Israeli army burns displaced people alive in Mawasi Khan Yunis displacement tents
Israeli army burns displaced people alive in Mawasi Khan Yunis displacement tents
Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor reports on 5 December 2024:
The Israeli occupation army burned displaced people alive in Mawasi Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip after directly targeting their displacement tents, killing 22 Palestinians, half of whom were women and children. An additional 18 people suffered burn wounds during the attack.
At approximately 6:07 p.m. on Wednesday [4 December], Israeli aircraft and helicopters fired multiple missiles at the tents of displaced people in Mawasi Khan Yunis, an area Israel claims to be a safe humanitarian zone. The displaced people were burned alive in their ramshackle tents, resulting in the death of 22 Palestinians—including eight children and three women, one of whom was a mother and her two daughters from the Shurab family—while 18 others suffered burns and various other wounds.
The Israeli military ordered the displaced people to evacuate the area and then targeted them as they were fleeing
Based on details collected by Euro-Med Monitor’s field team regarding the bombing operation, the Israeli army deliberately targeted civilians. The operation began with a request to evacuate part of the targeted area, during which an Israeli helicopter fired a missile at the displaced people as they were evacuating. The raids were subsequently repeated across a 700-meter area, directly striking the displaced people’s tents and setting them ablaze.
Later, the Israeli army declared that it had targeted a Hamas Movement leader who was actually a local Internal Security Service official. This suggests that Israel is still working to destroy the entire police and internal security apparatus to sow chaos and anarchy throughout the Gaza Strip.
The assassination of an internal security officer is a crime in and of itself, and it does not justify the use of excessive force or a lack of concern for civilian casualties.
In an area home to hundreds of thousands of displaced people, the Euro-Med field team reviewed harrowing accounts and evidence of children’s charred and dismembered remains being retrieved, reflecting an unprecedented level of Israeli brutality through the use of incendiary bombs and shells.
This was not an isolated incident; rather, it was a manifestation of Israel’s systematic genocide against all Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, targeting and killing them wherever they may be, including in the “humanitarian zone” that Israel maintains is safe.
Israel used direct destructive firepower there, burning and killing a large number of people who had been forcibly displaced from their homes throughout the Gaza Strip, and then pushed them to this area so Israel could bomb them nonstop.
On 10 September, after midnight, Israeli aircraft dropped three American-made MK-84 bombs on a group of sleeping displaced people in the Mawasi neighbourhood of Khan Yunis. The bombs created three craters several meters deep and wide, burying roughly twenty tents with the families inside. Since there were no evacuation warnings prior to the bombing, the Israeli army’s intent to kill as many civilians as possible is evidenced by the use of American bombs, which have a wide destructive effect in an area crowded with tents and displaced people, leading to an initial death toll of over 60, including the dead and wounded.