[News] For the Third Day, Israel Bombards Residential Properties Across the Gaza Strip
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Fri May 12 19:18:59 EDT 2023
For the Third Day, Israel Bombards Residential Properties Across the
Gaza Strip
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*For the Third Day, Israel Bombards Residential Properties Across the
Gaza Strip*
*Reporting Period:*
*(12:00 pm Tuesday, 9 May 2023 – 12:00 pm Thursday, 11 May 2023)*
The ongoing Israeli military offensive on the Gaza Strip, so-called
“Operation Arrow and Shield”, which started
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on 9 May 2023, has resulted in the killing of 25 Palestinians, including
six children and four women, and the injury of 76 Palestinians,
including 24 children and 13 women, according to the Palestinian
Ministry of Health, as of 12:00 pm, 11 May 2023. The Government Media
Office in Gaza has reported the total destruction of five buildings,
including 19 residential units, and the partial destruction of 314
residential units, 28 of which are uninhabitable and 286 of which are
partially damaged.
The Gazan agricultural and fishing sectors have ground to a halt since
Israel’s latest offensive started on the Gaza Strip. Fishermen have been
unable to enter the sea due to the aggression, while significant damage
has been caused to agricultural lands that were bombed. Further,
Israel’s continued closure of the “Kerem Abu Salem” commercial crossing,
which is located in the far southeast of the Gaza Strip, is preventing
the movement of goods and the entry of medical supplies and fuel
necessary to ensure the continued operation of the power plant. Al-Haq
warns that this may have serious repercussions on the health system and
the lives of thousands of patients.
For the third day in a row, the Israeli occupying forces (IOF) have
continued to close the Gaza Strip crossings. According to the Ministry
of Health, the continued closure of the Beit Hanoun-“Erez” crossing,
located in the northern Gaza Strip, has prevented 432 patients, most of
whom are oncology patients, in addition to 27 critical cases, who do not
receive treatment in the hospitals in Gaza, from travelling for their
treatments to hospitals in the West Bank, including Jerusalem, and
Israel. For the past 18 months, Israel has denied the entry of
diagnostic medical devices, and obstructed the entry of medicines into
the Gaza Strip. The continued denial of the entry of foodstuffs,
medicines, and medical equipment into the hospitals of the Gaza Strip,
resulting in the unparalleled suffering of two million Palestinians held
under a 16-year military closure, amounts to acts of collective
punishment and inhumane acts of apartheid, in contravention of
international law.
1. North Gaza Governorate
At approximately 9:40 pm on Wednesday, 10 May 2023, an Israeli warplane
targeted the house of Mohammad Sa’adi Salem Al-Masri, 67, located in
Al-Shaimaa Street in the town of Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip,
with two missiles. The targeted house is part of a two-storey
residential building, which is 436 square metres and contains four
housing units, inhabited by four families, numbering 16 individuals,
including four women and eight children. The targeted house was
completely destroyed, and a number of neighbouring homes and the
headquarters of the Beit Lahiya Development Association were partially
damaged. No injuries were reported.
The owner of the house explained to Al-Haq that two of his neighbours
had received calls from the Israeli intelligence at around 9:00 pm on
the same day, from an unknown number. The caller informed them to
evacuate the house of Mohammad Sa’adi Al-Masri and the neighbouring
houses in preparation for its bombing. At approximately 9:30 in the
evening, a reconnaissance plane targeted the house with a reconnaissance
missile, known as a “warning missile”. Then, a warplane targeted the
house with one missile, levelling the house to the ground.
2. Khan Yunis Governorate
At approximately 5:15 pm on Tuesday, 9 May 2023, an Israeli drone
targeted a civilian car, east of Al-Qarara town, hundreds of metres away
from the perimeter fence, northeast of the city of Khan Yunis, in the
southern Gaza Strip. According to initial information collected by
Al-Haq’s field researcher, the targeting resulted in the complete
destruction and burning of the car, killing two who were inside the car,
Wa’el Mohammad Sabri Al-Agha, 34, and Sa’ed Jawad Abd Farawneh, 28, and
wounding two others at the scene. They were all transferred to Nasser
Governmental Hospital in Khan Yunis, where the Ministry of Health in
Gaza announced the deaths. The bodies of the deceased were charred and
remained unidentified for about three hours, before confirmation by
their families. Following the attack, the Israeli occupying authorities
claimed
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they had targeted a Palestinian cell of anti-tank launchers belonging to
Al-Quds Brigades. Nonetheless, it remains unclear if the two targeted
and killed Palestinians were directly participating in hostilities at
the time of the attack
At approximately 11:30 am on Wednesday, 10 May 2023, an Israeli drone
targeted Palestinians while they were in agricultural fields in the
town of Abasan Al-Kabira, east of Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza
Strip. The injured were transferred to the European Gaza Hospital in
Khan Yunis, where their injuries were described as critical, and
doctors’ attempts failed to resuscitate them. At approximately 1:00 pm,
the Ministry of Health in Gaza announced the death of Mohammad Yousef
Saleh Abu Ta’ima, 23 (one day before his 24th birthday). Later the same
day, at approximately 4:00 pm, the death of Alaa Maher Yassin Abu
Ta’ima, 28, was announced. Both had been residents of the town of Abasan
Al-Kabira, east of Khan Yunis. While Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades, the
military wing of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine,
announced that Mohammad and Alaa were among its members, it remains
unclear if they were directly participating in hostilities at the time
of the attack.
At approximately 1:19 a.m., on Thursday, 11 May 2023, Israeli warplanes
launched three missiles, suddenly and without prior warning, resulting
in the killing of of leader of the Al-Quds Brigades, Ali Hassan
Mouhammad Ghali, 50, a leader of the Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing
of the Islamic Jihad movement. The missiles targeted Apartment No. H1,
on the fifth floor of a five-storey residential building containing 20
apartments, located in Hamad Residential City in Khan Yunis, in an area
densely populated with civilians. The apartment was completely
destroyed, and extensive damage was caused to the neighbouring
apartments and buildings. Three dead bodies were recovered from the
scene, Ali Hassan Mouhammad Ghali, 50, his brother Mahmoud Hassan
Mouhammad Ghali, 34, and nephew Mahmoud Walid Mouhammad Abdel-Gawad, 26.
Another seven Palestinians who sustained minor and moderate injuries
were injured due to the attack, including a child and three women, one
of whom is pregnant, and were transported from the nearby apartments and
buildings. The injured include:
o Maysa Muhammad Fawzi Abu Musa, 32, in moderate condition, and pregnant;
o Rania Yahya Muhammad Hamid, 32, in moderate condition;
o Nima Nahed Ibrahim Ayyash, 25, in minor injuries;
o Maya Wissam Mahmoud Al-Hindi, 10, in minor injuries;
o Wissam Mahmoud Ahmed Al-Hindi, 42, in minor injuries;
o Abdul Karim Jamal Fayeq Al-Nakhala, 18, in minor injuries;
o Abdullah Jamal Fayeq Al-Nakhala, 26, in moderate condition.
>From the remains of rocket fragments found at the scene, it is likely
that the military planes bombed the apartment with three GBU-39 rocket
bombs.
3. Rafah Governorate
At approximately 3:00 pm, on Wednesday, 10 May 2023, an Israeli drone
targeted two Palestinians while they were in an open agricultural land
in the town of Al-Shouka, east of Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip. The
two killed, Ayman Karam Hussein Saidam, 26, and Alamuddin Samir Tawfiq
Abdel Aziz, 23, both of whom are from Rafah, were transferred to Martyr
Abu Yousef Al-Najjar Hospital in Rafah. While Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades
announced that Ayman and Alamuddin were among its members, it remains
unclear if they were directly participating in hostilities at the time
of the attack.
At approximately 8:50 pm, on Wednesday, 10 May 2023, Israeli
reconnaissance planes fired a missile at a three-storey residential
belonging to Ziad Mousa Ahmed Al-Agha, 54, built on an area of 160
square metres on three dunums of land. The house is inhabited by four
families consisting of 19 members, including four women and ten
children. The building is located east of Al-Qarara town, northeast of
Khan Yunis, about a kilometre away from the perimeter fence. About ten
minutes later, Israeli F16 warplanes bombed the house with two missiles,
which led to its complete destruction, without causing any casualties.
The IOF called one of the neighbours and asked him to confirm the
evacuation of the house and the neighbouring houses. The family had
evacuated the house since the start of the escalation in the Gaza Strip,
at dawn on Tuesday, 9 May 2023, due to its proximity to the border area.
Notably, the house had previously been bombed during the Israeli
aggression on the Gaza Strip in 2014, which had resulted in severe
damage to the house.
At approximately 1:50 am on Thursday, 11 May 2023, Israeli warplanes
bombed an old, uninhabited (abandoned) house in Bani Suhaila, east of
Khan Yunis, which led to its complete destruction, without causing any
casualties.
Legal Analysis
1. Direct Participation in Hostilities
Israel premises its undifferentiated targeting of members of the
Palestinian resistance, even when not engaged in military actions, on
the doctrine of continuous combat function (CCF), a notion derived from
theICRC’s Interpretive Guidance on the Notion of Direct Participation in
Hostilities
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The notion, which is not legally binding, expands the concept of who is
a combatant, outside of the parties to the conflict, and those directly
participating in hostilities, to include those individuals who are
members of an armed group and “recruited, trained and equipped by such a
group to continuously and directly participate in hostilities on its
behalf”. These individuals are considered “to assume a continuous combat
function even before he or she first carries out a hostile act”. The
Israeli High Court of Justice, similarly provides that members of armed
groups who carry out “a chain of hostilities, with short periods of rest
between them”, will lose their immunity from attack when carrying out
hostile acts, and during the breaks in between.^[1] The application of
CCF further raises preliminary issues around the classification of the
conflict, given that CCF only applies in non-international armed
conflicts (NIAC). Notably, the Palestinian territory held under
belligerent occupation is one of an international armed conflict.
The report of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the
protests in the Occupied Palestinian Territory in 2018, warned against
the application of CCF, stating that: “CCF does not appear in IHL
treaties and the concept remains unsettled when assessed as custom. In
such circumstances, the Commission has taken the view that it must
choose, particularly with humanitarian law, the interpretation accepted
by a significant majority of the international community. Legal
approaches accepted by only a small group of countries are not
necessarily wrong, but are best not applied by a Commission until there
is further acceptance by the international community”.^[3] Given the
absence of any treaty or customary law basis for CCF, the only
legitimate targeting is of those who are at the time, directly
participating in hostilities. Civilians would only lose protection from
attack, “for the duration of each specific act
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amounting to direct participation in hostilities. This includes any
preparations and geographical deployments or withdrawals constituting an
integral part of a specific hostile act”. From the preliminary field
reports, there is no evidence that those targeted were carrying out acts
amounting to direct participation in hostilities, at the time of the
attacks.
2. Knock on the Roof, Precautions
In the conduct of military operations, Article 57 of Additional Protocol
I, requires that parties, “take all feasible precautions in the choice
of means and methods of attack with a view to avoiding, and in any event
to minimizing, incidental loss of civilian life, injury to civilians and
damage to civilian objects”. Further, the aforementioned Article
specifically warns that “[n]o provision in this article may be construed
as authorizing any attacks against the civilian population, civilians or
civilian objects.” Employing the use of a bomb to “knock” on the roof,
or a reconnaissance missile as a form of communication, like a knock on
a door, may amount to “[a]cts or threats of violence the primary purpose
of which is to spread terror among the civilian population” and
accordingly “are prohibited” under Article 51 of Additional Protocol I.
Critically, reconnaissance missiles that are employed to deliver “knock
on the roof” warnings are far from benign, and in many cases are capable
of penetrating several floors in high rise buildings. There are numerous
documented cases of persons being killed
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in missile attacks from “knock on the roof” warnings. It is worth
mentioning that due to this type of bombardment the residents of the
house, and neighbouring houses, evacuate them to be bombed and
completely destroyed by fighter jets. In some cases, this happens after
hours and mostly the residents of the house, and even the residents of
neighbouring houses are not be able to go back to the houses out of fear
of another bombardment, until there is a cease-fire. In this case the
residential building containing four residential units was completely
destroyed. Crucially the principle of distinction in armed conflict is
sacrosanct and Israel must distinguish between civilian objects which do
not constitute legitimate military objectives in targeting.
3. Superfluous Injury and Unnecessary Suffering
>From preliminary field reports, the drone attack on a car, which caused
the total destruction of the car, and the burning of the two occupants
beyond recognition, may be indicative of a deployment of weapons,
projectiles and material and methods of warfare of a nature to cause
superfluous injury or unnecessary suffering, acts which are specifically
prohibited under Article 35 of Additional Protocol 1.
Further, collateral civilian damage arising from military operations
must not be excessive in relation to the direct and concrete military
advantage anticipated from such operations. Notably, the attacks were
directed at densely populated compactly built residential areas,
resulting in the total damage of 19 residential units, and the partial
destruction of 314 residential units, and may be indicative of a
response disproportionately destroying civilian objects. More
specifically, the bombing and complete destruction of the residential
building of Ziad Mousa Ahmed Al-Agha, 54, home to four families,
amounted to a direct attack on a civilian object and may amount to a
breach of the principle of distinction.
4. Collective Punishment of Palestinian Population
Article 43 of the Hague Regulations, reflective of customary
international law, requires that the Occupying Power restore and ensure,
as far as possible, public order and civil life in the occupied
territory. This places an onus on the occupant exercising de facto
control, to ensure the welfare of the occupied population, including by
ensuring that Palestinians enjoy a fuel supply and electricity services.
As Occupying Power, Israel also has specific obligations “to the fullest
extent of the means available to it and without any adverse
distinction”, to ensure “supplies essential to the survival of the
civilian population of the occupied territory”.^[4] This includes the
ensuring the entry of critical medical supplies into the Gaza Strip.
Article 55 of the Fourth Geneva Conventions obliges the Occupying Power,
“to the fullest extent of the means available to it” the duty of
ensuring “the food and medical supplies of the population”. In the case
where such resources are inadequate, as has been clearly demonstrated
from the impact of the 16-year closure of Gaza, “it should, in
particular, bring in the necessary foodstuffs, medical stores and other
articles if the resources of the occupied territory are inadequate”.
There are further specific obligations to ensure the passage of
humanitarian supplies in areas under siege. Article 17 of the Fourth
Geneva Convention for example specifically requires that parties to the
conflict conclude agreements to facilitate the passage of medical
personnel and medical equipment on their way to such areas under siege.
The denial of movement to civilians in receipt of life-saving and
life-prolonging medical treatments outside the Gaza Strip, breaches the
inviolability of rights of the protected occupied population, enshrined
in Article 27 of the Fourth Geneva Convention. All forms of collective
punishment are absolutely prohibited by Article 50 of the 1907 Hague
Regulations, Article 33(1) of the Fourth Geneva Convention, and
constitute a breach of customary international humanitarian law. The
Fourth Geneva Convention prohibits “penalties of any kind inflicted on
persons or entire groups of persons, in defiance of the most elementary
principles of humanity, for acts that these persons have not committed.”
This includes, “economic closures on civilian populations, cutting off
of power and water supplies, [and] withholding of medical supplies”.^[5]
Conclusion
Due to the failure of the international community to curb Israel’s
continued aggressions on the Gaza Strip, due to the continued abuse of
the US veto at the UN Security Council, it is incumbent on Third States
to take measures to ensure respect for the Geneva Conventions and to cut
off the economic incentives that drive the prolonged illegal occupation.
Al-Haq calls on Third States to adopt legislation to ban the import of
settlement goods and services into their jurisdictions, for financial
institutions to divest from settlement enterprises including Israeli
banks, and for municipalities and regional councils to end all
procurements from illegal settlement enterprises. The international
community must address the root causes underpinning Israel’s successive
military offensives on the Gaza Strip, as acts of violence employed to
maintain and entrench the settler colonial apartheid regime. Al-Haq
calls on Third States to recognise Israel’s policies and practices of
segregating Gaza as an isolated Bantustan disconnected from the world,
as the inhumane acts of a segregationist discriminatory apartheid
regime. Moreover, Al-Haq calls on Third States to implement meaningful
and effective measures to counter Israel’s impunity, including economic
sanctions, arms embargoes, severing diplomatic ties.
Al-Haq further calls on the International Criminal Court to increase the
budget allocation to the Situation in the State of Palestine, and for
the Prosecutor to coordinate entry into the Gaza Strip to investigate
the violations of international humanitarian law which may amount to
grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions, war crimes and crimes against
humanity within the jurisdiction of the court, including the crimes
against humanity of apartheid and persecution.
^[1] Israeli High Court of Justice, The Public Committee against Torture
v. The Government of Israel, HCJ 769/ 02, Judgment, 13 December 2006,
para. 39.
^[2] ICRC’s Interpretive Guidance on the Notion of Direct Participation
in Hostilities, p. 24, footnote 6.
^[3] Report of the detailed findings of the independent international
Commission of inquiry on the protests in the Occupied Palestinian
Territory, para 105.
^[4] Article 69(1), Additional Protocol 1 (1977).
^[5] Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights
in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, para. 26.
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