Palestinians detail field executions by Israeli forces in north Gaza
Israeli forces have carried out field executions of Palestinians in northern Gaza, according to eyewitnesses who spoke to the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor in a new report.
The Geneva-based NGO says it has documented dozens of deliberate killings by Israeli soldiers since Israel began its new offensive in the area in early October.
The executions are part of "numerous atrocities" committed in the besieged area, including "killing and terrorising civilians, forcibly evicting them from their homes, and displacing them outside northern Gaza province", the monitor said on Sunday.
The organisation's field teams documented "harrowing incidents of direct killings and extrajudicial executions" that were "carried out with no justification whatsoever."
One of the survivors is Tamam Abdel Maqadmeh, a 61-year-old resident of Beit Lahia. Maqadmeh told Euro-Med they had witnessed the killing of their brother-in-law, Khaled Mustafa Ismail al-Shafai, and his eldest son, Ibrahim.
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The family were staying at a two-storey house when it was raided by Israeli forces.
"We heard gunfire but were too afraid to look and stayed huddled together in a single room upstairs," Maqadmeh recalled.
'They killed them without them moving a muscle'
- Tamam Abdel Maqadmeh, eyewitness
When the Israeli soldiers reached the upper floor, they instructed Maqadmeh and those with him to leave the house and go to the eastern part of the town.
"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."
Though Maqadmeh's sister Hiyafa begged the group of soldiers to let her say a final farewell to her husband and son, they refused, according to the report.
"We tried to pull her away as she kept saying, 'They executed them in front of me,'" Maqadmeh said.
"On our way out, my 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 at the side of the room. They killed them without them moving a muscle.”
According to Euro-Med, Hiyafa and her children continue to suffer from psychological trauma. At the time of the report, the bodies of her husband and son remain where they were killed, with family and rescue teams unable to reach them.
Dogs mauling corpses
The Israeli army's incursion into northern Gaza has also led to fear, starvation and a lack of medical attention amongst the population.
Wounded people in the area are unable to get or be transported to receive medical care, with Euro-Med documenting several cases of Palestinians dying under the rubble as a result of Israeli forces preventing humanitarian access for 25 days.
"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," AJ, a 54-year-old residing in northern Gaza told the monitor.
'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'
- Eyewitness in northern Gaza
"My wife, who was seriously injured earlier, suffers from a severe deterioration in her condition. She is bedridden but is forced to lie on the floor due to the lack of a bed, despite her dire need for one as she is paralysed."
In AJ's testimony, he says that 5,000 people remain in three schools serving as shelters for those displaced.
"To secure food, displaced people risk venturing out of their homes to retrieve any remaining supplies. Dozens who attempted to do so have not returned, as they were executed in the streets," he said.
One Palestinian, from the Hamouda family, said he saw dead bodies when he went out to retrieve 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.
"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.
"The food situation in the three shelters is extremely dire. 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," he added.
'Green light to escalate genocide'
Along with the testimonies gathered by the group, Euro-Med warned that the international community's "reluctance to take decisive action against Israel's massacres" in Gaza "makes it complicit in these crimes and grants Israel a green light to escalate its genocide."
"This also reflects a shocking disregard for the lives and dignity of Palestinians," the group added.
For six weeks, Israeli forces have been conducting an intensive military operation in northern Gaza.
Rights groups and aid organisations have widely accused Israeli troops of implementing a campaign of ethnic cleansing dubbed “the Generals’ Plan”, after the north's remaining population of about 400,000 people were ordered last month to evacuate to southern Gaza.
That accusation was echoed by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz earlier this month, which cited comments made by Israeli commanders during a tour of the area organised for journalists, during which one officer described his task as being “to create a cleansed space”, and said that his division was diverting aid from the north of Gaza to the south.
Another senior commander was reported as saying that civilians would not be allowed to return to the north, amid plans for Israeli settlements there.
At least 2,000 Palestinians have been killed in the recent offensive, while hundreds more have been abducted and thousands forcibly expelled.
In total, Israeli forces have killed nearly 44,000 Palestinians in Gaza since October 2023, with over 103,000 wounded, according to the health ministry and local officials. Thousands more are missing and presumed dead under the rubble.
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