Rights group: Israel turns ‘safe’ corridor into trap to kill displaced Gazans

The Geneva-based human rights organization said in a report on Sunday it has documented the killing of Palestinian civilians by Israeli troops at the Wadi Gaza [Gaza Valley] checkpoint after they were forced to flee from Gaza City to the al-Mawasi area in the south of the territory.

“Israeli forces also targeted civilians waiting for aid trucks near the checkpoint,” the rights body added.

According to Euro-Med, Israeli soldiers killed at least 30 Palestinians on Sunday evening as they waited for aid trucks near al-Nabulsi roundabout on al-Rasheed Street southwest of Gaza City.

Euro-Med added that its observers have documented horrifying testimonies about Israeli tanks firing artillery shells and bullets at more than 300 civilians, most of them women, children and the elderly, last Thursday, as they tried to flee from Gaza City to the south of the Gaza Valley.

“Despite the fact that they were carrying white flags, obeying Israeli army orders, and walking on army-designated streets, they were specifically targeted,” it said.

“This wave of forced displacement occurred at the same time that hundreds of civilians were assembling to await aid trucks. Many were taken aback when Israeli tanks emerged and opened fire on the civilians, killing 28 people and wounding about 80 more.”

The rights organization strongly condemned “unlawful killings and extrajudicial executions of Palestinian civilians” by Israeli forces, saying they amounted to grave violations of international humanitarian law.

Euro-Med also noted that massacres of displaced people of Gaza were instances of war crimes and crimes against humanity, “as well as crimes that fall under the purview of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.”

The rights organization concluded its report by calling “for the formation of an independent international investigation committee specializing in Israel’s ongoing military attack on the Gaza Strip … and opening the necessary investigations into all crimes and violations committed against Palestinians … including the deliberate killing and extrajudicial execution of civilians”.