Silent Death Sweeps Gaza’s Elderly

Alongside the relentless toll of fatalities from continuous Israeli bombardment, a silent death is sweeping through Gaza’s elderly and children—largely unrecorded and undocumented. This is the result of deadly living conditions deliberately imposed by Israel to exhaust the population. At the forefront of these crimes are starvation, the infliction of extreme suffering, deprivation of medical care, and the imposition of a total blockade—all constituting acts of ongoing genocide for over 19 months.

Now entering its third consecutive month, the intensified siege has had devastating and long-term effects—disproportionately harming Gaza’s most vulnerable. Israel’s systematic policy seeks to destroy all means of survival and eliminate any path to staying alive. This deepens the humanitarian catastrophe, making it a central instrument in the execution of genocidal policy.

Over the past week, 14 elderly Palestinians were documented to have died across Gaza from complications related to hunger, malnutrition, and lack of medical care. These deaths are directly linked to Israel’s complete closure of border crossings and its prevention of humanitarian aid and essential goods from entering the Strip since 2 March.

[My father] recently suffered a severe health setback. Hunger and malnutrition had left his body extremely weak and frail, so we transferred him to Nasser Hospital. After examination, doctors found he was suffering from acute anaemia and a severe deficiency in proteins and minerals   

Jalal, son of Talib Al-Arja who died due to lack of food

The victims died in various areas of Gaza, where residents face acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicine. Famine is spreading, the health system has collapsed, and even the most basic medical care is unavailable—leaving vulnerable people, especially the elderly and those with chronic illnesses, to die in total isolation from the outside world.

The death of Musbah Abdul Raouf Abdul Ghafhour, 84, was documented in Khan Younis on Saturday. His family told Euro-Med Monitor that his condition deteriorated sharply after he was diagnosed with stomach cancer. He could not be referred for treatment outside Gaza due to the total Israeli blockade. With no treatment available inside Gaza and his health further deteriorating due to malnutrition and lack of suitable food, he eventually succumbed.

The death of Talib Sabbah Suleiman Al-Arja, 80, was recorded on Tuesday, 7 May. His son, Jalal, told Euro-Med Monitor: “After the war on Gaza began and the suffocating siege was imposed, my father suffered repeated health setbacks due to a lack of food. We lived in miserable conditions in Rafah, and when we were displaced to Khan Younis, the suffering worsened. We lacked even the most basic necessities. My father complained about the intense heat inside the tent during the day and the biting insects at night. As an elderly man, he could not endure the hunger or thirst. He would ask for cold drinking water during the day, but we couldn’t provide it. He would long for foods like chicken, fish, eggs, and fruit—but none were available.”

He added, “He recently suffered a severe health setback. Hunger and malnutrition had left his body extremely weak and frail, so we transferred him to Nasser Hospital. After examination, doctors found he was suffering from acute anaemia and a severe deficiency in proteins and minerals. He remained in the hospital for less than 30 hours. His body did not respond to the medications, supplements, or IV fluids administered—and, in the end, he passed away.”

The Euro-Med Monitor team reported that dozens of elderly patients have been arriving at hospitals, the vast majority diagnosed with acute malnutrition and anaemia. With no access to treatment for their chronic illnesses, many have been forced to rely on canned food as their main source of nutrition—causing their health to deteriorate dramatically, in some cases leading to death.

An increasing number of elderly people, children, and patients are now dying as a direct result of the collapsing healthcare, severe malnutrition, and hunger, amidst the systematic breakdown of Gaza’s healthcare system caused by the Israeli blockade. The lack of an effective mechanism within Gaza’s Ministry of Health to monitor such cases means they are often recorded as natural deaths, though in reality, they result directly from deliberate starvation policies and the destruction of the health system. These practices constitute a pattern of intentional killing, which is prohibited under international humanitarian law and international criminal law.

Such actions amount to some of the gravest crimes under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, which classifies wilful killing — including causing death through starvation or denial of medical care — as a war crime and a crime against humanity, particularly when committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack targeting civilians. This is consistent with the pattern of assault being carried out by Israel against civilians in the Gaza Strip.

These actions also meet the legal criteria for the crime of genocide, whether through acts of killing, inflicting serious bodily or mental harm, or imposing living conditions intended to bring about the physical destruction of a protected group, in whole or in part. This crime has been ongoing for over 19 months, perpetrated by Israel against the civilian population of Gaza.

The humanitarian crisis in Gaza has reached catastrophic levels. Hunger is no longer confined to vulnerable or marginalised groups—it now affects all segments of society. There has been an almost total collapse of essential public services and basic requirements for survival, including access to food, healthcare, and shelter.

The unlawful Israeli blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip since the start of the genocide in October 2023—accompanied by systematic and arbitrary restrictions on humanitarian aid and the deliberate destruction of the healthcare system, particularly over the past seventy days—has caused catastrophic deterioration and led to irreversible conditions affecting the health and wellbeing of more than two million people in the territory.

The proposed Israeli-American mechanism for humanitarian aid in Gaza is nothing more than a new manoeuvre aimed at prolonging the illegal and comprehensive blockade. It repackages the crime of starvation in a misleading humanitarian guise, falsely legitimising its continued use as a weapon in the ongoing crime of genocide.

The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor has called on all states, individually and collectively, to fulfil their legal obligations and take urgent action to halt the genocide and lift the illegal blockade on Gaza. Immediate and concrete measures must be taken to protect Palestinian civilians—especially the elderly and children.

The international community must act swiftly to lift the unlawful Israeli blockade, as it remains the only viable path to halting the accelerating humanitarian collapse and ensuring the flow of aid into Gaza. Any delay in lifting the blockade will only exacerbate the already uncontainable catastrophe, leaving more than two million people hostage to hunger, disease, and thirst—deprived of the most basic conditions for a dignified life.

The international community must also impose economic, diplomatic, and military sanctions on Israel in response to its systematic and grave violations of international law. This includes banning weapons exports to Israel and halting arms purchases from it; suspending all forms of political, financial, and military support and cooperation; freezing the assets of officials involved in crimes against Palestinians or inciting such acts; and imposing travel bans on them. Moreover, trade privileges and bilateral agreements that grant Israel economic advantages, enabling it to commit crimes, must be suspended.

All states must also be held accountable for their complicity or involvement in supporting Israel’s crimes—chief among them the United States—and any nations providing Israel with any form of assistance linked to the perpetration of these crimes. This includes aid or contractual ties in the military, intelligence, political, legal, financial, media, or economic sectors, or any other domain contributing to the continuation of these violations.

  • 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.

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    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.

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    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.

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