‘They killed them without them moving a muscle’
Smoke rises from a residential building folloiwng an Israeli strike in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza Strip, 1 November 2024
Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor reports on 17 November 2024:
Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor documented dozens of deliberate killings and new field executions carried out by Israeli occupation forces against numerous civilians in northern Gaza.
These actions are part of the ongoing escalation and the broader framework of genocide perpetrated against Palestinians for over 13 months.
For the past 43 days, the Israeli army has been conducting its third incursion and military offensive against northern Gaza and its residents, committing heinous atrocities. These include killing and terrorising 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.
Among 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—Euro-Med Monitor’s field team documented harrowing incidents of direct killings and extrajudicial executions of civilians by Israeli soldiers, carried out with no justification whatsoever.
Euro-Med Monitor’s field team documented the killing of Khaled Mustafa Ismail Al-Shafai (58) and his eldest son Ibrahim (21) by Israeli forces. They were shot inside their home in Beit Lahia in front of their family on Wednesday, 13 November 2024.
Tamam Abdel Maqadmeh (61), a resident of Beit Lahia, shared the harrowing details of the crime with the Euro-Med Monitor team. “Conditions worsened in Al-Shemaa Street, Beit Lahia, due to heavy artillery and aerial bombardment. As a result, we moved from our home near Al-Shemaa Clinic to the Abbas Kilani area in the middle of Al-Shemaa Street. I went to my sister’s house, who is married to a member of the Omar family, as did my sister Haifa, her husband Khaled Al-Shafai, and their nine children. We gathered in the two-story house; my sister married to the Al-Shafai family, her husband, and children stayed on the ground floor, while I stayed with my family and my sister married to the Omar family on the first floor,” Maqadmeh recounted.
“On Wednesday, 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. 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. We were about 26 people in total. My 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. We 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.’ 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.”
The wife of the victim said: “They ordered us to leave quickly. I tried to pull my husband and son, but they refused to let anyone near them, threatening us with guns to leave. 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 documenting this testimony, the bodies of the man and his son remain at the site of their execution, as the family and rescue teams have been unable to retrieve them.