Israel’s mass killing campaign in Gaza is escalating 

Dismembered bodies are wrapped in spare pieces of cloth or plastic bags due to a shortage of funeral shrouds. Children bleed and are carried by their relatives in the streets without knowing where to go. Dead bodies are transported on animal-drawn carts due to the lack of ambulances or Civil Defense crews. Dozens of victims are trapped under the rubble with no one to reach them, and dead people and their body parts are strewn across the streets. Hospitals and residential neighborhoods are emptied en masse, as some of them are forced to flee south, others are arrested and taken to an unknown location, and others are executed in the field, according to eyewitness reports. 

During the last ten days of October, the Israeli army disrupted all humanitarian services in the northern Gaza Strip, starting with an effort to empty all of the hospitals in the area. Kamal Adwan and al-Awda Hospitals were emptied of their patients and medical staff, alongside the hundreds of displaced civilians sheltering in their courtyards. Kamal Adwan Hospital now has only one doctor left and about 120 patients in need of treatment. The army also bombed ambulances and Civil Defense vehicles, including the only working fire engine left in north Gaza.

“The Civil Defense is forcibly disabled in all areas of the northern Gaza Strip due to the ongoing Israeli targeting campaign. Thousands of citizens are without humanitarian and medical care,” the Civil Defense said in a statement on Telegram. 

The Israeli army has killed 639 Palestinians while injuring over 2,000 people between October 22 and October 31, the Gaza Ministry of Health reports. This number only includes those whose bodies were retrieved by civilians or rescue teams and sent to hospitals or centers affiliated with the Ministry of Health. The number of people who are unaccounted for and are still trapped under the rubble are estimated to be in the dozens but are not included in the official statistics of the Ministry.

While north Gaza, and the areas of Jabalia, Beit Lahia, and Beit Hanoun in particular, have been the most targeted by Israel’s ongoing military assault, the Israeli army has escalated its attacks against civilians across the entire Gaza Strip. Eyewitnesses who spoke to Mondoweiss describe a situation in which both military and “humanitarian” zones (designated as such by the Israeli army) are being targeted with regularity. The overall pattern of Israel’s assaults points to a campaign of mass killing and extermination.

Massacres continue in the north

On Tuesday, October 29, Israeli warplanes bombed a five-story house in Beit Lahia belonging to the Abu Nasr family. Immediately after the bombing, the Government Media Office in Gaza announced via Telegram that the bombing killed 93 people, while 40 others remain missing.

Ahmad Abu Nasr, 24, says that the building that was bombed contained most of the Abu Nasr family, who came from different parts of northern Gaza and took refuge in the building.

“Many families and dozens of displaced people were taking refuge in this house. They came from dangerous areas, such as Beit Lahia refugee camp, the Sheikh Zayed area, and many areas in the north. They came to take refuge in their relatives’ homes. Entire families, young, old, women and children — they were all wiped out,” Abu Nasr tells Mondoweiss

“The martyrs were lying in the streets as a result of the intensity of the bombing, dismembered,” Abu Nasr adds. “Parts of their bodies were visible above the rubble, and the rest of their bodies had disappeared.”

An older man, Abdul Qader Abu al-Nasr, 66, sits in front of the rubble of the destroyed building. The sound of women wailing around him is audible in a video interview with him collected for Mondoweiss. Around him are survivors of the massacre, including women carrying their children. 

The man recounts the horror of what he witnessed. “What do you want me to tell you? Who should I tell it to? Who will hear our screams or care about us?” 

Abu al-Nasr lost 11 members of his family, including his sons, daughters, and grandchildren. “The building was just bombed on top of their heads. All of them were civilians fleeing death.”

“Let the world eat, sleep, and drink. The Israeli army killed my sons. They killed my daughters. They killed my grandchildren. What is the world waiting for?” Abu al-Nasr does not finish his last sentence before he starts crying.

Another man, Abdullah Mansour, 21, stands in front of blood-stained rubble. From between the collapsed ceilings, the feet of an unknown person stick out.

“We were in a building next to the bombed house. The house was crowded with displaced people. None of them are left,” Mansour says. “We are still searching for them. There are no ambulances and no Civil Defense vehicles. We’re trying to dig them out with our hands, but it’s impossible.”

“Even as we try to pull the martyrs out from under the rubble, the army attempts to scare us into leaving the place. It sent quadcopters to shoot at us and also besieged the al-Fakhoura area, which is a few kilometers away from this place,” Mansour adds. “We don’t know what to do; I wish this war would stop.”

Extermination in the so-called ‘safe zone’

On October 25, the occupation forces stormed Qizan al-Najjar, south of Khan Younis, one of the areas classified as “humanitarian zones” in the Gaza Strip. The invasion was carried out by Israeli special forces accompanied by artillery shells and airstrikes. The Israeli forces withdrew after a few hours, leaving massive destruction in their wake. Over 40 people were killed, including 15 children from the al-Farra family.

Ismail al-Muqayyad, 24, stands next to the bodies lying on the ground inside the European Hospital in Khan Younis. He recounts the events of that night. 

He felt something was wrong from the intensity of the shelling in the area, which made him take his wife and belongings and leave the area. He had warned his neighbors that something strange would happen.

No sooner did al-Muqayyad leave than the Israeli forces stormed the area, surrounding everyone inside the houses and shelling civilian homes. 

“There was a two-story house belonging to the al-Farra family,” al-Muqayyad says. “When we returned to the area after the Israeli forces withdrew, the house was gone, and a huge hole crater was left in its place. The whole house had fallen into the hole, without leaving a trace.”

The type of crater left by the bomb indicates that the Israeli army had used a special type of heavy missile. “It’s clear that it’s the type of bomb that makes a two-story house disappear underground,” al-Muqayyad says.

“When I fled my area, I found my neighbor Iyad al-Farra and his wife, and I warned them that something was off. I could see gunshots above our heads without sounds, but my neighbor did not listen and said everything was normal.” Ismail points to his neighbor lying on the ground next to his wife. “They killed Munther al-Farra, the only son of his mother and father, and they killed his father at the beginning of the war. The only one left from the family is his mother.”

The al-Farra family suffered from the brunt of the Israeli attacks during the month of October in four separate massacres against the family, survivors recount.

Mona al-Farra, 45, stands in the Sheikh Nasser area of ​​Khan Younis, retelling how the Israeli army killed her brother and his entire family. She says that her brother did not belong to any armed faction. “The last thing we expected was for my brother, Abdul Jawad al-Farra, to be targeted. He was a peaceful person who had nothing to do with anything. All he did was pray at the mosque and come home to spend time with his family.”

Abdul Jawad al-Farra was in his home in the Sheikh Nasser area with his wife, daughter, and granddaughter when the Israeli army bombed the house and killed them all. But what is most unusual about the case of al-Farra is that other members of his family were bombed simultaneously in different locations. His son, daughter, and their children were in a tent in the al-Mawasi area of ​​Khan Younis, which the army bombed at the exact same moment that their father’s house was bombed.

“We found their remains scattered in the street, each body part somewhere different,” says Mona al-Farra. 

She recalls that her brother used to tell them that he would not be displaced again after being displaced over seven times throughout the war.

“My brother used to say he won’t leave even if the tank reaches the house’s door,” she says.

“When I heard the news, I was shocked. I did not believe it because I knew my brother. His family did not belong to any political or military faction. I do not know why the army kills entire families. It does not want to leave a Palestinian on its land.”

Hasan Isleih gathered testimonies for this report.

Tareq S. Hajjaj
Tareq S. Hajjaj is a journalist and a member of the Palestinian Writers Union. Follow him on Twitter at @Tareqshajjaj.