Eyewitness Report: Israel’s Atrocities in West Gaza

During its four-day incursion into the western parts of Gaza City, the Israeli army committed horrific atrocities against Palestinian civilians, including willful killings, extensive destruction and burning of civilian buildings and homes, and forced evacuation as part of the ongoing crime of genocide for the tenth consecutive month.

After invading the area at dawn on Monday, 8 July, Israeli army forces began to withdraw early on Friday, 12 July, from the Universities Area and the Sinaa’ Area, west of Gaza City. During this time, they launched numerous fire belts and engaged in indiscriminate shelling, stormed homes, and harassed residents. Reports indicated that over 60 people had been killed, with many bodies found in the streets and alleys, some of which were charred.

Euro-Med Monitor field crews are investigating reports that the Israeli army forces committed extrajudicial killings and unlawful executions of numerous residents, the majority of whom were women. These victims included two sisters, Maysoon Yaqoub Al-Ghalayini and Arwa Yaqoub Al-Ghalayini, as well as their sister Rafida Al-Ghalayini, who was left bleeding to death for two days without the Israeli forces allowing medical teams to reach her.

According to preliminary reports, the Israeli army killed entire families after raiding their homes in the Al-Sina’a area west of Gaza City. Those killed included Mustafa Ahmed Zaidiyeh, the two brothers Imad Khaled Zaidiyeh and Mahmoud Khaled Zaidiyeh, Abu Youssef Nasser Zaidiyeh, Fahmi Lulu, Jamalat Al-Shawa and her two sons, Ahmed Maher Al-Badri and Suha Maher Al-Badri, as well as six members of the Al-Khatib family.

Euro-Med Monitor teams documented the Israeli army torturing and severely beating Khaled Darwish Muhammad Zaidiyeh, 58, while he and several of his relatives were besieged in his home close to the industrial area, which was the army’s point of incursion on Monday, 8 July.

Khaled Zaidiyeh stated the following in his testimony to the Euro-Med Monitor crews: “(The soldiers) peed, put coffee on their urine, and made us drink it.” The children and women were forced out while crying. We were tortured and tied up, and the scars from the chains are still visible on us.  My nephew Mustafa, who was killed, asked to have his handcuffs taken off or loosened. But the soldiers refused and beat him all over his body. Anybody attempting to speak would face severe beating.”

He went on, “One of the soldiers put his leg over my head and started repeatedly stomping on it with full force. He then went to torture one more of the twenty-one people there before returning. My nephew’s face has swollen, despite suffering a heart problem, while the second who has special needs and was permitted to accompany the women. While I was lying on my stomach, one of the soldiers got up on top of me and began hitting me with his combat boots. I tried to calm down and be patient, but he kept jumping on top of me with his heavy weight and pressing his legs, aiming to break my bones.”

The soldiers then got a call and began to withdraw, while one of them threatened to return to me. All we could hear was our own voice as the soldiers broke the window glass of one of the houses. I thought they would make us step on the shattered glass, but they started shooting. Then they withdrew and left the area, threatening to kill us with quadcopters and snipers.”

A woman who wished to remain anonymous told the Euro-Med Monitor team: “The army opened fire on the house. We opened the door while raising the white flag. They forced the men to take off their clothes and assaulted them in front of us. My son was tired, so they beat him severely. Without bringing anything with us, we were forced to flee to the southern part of the Gaza Strip.”

According to documentation provided by Euro-Med Monitor teams, the Friends of the Patient Hospital was destroyed by the Israeli army for the second time, following its restoration approximately one month ago to serve the Gaza residents’ medical needs. The Israeli army also bombed the Al-Salam clinic, the only health centre in the Al-Sabra neighbourhood, south of Gaza City.

Along with demolishing and setting a number of homes on fire, the Israeli army also destroyed UNRWA schools near the industrial area, extensively damaging the classrooms, particularly the ground floors.

Based on observations and follow-up conducted by the Euro-Med Monitor team, it appears that the lack of equipment is making it difficult for rescue workers to recover victims from under the debris of the homes and buildings that were targeted by the Israeli army.

Additionally, testimonies were provided to Euro-Med Monitor regarding widespread thefts and robberies by Israeli army forces during home raids and forced evacuation of the locals, including large amounts of money and valuables.

The Israeli army has been looting gold jewellery and cash from homes it raids and from residents it forced to relocate to the south of the Gaza Valley, where they were forced to leave their bags and all of their belongings seized by the soldiers. These operations have been routinely carried out by the Israeli army when storming residential areas, raiding homes, and initiating random arrest campaigns against civilians.

Families Khudair and Jadallah members told the Euro-Med Monitor team that the Israeli army forces amassed and pilfered their personal belongings in bags, beating and detaining the men before driving the women and children out of the area and forcing them to evacuate to the central Gaza Strip.

Since the early hours of Monday, 8 July, the Israeli army has been waging a war of intimidation and forced displacement against the people of the Gaza City and its northern region. This has resulted in yet another massive wave of forced evacuation following military assaults and intense raids that the army has carried out as part of the genocide it has been committing since 7 October.

Under heavy rocket and shell fire in the industrial area, the Israeli army launched a ground incursion, directly targeting the nearly completely destroyed UNRWA headquarters and the headquarters of several other destroyed universities in western Gaza.

Subsequently, the Israeli army ordered the evacuation of large areas of Gaza City and forced the staff of the “Ahly Baptist” hospital to leave the area entirely. As a result, the only major hospital operating in Gaza for months was turned out of service.

Based on the aforementioned, all nations are required to fulfil their international obligations by enacting strong sanctions against Israel and severing all other types of political, financial, and military support and cooperation. This includes immediately halting arms transfers to Israel, including export permits and military aid; otherwise, these nations will be held accountable for the crimes that have been committed in the Gaza Strip, including genocide.

In order to ensure accountability, a comprehensive and impartial international investigation is required into the serious crimes and violations committed by the Israeli army forces against the Gaza Strip’s population and their property. These crimes and violations amount to fully-fledged, self-contained war crimes and crimes against humanity that cause serious harm and destruction to civilians and their livelihoods without justification or military necessity,

Additionally, the International Criminal Court ought to keep looking into any and all crimes committed by Israel in the Gaza Strip; broaden its investigation into criminal responsibility, in order to hold all perpetrators accountable; issue arrest warrants for those responsible; and acknowledge and address Israel’s crimes in the Strip, as they are international crimes that fall under the purview of the International Criminal Court and are clearly crimes of genocide.

This article is a reprint of a report by Euromed Monitors

CrossFireArabia

CrossFireArabia

Dr. Marwan Asmar holds a PhD from Leeds University and is a freelance writer specializing on the Middle East. He has worked as a journalist since the early 1990s in Jordan and the Gulf countries, and been widely published, including at Albawaba, Gulf News, Al Ghad, World Press Review and others.

Related Posts

Hiding The Evidence: Israel Removes Mass Debris Via 100 Trucks Daily

Euromed stated that Israel is seeking to hide the evidence of genocide in Gaza Strip by removing the rubble and wreckage of destroyed buildings and the remains of missing persons underneath them through transport via 100 trucks daily.

In a press statement reported by the Sanad News Agency, Monday, the European-Mediternean human rights organization explained that the Israeli occupation is unilaterally carrying out a systematic operation to remove the rubble in areas under its military control and is transport it out of the Gaza Strip to obliterate evidence the criminal evidence it carried out in Gaza since 7 October, 2023.

Euromed,  officially named he Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, has indicated that initial estimates suggest Israel wants to remove about 10 million tons of rubble in the so-called Yellow Line areas which is under Israeli military control.

Euromed emphasized that its estimates that are 400 Israeli vehicles involved the removal of the rubble, besides the 100 trucks who are transporting the debris to unknown locations inside Israel.

It pointed out that the rubble that is being removed and transported focuses on sites where murders have taken places and where mass graves exist. It warned that “removing it separates physical evidence from its spatial context.”

Euromed added: The remains of some 8,500 missing persons are being crushed and mixed with rubble due to the use of crushers without forensic investigation. Meanwhile, the removed rubble contains property and essential building materials, and removing it without compensating its owners constitutes confiscation and looting, which is prohibited under international law.

The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor called on the international community to intervene urgently, halt the rubble removal, and send international investigation teams to inspect and document the sites of destruction.

The amount of rubble and debris accumulated in the Gaza Strip by the first half of 2026 is estimated at approximately 60 million tons (other UN estimates put the figure at 68 million tons), following the complete or partial destruction of more than 80% of buildings and infrastructure.

Official statistics issued by the Government Media Office in Gaza indicate that more than 80% of buildings in the Gaza Strip have been destroyed or damaged, while the area is covered by approximately 60 to 70 million tons of rubble.

See Full Report Below:

The Israeli forces, along with Israeli civilian contractors, are conducting a wide and organised operation to process and clear the rubble from neighbourhoods and facilities they have destroyed in the Gaza Strip and relocate it from areas under their military control to outside the Strip.

This is occurring without any official record of the quantities removed or independent oversight, and before international and local investigative committees have had the chance to survey, examine, and document the sites. This risks destroying crucial evidence of genocide and the remains of victims still unaccounted for under the rubble.

These operations are not part of organised humanitarian efforts to rescue the missing, open roads, or prepare for reconstruction. Instead, Israel is acting unilaterally within closed areas under its military control by demolishing remaining buildings and then crushing, mixing, and transporting the rubble before forensic teams, evidence experts, and unexploded ordnance specialists can examine, document, and preserve the sites, along with the evidence and human remains.

The Gaza Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment, published jointly by the World Bank, the United Nations, and the European Union in April 2026, estimated that approximately 68 million tonnes of rubble are spread across the Gaza Strip, based on damage reports up to October 2025. This figure does not necessarily account for damage caused by later demolition and destruction operations.

According to its initial field data, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor estimates that at least 10 million tonnes of rubble have been removed, crushed, or moved from their original sites within the areas under Israel’s unlawful military control, which encompass about 66 per cent of the Gaza Strip.

Approximately 400 heavy pieces of excavation, demolition, crushing, and transport machinery, operated by Israeli civilian companies under military protection, are active across eastern and southern Gaza. They demolish remaining structures, crush rubble from destroyed neighbourhoods, and load the debris onto trucks for transportation away from the original sites.

In recent weeks, Euro-Med Monitor tracked nearly 100 Israeli trucks daily leaving the Gaza Strip with debris. These trucks carry rubble to undisclosed sites within Israel and further south of the occupied West Bank. The Israeli authorities have not provided details on the quantities removed, the routes taken, the destination sites, or how the material is utilised. They also have not permitted independent oversight of the sorting, weighing, or transport processes. This lack of transparency makes it very difficult to trace the transported material, identify evidence, or recover any human remains that might be present.

The systematic removal of rubble at this pace conceals the evidence of appalling crimes Israel committed in Gaza, especially those related to genocide, such as summary executions and killing unarmed civilians. These sites need careful examination and thorough criminal investigation before any intervention that might change or erase their features.

The debris scattered throughout the Gaza Strip includes possible locations of unlawful killings and bombings that targeted entire families, as well as sites believed to contain mass graves or bodies buried within destroyed homes, hospitals, shelters, and civilian facilities.

These sites hold evidence critical for identifying the weapon, attack sequence, victim and attacker positions, firing ranges, cause and manner of death, as well as fragments, projectiles, spent cartridges, biological traces, and personal belongings.

Crushing, mixing, and transporting rubble can erase evidence, location details, and connections within the crime scene. This process also disrupts the chain of custody, potentially making it impossible to trace where evidence was collected or to link it to a particular incident or victim. This damage cannot be reversed by aerial photographs or subsequent testimony, as investigating international crimes also requires tangible evidence that can be examined, compared, and legally verified.

These operations pose a direct risk to the remains of thousands of missing persons, estimated by Gaza’s Civil Defence to be around 8,500 in July 2026. Using crushers and heavy machinery without prior forensic and humanitarian surveys could crush or scatter the remains, mix them with rubble, and separate them from belongings and documents vital for victim identification. This process may also lead to transporting the remains to unknown locations that may become impossible to access later.

This conduct infringes on the families’ right to know the fate of their missing relatives and to recover and bury their remains with dignity. It also contradicts international standards that call for searching for the deceased, collecting and safeguarding information about them, and ensuring proper identification and recording. Additionally, removing sites before investigation breaches the guidelines outlined in the Minnesota Protocol on the Investigation of Potentially Unlawful Death. This protocol emphasises securing and documenting the scene, gathering evidence while preserving its chain of custody, and recovering and examining remains with scientific methods that uphold the victims’ dignity and their family’s rights.

The debris in the Gaza Strip comprises more than just rubble; it includes private and public property, essential building materials like steel, stone, and concrete that can be recycled and reused, as well as other valuable assets necessary for Palestinians to reconstruct their homes, roads, and infrastructure. It may also contain property documents, official records, and personal belongings that are part of individuals’ and families’ rights and memories.

Removing rubble from the Gaza Strip and commercially exploiting it without the owners’ consent or compensation may, depending on the circumstances and intent of the seizure, constitute unlawful confiscation or pillage. Such acts are prohibited under international humanitarian law, especially Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention and the relevant provisions of the Rome Statute.

These actions are part of a broader pattern that has involved bulldozing sites believed to contain mass graves, storming and damaging hospitals and medical facilities after they were suspected of being sites of grave crimes, ongoing demolition of buildings in military-controlled zones, and targeting Palestinian journalists. Additionally, international investigators and independent media have been prevented from accessing the most heavily destroyed areas.

This deliberate removal of evidence occurs when the International Criminal Court (ICC) is still investigating crimes in Palestine, alongside other cases under universal jurisdiction in national courts. Destroying crime scenes before investigations are finished hampers legal accountability and complicates efforts by international investigators and prosecutors to establish facts, as vital evidence may be lost once removed from the Gaza Strip.

Moreover, Article 70(1)(c) of the Rome Statute considers “destroying, tampering with or interfering with the collection of evidence” as criminal acts that hinder the ICC’s justice mission when done deliberately. The ICC Prosecutor should investigate these actions as deliberate interference with evidence collection related to the ongoing investigation into the Situation in the State of Palestine, which also includes unlawful destruction, seizure, or pillage of property.

The large-scale crushing and removal of rubble not only destroys evidence but also erases land boundaries, house foundations, street networks, and neighbourhood features. This process strips Palestinians of the physical markers of ownership and their connection to the land, making it more difficult for them to return and rebuild their communities as they once were.

Transforming forcibly depopulated Palestinian towns and neighbourhoods into levelled, open spaces under Israeli control is a concrete act that deepens the displacement and ethnic cleansing. This process is inseparable from Israeli settler colonialism, which involves uprooting Palestinians, erasing signs of their presence, and redefining the land without them. This sets the stage for Israel’s efforts to re-establish settlements in Gaza and displace Palestinian residents, advancing a new phase of colonisation and the ongoing denial of land and the right of return.

The international community, including the Security Council, the UN General Assembly, and states parties to the Rome Statute, must urgently intervene to halt the systematic removal and transport of rubble from the Gaza Strip. They should also advocate for independent international forensic and criminal investigation teams to be granted access to assess and document the destruction sites before any further removal or transport occurs, ensuring that physical evidence is preserved to hold those responsible for genocide accountable.

Euro-Med Monitor urges the international community to push Israel to immediately and fully stop all rubble removal and transport activities. This includes requiring detailed disclosures of transported materials, weighing logs, truck routes, ultimate destinations, company and contractor names, beneficiary parties, payment information, machinery and truck registration numbers, and tracking data, as well as transparency regarding any sale, recycling, or commercial use of materials extracted from Gaza.

Furthermore, removing rubble or recyclable materials from the Gaza Strip should be prohibited until a transparent Palestinian and international system for managing these materials is put in place. This system should ensure that any unlawfully transported materials are either returned or their full value is compensated to the owners. Additionally, rubble suitable for reuse should be allocated to local reconstruction projects that benefit the Palestinian population and protect individual and public property rights.

States where the implicated companies or machinery manufacturers are based should mandate a halt to any actions that could lead to property demolition, evidence removal, or rubble seizure. They must also preserve all relevant contracts, correspondence, and operational data, and carry out independent investigations into the accountability of their directors and staff. Euro-Med Monitor urges targeted measures against individuals and companies found to have known about and taken part in these illegal activities, such as exclusion from public contracts, freezing assets, and criminal prosecution.

Any efforts to remove rubble or rebuild in the Gaza Strip must be led by Palestinians, involving local residents, property owners, and families of the missing. These initiatives should ensure the protection of evidence, recovery of remains, clearance of unexploded ordnance, sorting of hazardous materials, local reuse of rubble, preservation of property maps and urban fabric, and prevent reconstruction from being used to cement control or alter the enclave’s geographic or demographic makeup.

Euro-Med Monitor affirms that a ceasefire or political agreements do not erase crimes or their evidence. Reconstruction and rubble removal should happen alongside preserving evidence, discovering the fate of the missing, recovering property, holding perpetrators accountable, and ensuring victims’ rights to truth, justice, and reparation.

Continue reading
Israeli Bullet Rips a Child’s Hand in a Gaza Classroom

CROSSFIREARABIA – A bulled fired by an Israeli soldier pierced through the hand of a pupil in-the-sixth grade and lodged into his wrist. The incident occurred on Monday while the pupil was sitting in class in school in Gaza City according to the Education Ministry. It said the boys name was Khaled Al Ashram from Al Sawafir School in the west of Gaza City. “The bulled pierced the small hand of the child while he was sitting at a school desk holding his open,” a Ministry statement emphasized. In its statement the Ministry included a photo showing the hand of the child pierced by the bullet and covered in blood according to Anadolu.

Continue reading

You Missed

Hiding The Evidence: Israel Removes Mass Debris Via 100 Trucks Daily

  • By marwan
  • August 3, 2026
  • 8 views
Hiding The Evidence: Israel Removes Mass Debris Via 100 Trucks Daily

Israeli Bullet Rips a Child’s Hand in a Gaza Classroom

Israeli Bullet Rips a Child’s Hand in a Gaza Classroom

Hebrew Study: Those Leaving Israel Soars Sky High

Hebrew Study: Those Leaving Israel Soars Sky High

Abdul Salam Haniyeh: ‘My Father Was an Educator, Leader, a Friend’

Abdul Salam Haniyeh: ‘My Father Was an Educator, Leader, a Friend’

Israel Disappointed as Trump Backs Away From Iran Hit – Al Jazeera

  • By marwan
  • August 2, 2026
  • 16 views
Israel Disappointed as Trump Backs Away From Iran Hit – Al Jazeera

‘You Can’t Break Gaza’

  • By marwan
  • August 2, 2026
  • 12 views
‘You Can’t Break Gaza’