GAZA (Palestine Foundation Information Center) The Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor has called for the launch of an international investigation into serious crimes committed by the Israeli occupation army against Palestinian elderlies in the occupied Palestinian territories, including the Gaza Strip.
In a statement on Sunday, Euro-Med explained that the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) killed an elderly couple during their recent incursion in Khan Yunis, south of Gaza, and an elderly man during their violent raid last Friday in Jenin.
Euro-Med reported an initial toll of 2,122 elderly men and women killed during 330 days of Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip, saying those victims represent roughly two percent of the 107,000 elderly people who live in the Strip and roughly four percent of all Palestinian deaths there since 7 October 2023.
“These crimes, which have been committed hundreds of times, are unjustified and particularly cruel to this defenseless civilian group, which Israel has been targeting ever since it launched its large-scale attack on the Gaza Strip,” Euro-Med said.
“Most of these elderly victims were crushed to death under the debris of their homes or shelter centers after Israeli aircraft bombed them over their heads, or during their forced evacuations in the streets or visits to markets to meet their basic needs. Shockingly, however, dozens of them were killed directly through field executions and liquidation operations,” Euro-Med added.
“Following the withdrawal of the Israeli army from Khan Yunis on Friday 30 August, the discovery of the bodies of the elderly man Wajih Misbah Shaath (71 years old) and his wife Sabah Shaath (65 years old) was documented by the Euro-Med Monitor field team. The Israeli army shot the couple in their Khan Yunis home, in the south of the Gaza Strip,” the rights group elaborated.
“In the West Bank last Friday, Israeli occupation forces executed the 82-year-old elderly man Tawfiq Ahmed Younis Qandil in the eastern neighborhood of Jenin city, during the Israeli military attack that has been ongoing for five days in Jenin Governorate and other areas in the occupied West Bank. According to local medical sources, nine bullets fired by Israeli army snipers struck the elderly man, killing him. Ambulances carrying the man following the initial attack were also fired at,” according to the rights group.
“These cases, along with other cases that have been well-documented, are but a sample of the systematic and deliberate executions and physical liquidations to which dozens of elderly Palestinians are being subjected in areas where Israeli occupation forces are conducting military operations in the occupied Palestinian territories.”
Euro-Med called on the international community to immediately pressure Israel to stop all its crimes against the Palestinian people, including the ongoing genocide in the Gaza Strip.
