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israeli war crimes
Watchdog Submits Evidence of Israeli Executions of Gaza Civilians to UN, ICC
Euro-Med Monitor documented nine separate cases in which Israeli troops executed Palestinians—including numerous women and children—during the ongoing invasion of Gaza.
Dec 26, 2023
A prominent European human rights group on Monday submitted a report to the International Criminal Court and United Nations special rapporteurs documenting "dozens of cases of field executions carried out by the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip."
Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, a Geneva-based nonprofit, requested the ICC and U.N. immediately investigate "the widespread killing operations carried out by Israeli forces targeting Palestinian civilians, especially the field executions and physical liquidations in the Gaza Strip."
In addition to ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan, Euro-Med Monitor sent copies of its preliminary findings to Maurice Tydball Benz, the U.N. special rapporteur on extrajudicial or arbitrary executions; Francesca Albanese, the special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967; and Navanethem Pillay, head of the Investigative Committee on the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
"Nearly 10 days after the Israeli army began its ground attack in the Gaza Strip on October 27, the Israeli army carried out dozens of executions and direct physical liquidations against civilians as part of its all-out military campaign that started on October 7 in retaliation for the armed attack that Palestinian factions carried out in Israeli settlements surrounding the Gaza Strip," Euro-Med Monitor said in a statement.
The group's report lists nine separate instances in which it says Israel Defense Forces (IDF) troops executed Palestinian civilians in Gaza. Victims include multiple elderly couples shot and left to bleed to death after being forced from their homes in Gaza City last week; a mentally ill man shot in his home in the Jabalia refugee camp; six members of the al-Khaldi family shot dead during an Israeli raid on their home; and nine forcibly displaced civilians including women and children who were massacred while seeking shelter in the Shadia Abu Ghazala School near Jabalia on December 13.
"The Israeli soldiers came in and opened fire," one unidentified witness said of the school attack. "They took all men, then entered classrooms and opened fire on a woman and all the children with her," including "newborn children."
"The Israeli soldiers executed those innocent families point-blank," she added.
In the case of the al-Khaldi family, surviving relative Fahed al-Khaldi told Middle East Eye that after an Israeli airstrike on a neighboring home killed several people and wounded Fatima al-Khaldi, his pregnant sister-in-law, IDF ground troops "lobbed two grenades into the house" where about 30 people were sheltering "without regard for women, children, or the elderly."
"They then opened fire directly at people and in an indiscriminate manner, without differentiating between young and old," he said.
Five people were killed instantly. Al-Khaldi said Israeli troops ordered the survivors out of the home, where they were stripped of their clothes.
"The soldiers then returned to the room and executed all the injured," he said. Fatima al-Khaldi was shot and left to bleed to death.
Last week, Euro-Med Monitor reported that more than 1,000 Palestinian elders have been killed by Israeli forces in Gaza, including dozens of people over the age of 60 who were executed.
"These incidents included soldiers shooting elderly people immediately after ordering them to evacuate their homes, and in some cases, executing them just moments after their release from hours or days of arbitrary detention," the group said.
Euro-Med Monitor said Monday that:
More than 28,000 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the Israeli genocide campaign in the Gaza Strip, a number that includes those who remain trapped under the rubble of destroyed buildings and are now presumed dead. Women and children make up 70% of the recorded victims. Thus, Palestinian deaths constitute the highest rate of civilian casualties worldwide in the 21st century.
The Gaza Health Ministry said Tuesday that the Palestinian death toll from 81 days of near-relentless Israeli attacks was approaching 21,000, with nearly 55,000 others wounded and thousands more missing. More than 1.9 million of the besieged enclave's 2.3 million people have also been forcibly displaced and face increased risk of starvation, hypothermia, and disease.
The submission of Euro-Med Monitor's report came nearly a week after the group Democracy for the Arab World Now
published a list of 40 Israeli military commanders it called "prime suspects" for ICC war crimes investigations.
Topping the list is Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who on October 9 ordered a complete siege on Gaza City, cutting off the water, fuel, power, and humanitarian aid to millions of Palestinians.
Like numerous other Israeli leaders, Gallant attempted to justify Israel's actions with what one commentator called "blatantly genocidal" language calling Palestinians "human animals."
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After Palestinians Submit Formal Complaint with ICC, US Backers of Israel Lash Out with Threats
Palestinian officials filed evidence of Israel's war crimes and human rights violations to International Criminal Court
Jun 26, 2015
For the mere act of submitting documents to the International Criminal Court detailing Israel's ongoing human rights violations and history of war crimes on Thursday, the Palestinian Authority is now facing a barrage of threats and rebukes from U.S. lawmakers and the White House.
The warnings followed the PA Foreign Ministry's submission of documents to the ICC in the Hague on Thursday, which provided prosecutors with information regarding Israel's policies relating to last summer's seven-week military assault on Gaza, the existence of illegal settlements, and continued mass detention of Palestinians living under occupation.
"The United States has made it clear that we oppose actions against Israel at the ICC as counterproductive," White House National Security Council spokesman Alistair Baskey said in response to the filing.
A handful of congressional representatives have already threatened to withhold $400 million in aid for the West Bank.
"By formally submitting allegations against Israeli forces to the ICC Chief Prosecutor, President [Mahmoud] Abbas has triggered a provision in U.S. law that suspends all economic assistance to the PA," said Rep. Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.), the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee in a statement.
While the documents themselves have not been publicly disclosed, Palestinian diplomats and human rights groups discussed their contents with reporters.
ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda has already launched an initial probe into Israeli war crimes and is weighing whether to launch a more serious investigation. Because Palestine is now officially a member of the ICC, even if Bensouda's investigation does not bear fruit, Palestinian officials maintain they can still issue their own complaint.
"The challenge is that these are long and drawn out processes that may not result in an outcome for five, ten, or 20 years," Yousef Munayyer, executive director for the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, told Common Dreams. "It's very important that Palestinians are looking at different venues through which they can advance their rights."
That, in fact, is just what Palestinian civil society and social movement organizations are doing through multiple, ongoing efforts to win self-determination, from protest movements throughout the West Bank and East Jerusalem to the global call for boycott, divestment, and sanctions against Israel.
Meanwhile, the human rights crisis in Palestine continues to escalate amid growing international condemnation of Israel's occupation and apartheid policies, including from the United Nations.
However, Israel has historically dodged accountability for human rights violations, thanks in large part to backing from world powers, including the United States.
Amid this climate, the small act of seeking redress from the ICC could result in severe repercussions. When the Palestinian Authority applied to join the court earlier this year, Israel swiftly punished them by seizing and withholding millions of dollars in tax transfers.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed earlier this year, "We will not let [Israeli army] soldiers and officers to be dragged to the International Criminal Court in The Hague."
But as Washington Post reporter William Booth points out, "If Israel were ever prosecuted by the court, the defendant would not be a conscript but a top Israeli commander or Netanyahu himself."
It is not clear at this point if Netanyahu will, in fact, ever see charges under this global body.
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