Al-Mezan Center For Human Rights -Date: 12 October 2023: Al Mezan and Adalah mourn the unlawful killing of 24-year-old Attiya Fathi Al-Nabaheen, along with members of his family, in a targeted Israeli airstrike in Gaza on Sunday, 8 October 2023.
The human rights organizations pursued a lengthy legal battle on his behalf, against the State of Israel, seeking civil remedies before Israeli courts for a shooting by the Israeli military in 2014, that left him paralyzed from the neck down and permanently confined to a wheelchair.
At approximately 11:30 a.m on Sunday, 8 October 2023, Israeli warplanes targeted–without prior warning–the four-story house of the Al-Nabaheen family, situated to the east of the Al-Bureij refugee camp, in Gaza’s Middle Area District.
The 13 victims of this brutal targeted attack are: Attiya Fathi Al-Nabaheen (24), Hadeel Abdel-Fattah Attiya Al-Nabaheen (25), Ola Ziyad Abdel-Aziz Al-Nabaheen (26), Areej Fady Fathi Al-Nabaheen (9), Mohammad Fady Fathi Al-Nabaheen (8), Adam Fady Fathi Al-Nabaheen (7), Qais Fady Fathi Al-Nabaheen (2), Kinan Tamir Fathi Attiya Al-Nabaheen (7), Rayan Tamir Fathi Attiya Al-Nabaheen (5), Maryam Tamir Fathi Attiya Al-Nabaheen (2.5), Jamal Ibrahim Attiya Al-Nabaheen (7), Mohammad Jaafar Attiya Al-Nabaheen (15), Rahaf Jaafar Attiya Al-Nabaheen (16).
The attack also resulted in the complete destruction of the Al-Nabaheen family’s house. According to Tamir Al-Nabaheen, Attiya’s brother, who survived the targeted airstrike, the attack occurred while his children were playing with their cousins at the building’s entrance. Tragically, Tamir’s three children, as well as their cousins, were killed in the attack.
Attiya Fathi Al-Nabaheen’s life and tragic killing serve as a testament to the prolonged brutality and grave human rights violations perpetrated by Israel against the Palestinian people in Gaza. During his life, he lived entirely under Israeli occupation and largely under Israeli closure. Attiya survived six full-scale military bombardments on Gaza and a shooting that left him paralyzed.
On 16 November 2014, on his fifteenth birthday, Attiya was shot by the Israeli military, and suffered a severe injury that left him quadriplegic. Al Mezan and Adalah represented Attiya in his pursuit of civil remedies for the severe harm inflicted upon him by Israeli forces.
However, Israeli courts denied Attiya’s compensation claim due to his status as a Gaza resident, using Amendment No. 8 to Israel’s Civil Wrongs Law. The law is just one element of numerous procedural, financial and judicial barriers and obstacles put in place by Israeli authorities to prevent Palestinians from suing for and receiving civil remedies in Israeli domestic courts. The Israeli Supreme Court in July 2022 sanctioned the lower court’s decision in Attiya’s case, upholding the law that grants the State sweeping immunity from civil liability for the killing and injuring of Palestinians in Gaza.
Attiya Fathi Al-Nabaheen was the victim of two grave war crimes perpetrated by Israeli forces. Israel did not conduct a genuine investigation into the 2014 shooting that left Attiya paralyzed and given its systemic policy to grant blanket immunity to its armed forces for the killing and injuring of Palestinians, it is certain not to conduct an investigation in line with international standards into his killing. This presumption is evidenced by our organizations’ decades of experience with the Israeli legal system, both on the civil and criminal tracks, which provided almost no criminal charges, prosecutions, or convictions for the military’s killing and injuring of Palestinians in Gaza.
The deliberate targeting of the Al-Nabaheen family, civilians who were actively seeking justice within the Israeli legal system for almost a decade against the atrocities inflicted upon their son by the Israeli military, without any prior warning, unequivocally constitutes a war crime. This act is part of Israel’s widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population in Gaza, which is carried out with a declared intent to commit war crimes and other grave international crimes, as evident by statements of Israeli officials at the highest levels. This admission includes a statement by the spokesperson of the Israeli army, who said: “[in Gaza] the emphasis is on damage not accuracy.”
Accordingly, Adalah and Al Mezan urgently call upon the international community to hold those directly responsible for the killings of the Al-Nabaheen family accountable and to urge Israel to immediately halt attacks against the civilian population in Gaza, including targeted attacks against family homes. Israeli widespread airstrikes, coupled with a complete closure of Gaza and the denial of access of most supplies necessary for the survival of the population, including water and food, is leading toward the genocide of the Palestinian people in Gaza.
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