TPC Staff
The Palestine Chronicle / December 3, 2024
The Euro-Med Monitor field team documented “harrowing incidents of direct killings and extrajudicial executions of civilians by Israeli soldiers, carried out with no justification whatsoever.”
The Geneva-based Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor has documented “dozens of deliberate killings and new field executions” carried out by Israeli forces against numerous Palestinian civilians in the northern Gaza Strip.
“These actions are part of the ongoing escalation and the broader framework of genocide perpetrated against Palestinians for over 13 months,” the rights group said in one of its latest reports.
Israel’s actions “include killing and terrorizing 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,” said Euro-Med Monitor.
Its field team documented “harrowing incidents of direct killings and extrajudicial executions of civilians by Israeli soldiers, carried out with no justification whatsoever.”
This, it said, was “in addition to 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.”
‘Executed in front of me’
One such killing was that of Khaled Mustafa Ismail (58) and his eldest son Ibrahim (21), shot inside their home in Beit Lahia, by Israeli forces, in front of their family on Wednesday, November 13, 2024.
“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,” said Tamam Abdel Maqadmeh (61), a resident of Beit Lahia.
“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.”
He said his 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.”
Psychological trauma
Maqadmeh said they 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.’”
His 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 to the side of the room.
“They killed them without them moving a muscle,” she said, adding “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 the documentation of this testimony, the bodies of both father and son remained at the site of their execution, as the family and rescue teams have been unable to retrieve them, the report said.
‘Starvation tactics’
Another documented testimony is that of A.J., a 54-year-old whose name was withheld for his safety “as he remains in a high-risk area.” He provided testimony about the siege, starvation tactics and field executions carried out by the 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,” he said.
At the time, he continued, the residents of Beit Lahia were concentrated in three adjacent shelters near the Beit Lahia Municipal Stadium: Abu Tammam School, Beit Lahia Preparatory School, and Beit Lahia Secondary School.
“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,” he added.
Flour massacres
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.
“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 said.
“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,” he continued.
He explained that “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.”
Call to international community
The rights group urged the international community once again to “take decisive action” against Israel’s massacres in the Gaza Strip, emphasizing that its “reluctance” to do so, “makes it complicit in these crimes and grants Israel a green light to escalate its genocide.”
“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,” the organization stated.
Nearly 70,000 Palestinians have been trapped for two months without access to food or medicine in northern Gaza, according to Euro-Med Monitor.
“This ongoing situation has resulted in numerous deaths and forced displacements in what many consider one of the most horrific campaigns of genocide in modern history,” said the organization.
