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.
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.
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.
As bombs and missiles fall around them, the 'Assaliyeh family are forced to stay inside with their home with dwindling food and water.
supplies.
On 4 January, a medical team was fired at while evacuating wounded people in Beit Lahiya. A paramedic and one of the wounded people were killed.
On 4 January, soldiers opened fire from a tank toward a passenger taxi outside Gaza City. The four children in the taxi witnessed their mother and another woman killed.
A-Nasalah family was in their home when near-by structure was bombed a number of times. A-Moaz, 2.5 years old and Eyon, 16, were killed.
The al-Masri family hardly dare leave the house and live on bread and tea.
On 27 Dec., Jaber Abu Hweij was urgently called home from work by a neighbor. He arrived to find his house destroyed and family members wounded or killed.
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.
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.
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.
Israel’s regime of apartheid and occupation is inextricably bound up in human rights violations. B’Tselem strives to end this regime, as that is the only way forward to a future in which human rights, democracy, liberty and equality are ensured to all people, both Palestinian and Israeli, living between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.
Since the Hamas attack on 7 October 2023, Israel has acted in a coordinated and deliberate manner to destroy Palestinian society in the Gaza Strip, committing genocide against its residents. In light of Israel’s actions in Gaza, the public statements made by Israeli decision-makers, and the international community’s failure to take effective action, there is a serious risk that the Israeli regime will expand the genocide to other areas under its control—first and foremost, the West Bank.
B’Tselem calls on the Israeli public and the international community to use every tool available under international law to bring an immediate end to Israel’s genocide against the Palestinian people.