Report: Israel Has Struck Gaza “Safe Zone” Nearly 100 Times in 9 Months
Just this month alone, as parties were preparing a ceasefire deal, Israel has struck the area 22 times.
The Israeli military has bombed the “humanitarian safe zone” it established for forcibly displaced Palestinians in Gaza nearly 100 times in the past nine months, according to a new analysis, killing at least hundreds of people in strikes on the threadbare tent camps.
BBC reports that it has mapped out 97 strikes on the “safe zone” since May, in an area covering a small strip of the besieged enclave where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have been forced to relocate due to Israel’s massacres and forced evacuations.
These strikes have killed at least 550 Palestinians, according to local media reports analyzed by BBC, with a number of deaths likely excluded because the outlet was unable to verify them.
The outlet’s analysis came out just hours before a phased ceasefire deal was announced between Israel and Hamas, beginning with a 6-week pause. If the deal is properly implemented, and parties sign off on the next phases involving a long-lasting ceasefire and withdrawal of Israeli troops, it could bring an end to the intense genocidal violence wrought on Gaza for the past 15 months.
Israeli forces have continuously said that they are targeting members of Hamas in attacks on the “safe zone.” But reports have found that Israel has used massive bombs with a huge blast radius multiple times on the zone, where most families are sheltering in makeshift tents — meaning that civilians would have been harmed even if Israel was targeting members of Hamas, as it often claims to do without evidence.
In reviewing hundreds of videos of the strikes, BBC reported that among the victims were scores of children and other people appearing to be civilians. They laid among scenes of the injured, tents reduced to rubble or even just sand, and burnt fragments of belongings.
At least seven of the strikes killed at least 20 people, the outlet found. In one strike in July that was among the most heinous single attacks of the genocide, Israeli forces killed 90 Palestinians by dropping numerous 2,000-pound bombs, including ones made in the U.S., on al-Mawasi.
In another strike on the “safe zone” in September, Israel killed at least 19 people when it struck a tent camp in al-Mawasi, flattening at least 40 tents and leaving behind craters at least nine meters, or nearly 30 feet, deep.
The attacks on the “safe zone” have escalated recently, the analysis showed. This month alone, Israel has already struck the area 22 times.
These strikes may escalate in the coming days, with the ceasefire deal slated to start on Sunday. Israel is notorious for intensifying attacks as a ceasefire deal is being finalized and before it goes into effect; it may also continue attacks amid the ceasefire, similarly to how it has repeatedly violated its ceasefire agreement with Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Human rights groups have repeatedly said that Israel’s attacks on the “safe zone” and elsewhere in Gaza are war crimes. The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) has long said that the concept of the “safe zone” is a farce, and that nowhere in Gaza is safe for Palestinians.
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