Geneva, March 3 (RHC)-- The European-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor has confirmed that Israeli tanks deliberately ran over dozens of Palestinians in separate incidents across the besieged Gaza Strip.
The Geneva-based organization on Sunday revealed disturbing incidents of Israeli tanks running over Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. It documented the Israeli army killing a Palestinian man who had been deliberately run over in the Zeitoun neighborhood in Gaza City on February 29th. The man is believed to have been in Israeli custody and his hands were tied with plastic handcuffs when he was run over. Images of the body following the incident were shared online by the human rights group. They show the victim's body crushed, to the extent that he is no longer identifiable.
Another documented incident took place on January 23, when an Israeli tank ran over a family sleeping in a shelter caravan in the Taiba Towers area in Khan Younis in southern Gaza. The attack led to the death of a man and his eldest daughter while his remaining three children and wife were injured.
Meanwhile, Euro-Med has also confirmed Israeli culpability in a recent massacre in Gaza City where Palestinian aid-seekers were targeted.
The organization's preliminary investigations, disclosed during a press conference at al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza, also rejected the Israeli army's attempt to attribute the victims' deaths to a stampede. The Euro-Med’s branch in Gaza said Israeli forces had intentionally opened fire on the crowd of aid recipients to “intimidate” anyone struggling to get a handful of food.
At the conference, Euro-Med researcher Muhammad Qariqa said that the organization’s field team had documented Israeli tanks firing heavily towards Palestinian civilians trying to receive humanitarian aid at the “Nabulsi” roundabout.
Qariqi highlighted that the Euro-Med findings demonstrate that dozens of victims suffered gunshot wounds, rather than being run over or crushed, in contrast to what the Israeli army has claimed. He further highlighted four pieces of evidence confirming the Israeli army’s involvement in killing and wounding starving civilians.
The organization also published a report stating that evidence shows that dozens of victims suffered gunshot wounds in the attack. “This indicates that the danger did not originate from the trucks themselves or from the surrounding crowd of people, but rather from an outside source that terrified everyone in the area, both close to and far away from the trucks,” the monitor said.
The rights organization warned that the Israeli shooting of starving Palestinian civilians receiving aid has become a regular practice.
UN team, medics and rights monitoring groups say evidence points to heavy shooting by Israeli forces in the massacre near Gaza City aid convoy.
On Friday, a UN team visited some of the wounded in Gaza City’s al-Shifa Hospital, and saw a “large number of gunshot wounds,” UN chief Antonio Guterres’ spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said.
