Updates

The Gaza Strip

Army must allow evacuation of wounded and trapped civilians

In the last few hours, B'Tselem learned of civilians who are trapped in several places in the Gaza Strip, all under the army's control. B'Tselem demands that the army immediately allow ambulances to evacuate the dead and wounded and to enable civilians to be freed from areas under its control.

8 January 2009

The Gaza Strip

Testimony: Family trapped in house that was shelled

The al-'Ayadi family lives in an agricultural area in which a number of families reside. When the hostilities began, the family gathered in one house. On Saturday night, the house was shelled. Since then, the family, eight of whom were lightly injured in the shelling, has been staying in a structure in the yard.

7 January 2009

The Gaza Strip

Testimony: Family flees from threat of bombing

On 1 January, the residential area in which the Abu al-Haj family lives, in al-Maghraqeh, Gaza Strip, was bombed. The family fled from their home, taking nothing with them, and found refuge in a school in the Nuseirat refugee camp.

7 January 2009

The Gaza Strip

Testimony: Wakes up in hospital and learns his children were killed

On 28 December, eight members of the 'Abasi family, fearing the bombing, went to sleep in the same room. The father, Iyad al-'Abasi, awoke in the hospital, where he learned that three of his children -Sidqi, 5, Muhammad, 10, and Ahmad, 11 - had been killed in a bombing as they slept.

7 January 2009

The Gaza Strip

Wounded Gazans trapped in shelled buildings

B'Tselem has received a report that several wounded Palestinians are currently trapped in buildings shelled on Saturday night by the army, together with the bodies of their relatives.

6 January 2009

The Gaza Strip

Testimony: three-year-old killed in Gaza bombing

On 27 Dec., Ahmad and Maryam Sinwar, aged three and six, stepped out of their home to feed chickens in the yard. Before they reached the coop, the house was hit by the bombing of a nearby building. Ahmad was killed.

5 January 2009

The Gaza Strip

Testimony: Five girls killed when IDF bombs near-by mosque

Samirah Bau'lusha, 36, lost 5 of her daughters when her house was destroyed after the Israeli Air Force bombed a mosque next door. Four of her other children were also hurt during the attack. According to Ba'aloosha, many houses near by were damaged as a result of the mosque bombing.

4 January 2009

The Gaza Strip

Testimony: 8-year-old girl and aunt are killed in their home by bombing

The Kashku family was warming themselves around a bon-fire in their yard due to the power failure. Ibtehal, the 8-year-old girl, went up to her aunt's apartment to get tea, when the house was bombed. Ibtehal and her aunt were killed and the house was destroyed.

4 January 2009

The Gaza Strip

Killing of Nizar Rayan with his wives and children breaches laws of war

On 1 Jan. '09, the Israeli army killed four women and eleven children when it bombed the house of Nizar Rayan, a senior Hamas official, in the Jabalya refugee camp. Such extensive loss of civilian life constitutes a grave breach of international humanitarian law and cannot be justified on military grounds.

4 January 2009

The Gaza Strip

Concern over Israel targeting civilian objects in the Gaza Strip

Statements by officials suggest that Israel is defining anything connected to Hamas as a military target. This approach violates the principle of distinction between civilian objects and military targets that is fundamental to international humanitarian law.

31 December 2008

The Gaza Strip

Bombed truck may have carried oxygen canisters, not rockets

The owner of the truck bombed by the Israeli Air Force on Salah a-Din street in Gaza on Monday claims the truck was carrying oxygen canisters, not Grad rockets. The Israeli army published drone footage of the bombing.

31 December 2008