrike. Membership of a political group does not itself make an individual a military target. Even if this person was a fighter, the presence of a fighter in a civilian building does not transform that building or any of the civilians within it into a military objective. International humanitarian law requires Israeli forces to take all feasible precautions to minimise harm to civilians and civilian property, including by cancelling or postponing an attack if it becomes apparent that it would be indiscriminate or otherwise unlawful. These precautions were not taken ahead of the air strike in Sheikh Radwan. The building was known to be full of civilian residents, including many children, and the danger to them could have been anticipated. This is an indiscriminate attack which killed and injured civilians and must be investigated as a war crime.
Amnesty’s calls
Amnesty is calling on:
(1): The Israeli authorities to:
-Immediately end unlawful attacks and abide by international humanitarian law, including by ensuring they take all feasible precautions to minimise harm to civilians and damage to civilian object, while refraining from direct attacks on civilians and civilian objects, and indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks;
-Immediately allow unimpeded delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza’s civilians;
-Urgently lift their illegal blockade on Gaza, which amounts to collective punishment and is a war crime;
-Rescind their appalling “evacuation” order, which has left more than one million people displaced;
-Grant immediate access to the Independent Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory to carry out investigations, including collecting time-sensitive evidence and testimonies.
(2): Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups to:
– Immediately end deliberate attacks on civilians, the firing of indiscriminate rockets, and hostage-taking; they must release civilian hostages unconditionally and immediately.
(3): The international community and particularly Israel’s allies, including EU member states, the US and the UK, to:
-Take concrete measures to protect Gaza’s civilian population from unlawful attacks;
– Impose a comprehensive arms embargo on all parties to the conflict given that serious violations amounting to crimes under international law are being committed; all countries must refrain from supplying Israel with arms and military materiel, including related technologies, parts and components, technical assistance, training, financial or other assistance; they should also call on states supplying arms to Palestinian armed groups to refrain from doing so;
-Refrain from any statement or action that would, even indirectly, legitimise Israel’s crimes and violations in Gaza;
-Pressure Israel to lift its illegal 16-year blockade of the Gaza Strip which amounts to collective punishment of Gaza’s population, is a war crime, and is a key aspect of Israel’s apartheid system;
-Ensure the International Criminal Court’s ongoing investigation into the situation of Palestine receives full support and all necessary resource.
(4): The Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to:
-Urgently expedite its ongoing investigation into the situation of Palestine, examining alleged crimes by all parties, and including the crime against humanity of apartheid against Palestinians.
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