GENEVA, (PIC)
The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor revealed that it has documented cases of field execution carried by Israeli occupation forces (IOF) against dozens of elderly Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip without any reason.
The Euro-Med Monitor revealed in a statement, on Friday, that it has documented, the martyrdom of nearly 1,049 elderly men and women, over the 76 days of the Israeli ongoing aggression on Gaza, which makes approximately 1% of the total number (107,000) of the elderly people in the Gaza Strip and approximately 3.9% of the total number of Palestinian martyrs who fell in the aggression.
The human rights organization pointed out that the majority of them were crushed to death under the rubble after Israeli aircrafts bombed residential buildings and shelter centers on the top of their residents or were directly shot dead while seeking safety or searching for basic needs in the streets and markets, indicating that dozens of them were subjected to liquidations and field executions.
The Monitor highlighted that it received shocking testimonies of scores of civilians killed in the streets and in homes by Israeli army snipers, or targeted by Israeli artillery shells, with their bodies being left on the ground for days or even weeks.
It also documented physical liquidations and field executions against dozens of elderly people over the age of 60, including direct shootings after forcing them to leave their homes. In some cases, executions were carried out moments after their release from arbitrary detention for hours or days.
Examples on field executions of the elderly include the story of Akram Abu Hasira and his wife, who were killed on Thursday, December 21, after the IOF forced them out of their home on Yarmouk Street in Gaza City, shot them and left them to bleed to death, before burning their house.
Another testimony was about the case of Ahmad Abd El-Aal, a 60-year-old man suffering from a psychological illness. He died at home as a result of shock after he was shot by IOF gunfire in Jabalia refugee camp on December 13.
Abdul Nasser Khader Haboub, 62, was killed by an Israeli artillery shell fired directly at him shortly after his release from two-day detention.
An eyewitness told Euro-Med that Haboub and his family took refuge in the Holy Family School after their IOF bombed the house in which they were taking refuge after they had been displaced from their home following a previous bombing in Gaza City. The day after their arrival at the school, on December 8, the IOF stormed the school and arrested all men and some women. Then, they stripped the men and transferred them to an unknown destination.
After midnight on December 10, the IOF released some elderly people along with a group of detainees while they were naked before targeting them a few minutes later with a tank shell while a Quadcopter hovering over them, which led to the martyrdom of Haboub and the dean of a college in Palestine University Ahmed Abu Absa.
The elderly Nawaf Muhammad Musa Al-Zaanin was executed by a direct bullet to the head on December 10. He and his family were displaced several times. Israeli forces stormed the school where they were displaced and killed him.
The elderly Bashir Hajji,71, was shot dead shortly after the Israeli army had published a video of him while an Israeli soldier was acting like he was talking and guiding him to safely cross Salah al-Din main road on November 10, in an attempt to encourage the people of Gaza to use the road as a safe displacement pathway.
Hala Hajji, the granddaughter of the elderly Hajji, told the Euro-Med team that her grandfather, who appeared in a footage published by the Israeli army, was deliberately killed by several bullets fired at him in the head and the back by IOF soldiers while crossing the road.
Dr. Muhammad Eid Shubair,77, former president of Islamic University in Gaza, along with his wife, Rehab Muhammad Shubair,74, were found dead in the street after they had been shot by an army sniper on November 11.
The director of Al-Wafa Hospital for the Elderly, Doctor Medhat Muhaisen, was killed in an Israeli airstrike that hit the hospital and the Elderly Care Center in Gaza City on November 17.
Euro-Med also pointed out that they documented the arrest of dozens of elderly people, including men and women over the age of 70, and there is a case of 80 years old. They were subjected to torture and abuse without any regard to their health conditions or old age and were denied access to treatment, according to testimonies of released detainees.
The Euro-Med warned that the risk of death is seriously threatening dozens of thousands of elderly people, given that 69% of them suffer from chronic diseases, and most of them do not receive any health care as hospitals have been knocked out of service, amid Israeli starvation and siege policy.
Euro-Med stressed that this fragile category of civilians is supposed to receive additional protection as stipulated in the international humanitarian law, but Israel has violated all of this and turned all vulnerable groups, including children, women, and civilians, into legitimate targets amid the silence and complicity of the international community.
It also stressed that Israel is carrying out a campaign of collective punishment, killing and oppressing vulnerable groups in Palestinian society in a way that was never seen in wars and armed conflicts in modern history, which represents a flagrant violation of the international humanitarian law and a grave violation of the rules of war.
The Euro-Med called on the international community, especially the states that signed the Geneva Convention, to fulfill their obligations to provide protection for civilians in the Gaza Strip.
Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor stressed that everyone in the international community must act immediately to stop the Israeli genocide in the Gaza Strip. Israel is targeting 2.3 million people in Gaza amid a near-total silence that will forever remain a stain on humanity.
The human rights organization called for an immediate ceasefire, as it has become urgent to stop the Israeli crime of genocide in Gaza.
These killings and field executions are part of the horrifying crimes committed by Israeli forces in various incursion zones in the Gaza Strip, along with looting, intimidation, arbitrary detention, torture, threats of rape, and widespread destruction, Euro-Med Monitor said.
