History of Palestine |
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There have been numerous targeted killings, summary executions, and other extrajudicial killings in the Gaza Strip and surrounding areas. A small number of people in the Gaza Strip have been sentenced to death after murder convictions in civilian courts, but far more executions have been implemented by military courts with limited accountability, and many have been comletely extrajudicial killings or summary executions. Most of these killings have been during broader violent conflicts, but the people killed were unarmed and not actively engaged in combat at the time. The violence has repeatedly spoiled over into the Gaza Envelope and the Sinai Peninsula.
There are multiple deaths for which, the reason for the killing, the circumstances of the death, and whether it constitutes an extrajudicial execution or assassination, are all controversial and disputed, for example Mahmoud Ishtiwi [lower-alpha 1] and Fayeq Mabhouh. [lower-alpha 2]
Conflicting reports of skirmishes between the two peoples were also reported in the neighboring Khan Yunis Camp, which housed displaced Palestinian refugees [ citation needed ]. PLO official Abdullah Al Hourani was in the camp at the time of the killings. [1] Al Hourani alleged that men were taken from their homes and shot by the Israeli Defense Forces. Hourani himself claimed to have fled from an attempted summary execution without injury. [2]
The Zeitoun killings refer to the Israeli military incursion, led by the Givati Brigade unit of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), [3] into the Zeitoun district of Gaza City as part of the three-week 2008–09 Gaza War. In the Arab world, it is referred to as the Zeitoun District Massacre (Arabic : مجزرة حي الزيتون). [4] A total of 48 residents of Zeitoun were killed, most of them women, children, and the elderly; [5] 27 homes, a mosque and a number of farms were destroyed by Israeli forces. [3]
Targeted killing (Hebrew: סיכול ממוקד , romanized: sikul memukad, lit. 'focused foiling'), [6] [7] [8] is a tactic that the government of Israel has used during the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, the Iran–Israel proxy conflict, and other conflicts. [8]
Successful and unsuccessful targeted killings by the Israeli Air Force occurred in the Gaza Strip before and during the period of Hamas government control on the ground. According to Ronen Bergman, "since World War II, Israel has used assassination and targeted-killing more than any other country in" "the West", in many cases endangering the lives of civilians. [9]
On 22 March 2004, the Palestinian leader and one of the founders of the Hamas militant organization, Ahmed Yassin, 67, was assassinated in Gaza City. Ahmed Yassin - one of the founders of Hamas, and their leader at the time of his death - had been a quadriplegic since his adolescence. He was killed by a hellfire missile, fired at his wheelchair, from an Apache helicopter, supported by F-16 fighter jets. [10] The attack killed Yassin, his two bodyguards, and nine bystanders, twelve people in total. Sheikh Ahmed Yassin was returning from performing the Fajr prayer, [11] and his companions were also killed immediately. [12] His assassination caused a state of anger and Palestinian factions vowed revenge, with Hamas saying that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon "opened the gates of hell." Shortly after the attack, Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi took over the leadership of the movement in the Gaza Strip. [13]
Another of the most prominent targets was Yassin's successor, Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi. [10] [14] On the evening of 17 April 2004, the leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi, aged 56, was assassinated by missiles fired by Israeli warplanes on the car he was traveling in. [15] In addition two of his bodyguards were killed. [16] The operation was considered part of a campaign to eliminate the leaders of the groups fighting in the uprising. [17] The assassination led to widespread condemnation around the world. [18] Hamas spokesman Ismail Haniyeh vowed to avenge the death, saying the sacrifice would not be in vain. [19] [ bare URL ]
During the 2014 Gaza War, [20] the IDF assassinated Raed Attar and Mohammed Abu Shamaleh. They also made a spectacularly unsuccessful attempt to assassinate Mohammed Deif, which instead killed his 27-year-old wife, his 3-year-old daughter, and 7-month-old son Ali Deif. [21]
Ali Deif (Arabic: علي الضيف) was the 7 month old baby son of Mohammed Deif. An airstrike on his family residence in 2014, which was one of many failed attempts to assassinate Mohammed Deif, instead killed only baby Ali, his 27 year old mother Widad. [22]
Several thousand people attended the funeral in Gaza, angrily demanding revenge against Israel and firing shots into the air. The bodies of Widad and Ali were taken from the wife’s family home to a mosque in Jabaliya refugee camp for prayers, then laid to rest in the sand of a cemetery. [22]
Deif’s daughter, Arabic : سارة محمد الضيف, romanized: Sarah Mohammed Deif, [23] was not buried on the same day as her brother because her body was not recovered from the rubble until Thursday, the day after her brother's funeral, and two days after the air strike. [24] [23]
The day after Israel killed the wife and two young children of Mohammed Deif - and assassinated three Hamas military leaders - the Qassam Brigades suddenly executed 18 suspected collaborators in Gaza. [25] Some were on trial for espionage, but those trials were suddenly cut short. From among the executed, 6 were killed by a firing squad outside a mosque in front of hundreds of spectators including children. [26]
According to an Amnesty International report, during the 2014 Gaza War, [20] [27] Hamas [lower-alpha 3] executed 23 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. [28] Amnesty International reported that, most were executed by militants during the 2014 conflict, and 16 of them imprisoned from before the war began. [29] [30] Amnesty International claimed that "Hamas" [lower-alpha 3] used the cover of the war, which had a very heavily death toll, [20] to carry out summary executions, to settle scores against opponents under the pretext they were collaborators with Israel. [26] [28] In 2015 they were accused of torture. [27]
In February 2016, Al Qassam claimed they had executed of Mahmoud Eshtewi (Arabic : محمود رشدي اشتيوي, romanized: Maħmoud Rushdi Eshtewi, [31] [32] sometimes spelled "Mahmoud Ishtiwi"). [33] one of the group’s leading commanders, for very ambiguous reasons. But many, including Human Rights Watch, questioned the legitimacy of the judicial procedure that Al Qassam claimed had taken place, and accused them of carrying out an extrajudicial killing.
Most reliable sources at the time described the charges as unnamed or undefined. [34] [35] [31] [36] The stated reason was “for behavioral and moral violations to which he confessed” (Arabic : تجاوزاته السلوكية والأخلاقية التي أقر بها) [31] [32] [36] Whatever it may refer to, the confession was probably obtained by torture. [36] [35] Before his death, his family had been told that the death penalty charge - treason (giving information to Israel that causes the deaths of Palestinians) - had been dropped. [36] There is some suspicion that Eshtewi died in custody and was shot after death, from reports of people who saw his body before burial and thought the bullet wounds looked suspicious. [31] [36] The New York Times and other media from the USA interpreted the vague charges as a reference to a "homosexual relationship". [37] [38]
Eshtewi was survived by his two widows and his three children. [37]
OHCHR stated on 20 December 2023 that according to witness accounts circulated by media sources and Euro-Med Monitor, Israeli soldiers summarily killed eleven unarmed men in Rimal. [41] Subsequently in January 2024, Al Jazeera reported that the number of deaths was 19. Euro-Med Monitor told Al Jazeera they believe there is a pattern of "systematic" killing, that "In at least 13 of field executions, we corroborated that it was arbitrary on the part of the Israeli forces." On 26 December 2023, Euro-Med Monitor submitted a file to the International Criminal Court and United Nations special rapporteurs documenting dozens of cases of field executions carried out by Israeli forces and calling for an investigation. [42] [43] [44]
The Euro-Med Monitor stated the victims of the Shadia Abu Ghazala School massacre were subjected to "field executions" while being questioned. [45] Unarmed people were shot at point blank range. [46]
Some war orphans in Gaza told matching stories about their parents being shot by soldiers who invaded the family home. Bisan Owda interviewed a 5 year old child named Faisal Ahmed Al-Khalidi who said that both his father and his mother (who was 7 months pregnant at the time) had both been shot in front of him by soldiers who raided their home. [47] Other orphans told similar stories about their parents being killed. [48]
This includes people sentenced to death in a court and overt extrajudicial executions. Some[ who? ] question the authority of the Gaza Strip's civil courts on the basis that Palestinian law requires approval from the Palestinian National Authority president (currently Mahmoud Abbas) for the death penalty, but authorities in the Gaza Strip have disregarded this rule on multiple occasions. [49]
person(s) | death sentence | execution | ||||
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sex & age | name(s) | charges or accusations | court or military | date | location | method |
1 man | Ayman Taha [ citation needed ] | Treason | 4 August 2014 | Unknown | Shot | |
1 person | Atta Najjar [50] | Treason | 22 August 2014 | Katiba prison | Unknown | |
1 man | Mahmoud Ishtiwi (Arabic: محمود اشتيوي ) | undefined [34] [upper-alpha 1] | Al Qassam [upper-alpha 2] | February 2016 | Gaza Strip | Firing squad (alleged by Al Qassam) [35] Prior death in custody (alleged by others) |
3 unnamed people | murder (3) | civilian court [upper-alpha 3] | September 2022 | Gaza Strip | Hanging [ citation needed ] | |
1 person 54y [upper-alpha 4] | a resident of Khan Younis | Treason [upper-alpha 5] | ||||
1 man 44y [upper-alpha 6] | Treason [upper-alpha 7] | |||||
1 man | Shadi Abu Qouta (Arabic: شادي أبو قوطة) | fatal police violence incident | July 2023 | Khan Yunis municipality | a bulldozer and the demolished wall of his house [52] | |
37,000 people. [53] [upper-alpha 8] | suspected members of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad | not publicly defined | IDF [53] | 7 October 2023 onwards | Family homes in the Gaza Strip [53] | airstrikes, artillery, or shootings |
1 man | Faiq Mabhouh [lower-alpha 2] (Arabic: فائق المبحوح ) | terrorism (claimed by IDF) | IDF | 18 March 2024 | ||
Two major massacres took place in the Sinai Peninsula. Ras Sedr massacre: A mass murder of at least 52 Egyptian prisoners of war that took place immediately after a paratrooper unit of the Israel Defense Forces conquered Ras Sedr. [54] El Arish massacre: Earlier in the day, according to the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights, the Israeli Defense Forces had massacred hundreds of Egyptian prisoners of war or wounded soldiers in El Arish. Survivors alleged later that about 400 wounded Egyptians were buried alive outside the captured El Arish International Airport, and that 150 prisoners in the mountains of the Sinai were run over by Israeli tanks. [55]
In the first week of 2018, the so called Islamic State (also known as ISIS) in the Sinai declared war on Hamas. [56] As part of this they published a video showing the execution of a man they claimed was a Hamas militant. [57] [56] Among the executioners was another Gaza Palestinian, Mohammad al-Dajni. He was subsequently disowned by his family in Gaza, who condemned the execution, and said they had severed ties with him. [57]
Sheikh Ahmed Ismail Hassan Yassin was a Palestinian politician and imam who founded Hamas, a Palestinian militant Islamist and nationalist organization in the Gaza Strip, in 1987.
Mohammed al-Masri, known as Mohammed Deif, is a Palestinian militant and the head of the Ezzedeen al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Islamist organization Hamas.
Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi was a Palestinian political leader and co-founder of Hamas, along with Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.
Mahmoud al-Zahar is a Palestinian politician. He is a co-founder of Hamas and a member of the Hamas leadership in the Gaza Strip. Al-Zahar served as foreign minister in the Hamas-dominated Palestinian Authority Government of March 2006 that was sworn in on 20 March 2006.
The Ezzedeen Al-Qassam Brigades (EQB), named after Izz ad-Din al-Qassam, is the military wing of the Palestinian nationalist organization Hamas. Currently led by Mohammed Deif, EQB is the largest and best-equipped militant group operating within Gaza today.
Said Seyam, first name also spelled Saeed and Sayed and last name also spelled Siam, was the interior minister of the Palestinian government of March 2006. He joined Hamas and became one of its top commanders. During the 2008–2009 Gaza War, Seyam was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Jabalia. Seyam was the most senior Hamas member killed in the war, and the most senior Hamas figure killed by Israel since the death of Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi in April 2004.
Ahmed al-Jabari, also known as Abu Mohammad, was a senior leader and second-in-command of the military wing of Hamas, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades. He was widely credited as the leading figure in the Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip, and commanded the 2006 Hamas cross-border raid which resulted in the capture of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. Under his command, along with chief logistics officer Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, Hamas developed its own military weapons capability significantly by acquiring longer-range guided missiles and rockets.
Homosexuality in the Palestinian territories is considered a taboo subject; lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people experience persecution and violence. There is a significant legal divide between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, with the former having more progressive laws and the latter having more conservative laws. Shortly after the Jordanian annexation of the West Bank in 1950, same-sex acts were decriminalized across the territory with the adoption of the Jordanian Penal Code of 1951. In the Egyptian-occupied Gaza Strip and under Hamas' rule, however, no such initiative was implemented.
Emad Akel also spelled Imad Akel was a commander of the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas. He was killed by the Israel Defense Forces.
The killing of Avi Sasportas and Ilan Saadon refers to two Israeli soldiers abducted by Hamas on February 16 and May 3, 1989, and subsequently killed. They were the first victims of the newly founded Palestinian militant organization. Ilan Saadon's body was found in 1996.
The abduction and killing of Nissim Toledano began on 13 December 1992, when a squad of Hamas abducted Israeli border policeman Senior Sergeant Nissim Toledano in Lod, Israel. Although the captors demanded the release of Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin for Toledano, Toledano was killed by his captors.
Marwan Abdel Karim Ali Issa was a Palestinian militant who was the deputy commander of Hamas' military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades.
Yahya Sinwar, also spelled Yehya Sinwar, is a Palestinian politician who has been leader of Hamas within the Gaza Strip since 2017. Hamas is the Sunni Islamist political and military organization that rules the Gaza Strip.
Capital punishment in the Gaza Strip has been enforced by multiple governments, militaries, and irregular militias throughout the area's history. A large proportion of the killings have been associated with broader violent conflicts. Many of the executions could be defined as extrajudicial killings due to an incomplete or unrecorded court procedure.
Mazen Muhammad Suleiman Faqha Arabic: مازن فقها was a senior commander in the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas. He was sentenced by Israel to 9 life terms in 2003 for his involvement in the planning and execution of multiple terrorist acts beginning in 2001. He was released as part of the 2011 Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange and deported to Gaza. After his release, he was one of the founders and leaders of Hamas' section in the West Bank.
Brigadier General Fayeq Al-Mabhouh was the Director-General of Central Operations in the Ministry of the Interior and National Security in the Gaza Strip. He was the leader of their crisis management team. His most notable recent responsibilities related to civilian disaster management, such as coordination and enforcement of restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mahmoud Ishtiwi was killed in the Gaza Strip on 7 February 2016 by Hamas' Al-Qassam Brigades militant wing. On that day the military media of the Qassam Brigades announced that they had executed him by firing squad for behavioral and ethical transgressions that he allegedly confessed to. Human Rights Watch reported that the confession was obtain by torture. Eshtewi was survived by his two widows and his three children, and his sister Buthaina.
During the Israel-Hamas war there were a very large number of incidents of deliberate killings of people who were not actively engaged in combat. In addition to unarmed civilian, many of the soldiers and militants who were killed - and often reported simply as militants or soldiers, as if they died in combat - were not actively engaging in hostilities at their time of death. There were also multiple alleged assassinations, summary executions, deaths in custody, or other extrajudicial killings, with varying amounts of evidence to support the allegations.
The Deif family massacre was one of many during the 2014 Gaza War and one of the only cases where the intended target is known. It is now known that the strike did not hit its target, Mohammed Deif, the father of the family.
لتجاوزاته السلوكية والأخلاقية التي أقر بها - For his behavioral and moral transgressions that he acknowledged.
His family said they discovered that Qassam operatives held him in secret locations until February 7, when the group's Military Information Department issued a statement saying it had executed Eshtewi after sentencing him to death "for behavioral and moral violations to which he confessed".
Adding a layer of scandal to the story, he was accused of moral turpitude, by which Hamas meant homosexuality." … "Mr. Ishtiwi, who is survived by two wives and three children…
Hamas announced that the man in charge of a number of the group's tunnels used for smuggling and surprise attacks had been executed for moral turpitude, a Hamas term for homosexuality[ better source needed ] … a Hamas[ who? ] investigation alleged that Ishtiwi had hidden money designated for his unit's weapons, before an unnamed man claimed to have had sex with him, providing details about their meetings. The investigation concluded that the money Ishtiwi had stolen had been used to pay the man for sexual relations or to bribe him to keep Ishtiwi's secret.Note: The phrase translated by this source as "moral turpitude" is translated in other sources as "moral transgressions" and can also be read as "ethics violations", and there is no evidence of it being used by Hamas in any other context to specifically refer to Men who have Sex with Men (MSM).
لتجاوزاته السلوكية والأخلاقية التي أقر بها - For his behavioral and moral transgressions that he acknowledged.