Euro-Med Monitor calls for an investigation into use of US pier for military purposes
Men stand among debris of an Israel operation that killed more than 200 Palestinians in order to rescue four captives in Nuseirat refugee camp central Gaza on 9 June 2024
Euro-Med Monitor reports on 9 June 2024
The massacre carried out by the Israeli army today, Saturday [8 June], in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip is strongly condemned by Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor. Grave concern is also expressed over reports that Israel may have used for military purposes the US pier intended for transporting humanitarian supplies to Gaza.
Over two hundred Palestinians were killed today and hundreds more injured, most of them women and children. This is a preliminary figure that could rise as recovery efforts proceed. The attacks occurred in intense, two-hour-long Israeli army air, land, and sea raids on the Central Market area, where thousands of people from the Nuseirat camp and its environs congregate daily. Most of the central Gaza Strip was also subject to the attacks.
After the widespread assault, the Israeli army declared that four Israeli detainees had been freed in an operation conducted by special forces in the Nuseirat camp, working in tandem with the Israeli Police (Al-Yamam) and the General Security Service (Shin Bet).
Massive, indiscriminate air and artillery attacks were launched by the Israeli army during the operation in order to conceal the withdrawal of Israeli forces. This caused an excessive number of civilian casualties and extensive damage to civilian property, and also violated numerous principles of international humanitarian law, such as those pertaining to humanity, distinction, military necessity, proportionality, and due diligence.
Nasser Ghaben, a 45-year-old Gaza City refugee who moved to the Nuseirat camp, reported to the Euro-Med Monitor team that gunfire during the camp attack was extraordinarily heavy and random. He observed that the attack included air and artillery targeting of numerous residential buildings and apartments.