Gaza: Israeli troops open fire as they storm homes

(Jerusalem, August 8, 2024) – Israel Human Rights Watch said today that on December 21, 2023, Israeli forces attacked a civilian home in Gaza City, throwing grenades inside and firing into a room where a civilian family was taking shelter.

The attack killed seven people, including a pregnant woman, and seriously injured two others, including a five-year-old child. Witnesses also said that Israeli forces shot and killed a 73-year-old blind man after taking control of the building and forcing other family members to evacuate. This incident should be investigated as a possible war crime and the forces involved should be held accountable.

“It is unjustifiable for soldiers to enter unsuspecting civilian homes and open fire,” he said. Belki’s Will“They destroyed a Palestinian family and orphaned a child who may never walk again.”

Human Rights Watch interviewed three Khalidi family members, two of whom witnessed the attack and were interviewed by phone, and met with injured 5-year-old Faisal in Qatar in June 2024 while he was receiving medical care. The researchers also analyzed a video uploaded to the Israeli Armed Forces X (formerly known as IDFonline) Twitter account, which was confirmed to have been filmed in part between December 20 and 21. The video shows Israeli soldiers and armored vehicles nearby, but no fighting in progress or soldiers being shot at.

Cousins ​​Mohammed Khalidi, 40, and Momin Khalidi, 21, said a shell hit a house in Sheikh Radwan, north of Gaza City, near five schools housing displaced people, on the night of December 20-21. Mohammed, Momin and 29 other family members who lived in the house next door fled their home after receiving an evacuation call from the Israeli military. They said Mohammed’s sister-in-law, Fatma Khalidi, 32, who is seven months pregnant, suffered a broken leg in the shell attack.

Mohammed said Israeli troops arrived with armored vehicles and bulldozers about 30 minutes after the attack. “We looked out and saw them smashing windows, crushing cars with tanks, damaging wires, destroying everything they could,” Mohammed said. Many residents in the area fled south, but the Khalidi family did not because older family members could not flee quickly enough. Both said no one in the house was armed or had any connections to armed groups, and they were not aware of any fighters nearby at the time.

Both Momin and Mohammed said that around noon the next day, Israeli forces fired rounds into the first floor of their building. Then, around 5 p.m., a dozen Israeli soldiers broke through the gate into the yard and, without warning or provocation, threw a grenade into the window of the empty front room. Afterward, the soldiers threw another grenade into the main hallway of the house, then continued forward, kicked in a door and threw at least two more grenades into a room where 12 people were hiding, including Momin and Mohammed, Mohammed said.

Both said they grabbed their IDs and held them in their hands when they heard the soldiers approaching. Momen said he was wounded and fell to the ground, leaning against a wall with his uncle, Amjad Khalidi, 42, on top of him.

The women screamed and a soldier rushed in, firing at everyone with an automatic rifle, the two men said. Fatma, who was killed, and her husband, Ahmed, were holding Faisal, who was seriously injured. After the shooting stopped, Fatma’s 6-year-old son Adam saw his father, Ahmed Khalidi, 34, Mohammed’s brother, “lying on the ground in a pool of blood like a slaughtered sheep” and ran out of the room. Adam was not injured.

The cousins ​​said the attack killed seven members of the family: Fatma, Ahmed, Mohammed’s brothers-in-law Shaaban Abu Jabal, 33, and Adham Abu Jabal, 20, as well as Nawal al-Khalidi, 70, and her two children, Raed al-Khalidi, 49, and Amjad al-Khalidi.

“One soldier said in Arabic, ‘Whoever is still alive, stand up,’ ” Mohammed said. “I stood up and he looked at me and said, ‘You survived, you bastard, didn’t you?’ They took me outside and scanned my face with a machine.”

Nawal’s 73-year-old husband, Abd Rabu al-Khalidi, who was blind and uninjured, did not leave the room. Other family members, all children and women, had taken shelter in another room, and the soldiers ordered them to leave. The soldiers strip-searched the surviving men and searched the women and children, Mohammed said. They asked where the original occupants of the house were, and Mohammed said they did not know.

Then, Mohammed said, “We heard bullets inside. I think that’s when they killed the survivors inside. They told us, ‘Your last chance to survive is to get in a line behind that soldier.’ We asked, ‘Where are you taking us?’ He said, ‘Shut up and just follow him.’”

Momin was also unable to leave the room. “I couldn’t move and couldn’t hear anything because the explosion temporarily blinded me,” he said. “I lost consciousness very quickly.” When he woke up the next day, he realized he was lying under a pile of bodies.

“There are no words to describe how I feel,” he said. “I just want to know why? Why did I have to go through this massacre? Why did I lose so many people? What did we do to deserve this? There were no resistance fighters in the house, no weapons, just civilians.”

Metal fragments from the explosion injured Mumen’s knees, calves and feet, and a bullet hit his thigh. He said that when he regained consciousness, he was able to reach for a bottle of water, but soon lost consciousness again and was not revived until the next day, when he was able to crawl out from under the body, but could only move his hands. By then, Abdulrab had been killed, apparently when soldiers reentered the house after evacuating Mumen and others.

Four days later, when Mohammed returned with a doctor to collect the bodies, he found Momin. “Amjad, Raed and Shaaban’s legs were shattered by the grenade,” Mohammed said. “They looked like minced meat, and metal fragments pierced Ahmed’s abdomen and neck. I saw metal fragments all over Fatma’s abdomen and face. Blood was splattered all over the wall. Adham’s chin was pierced by a bullet, which came out from the back of his head… Abdulrab was also dead, with a gunshot wound.”

Mohammed said he found more than 60 bullet casings in the house.

Faisal underwent four operations in Gaza for a ruptured intestine, a perforated bladder and multiple hip fractures, and three more in Qatar. Six months after the attack, he was in a cast from waist to leg. Doctors said he might never walk again. Abdulhafees Al Khalidi, Faisal’s uncle and now his guardian, who accompanied Faisal to Doha, said the attack had changed the child dramatically: “(Faisal) used to be very sociable and outgoing. He was always independent, running around and talking to strangers. He was never afraid. Now, if I go to another room, he starts calling me. He can’t be alone anymore.”

Momen said he has not been granted permission to leave Gaza and remains in the north without medication and with little treatment for his injuries, which include multiple ruptured tendons.

The surviving Khalidi family members found the house where the attack took place on a map. Human Rights Watch analyzed a video consisting of seven videos released online by the Israeli military on December 24. One of the videos showed that the Israeli army was carrying out an operation less than 160 meters away from the house identified by the Khalidi family.

An Israeli military report accompanying the video identified the troops shown in the video as the 13th Commando and the 401st Brigade. Human Rights Watch confirmed that at least one segment in the video was filmed between the morning of December 20 and the late afternoon of December 21. The video shows at least 17 Israeli soldiers standing outside the Al-Taqwa Mosque, 170 meters southwest of the residence.

In the same X post, the Israeli military released a photo and said it raided a school across the street and found a cache of weapons and explosives. Israeli authorities have not publicly provided any further information about the attack. They also did not respond to a July 15 letter from Human Rights Watch summarizing its findings and requesting specific information about the incident.

“This incident highlights the deadly cost of the Israeli military’s failure to protect civilian lives in Gaza, and in some cases the clear targeting of children,” Weir said. “Other governments should urge the Israeli government to cease its unlawful attacks and avoid participating in possible War crimes By halting arms transfers to Israel.”