Casualties of Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip
[2] Two militant leaders from the Gaza Strip — Ziyad al-Nakhalah of Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi of Hamas — report losing family members in the Khan Yunis massacre, that occurred during the Egyptian-Israeli war of 1956 (often referred to as the Suez Crisis).
Dan Halutz, a year later, admitted that when taking the decision, both the government and the IDF were fully aware Shehadeh's wife was with him, but went ahead with the operation nonetheless.
[13] Halutz in an interview where he called on NGOs like Gush Shalom to be incriminated for treason for exposing the realities, also stated no changes would be made in the decision-making and operational procedures that led to the bombing.
[15] In a 2006 opinion essay in The Guardian, Jamila Abdallah Taha al-Shanti, a prominent female political leader in the Hamas movement,[16] claimed that an Israeli air strike aimed at herself had instead killed her sister-in-law and over a dozen other people.
[18] The Zeitoun Incident took place on 5 January 2009 during Operation Cast Lead, after members of the Samouni extended family[d] had been herded out of their homes and told to relocate to another building.
[e] One of the Samoiuni men was fluent in Hebrew from working as a mechanic in Israel for 35 years and introduced the gathered members of Samouni family to Givati soldiers.
[19] The men were blindfolded and led away, and eventually 100 people, mostly women and children, were corralled into a cement block warehouse for storing fruit and vegetables.
[19] The day after the latter was subject to artillery fire and missiles from either a drone or an Apache helicopter overhead,[20][21] killing 21 members of Wa'el al-Samouni's family[22][23] while wounding dozens of others.
[20] The airstrike was ordered by Colonel Ilan Malka, then commander of the Givati Brigade, who had called up the attack after interpreting drone photographs of a cache of wooden boards the family had stacked to light a fire and heat water as rocket-propelled grenades.
The men had ventured out that morning through the front door to scrounge up some firewood, and an Israeli military outpost lay a mere 80 metres away, troops were positioned on rooftops and patrols were regular with frequent interactions with local residents.
[21] Three days later, the IDF finally permitted Palestinian rescue teams to enter the area, and recovered 13 family members, several children, still alive.
[20] Malka was reprimanded later for using tank fire on heavily populated areas[20] and was then appointed supervisor in the Israeli prison Service(Shabas), at least half of whose detainees are Palestinian.
[25][26] In May 2012 Mag's Major Dorit Tuval stated that investigations excluded claims civilians were deliberately harmed or the victims of criminal negligence.
[27] On 9 January 2014, at around 4 pm, Israel launched at a minimum four mortar shells which caused 35 dead at two different sites, in Jabalia, within 100 metres of each other, and an estimated 40 other casualties.
To avoid casualties, it stated a roof knocking procedure and telephone warnings would be given in advance to alert civilians inside to evacuate within 5 minutes.
An hour and twenty minutes later, at 2:50 pm, a drone-launched missile was observed to have struck the building's solar heated water tank on the roof.
A later comuniqué, reportedly adjusting the justification in order to comply with international law distinctions, reframed the bombing as one aimed at operative military centres.
[i] The Israeli army through its Military Advocate General's investigation was absolved of any malfeasance, writing that there was no fault in the actions of the IDF forces involved, and that despite the fact that the attack resulted in a regrettable outcome, it does not affect its legality post facto.
'[33] At 11:40 pm on the same day, 8 July 2014, just as the family had retired to bed,[j] the home of Hafez Hamad in Beit Hanoun was bombed without, according to B'Tselem, any prior warning.
[35][36] At 11.30 pm on 9 July 2014, during the opening phase of Israel's attack on the Gaza Strip, 9 youths gathered at the Fun Time Beach café run by the al-Sawalli family on the beachfront at al-'Izbeh, near Khan Younis to watch a match between Argentina and the Netherlands in the 2014 FIFA World Cup knockout stage were killed when an Israeli missile destroyed the shack.
[37] Around midnight on 1 August 2014, without prior warning, an Israeli airstrike struck the home of Rafat Oudeh Mohammed Zoroub in western Rafah killing 15 family members, 4 women and 11 children, A further 4 people in the building at the time were wounded.
[46][47] On late Sunday afternoon, 5 May 2019, a complex in the al-'Atatrah neighborhood comprising a grocery store and three residential units, owned and inhabited by the extended al-Madhun family in the western sector of Beit Lahiya were targeted for an airstrike.
[50] Three hours after the al-Madhun strike, at 8 pm on Sunday 5 May 2019 an Israeli airstrike on a building in the Sheikh Zayed residential complex of Beit Lahiya killed six civilians, including a police officer[49] or legal advisor to the Gazan Interior Ministry, from two families resident on the top fifth floor.
[l] After the Israeli targeted assassination of Baha Abu al-Ata triggered a round of fighting,[51][52][53] Gazan militants responded and the incidents escalated.
[55] According to local sources they were a simple sheep and goat-herding folk who had resided there, in a shack devoid of water and electricity, for a long time,[22] some claimed 20 years.
[22] Initially, the IDF's Arabic-language spokesman, Avichay Adraee falsely claimed[57] that the father Abu Malhous had been in command of Islamic Jihad's rocket squadrons in central Gaza.
[52][53] In December 2019, the Israeli investigation admitted a mistake had been made from an error in its data base, that had failed to note that it was a civilian area with, in the IDF's view, had some military use', for which Palestinian factions were to blame.
[61] Gideon Levy commented: Had they been Israeli citizens, the state would have moved heaven and earth to avenge the blood of its famous little boy, and the world would have reeled in shock at the cruelty of Palestinian terror.
[98][99] On 17 September 2024, the GHM published the names, gender and birth date of 34,344 individual Palestinians whose identities were confirmed and continues to attempt to identify all casualties.
