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Nuseirat refugee camp massacre | |
---|---|
Part of the Israel–Hamas war | |
Location | Nuseirat refugee camp, Gaza Strip, Palestine |
Date | 8 June 2024 |
Attack type | Raid, airstrikes, massacre |
Deaths | |
Injured | Over 698 Palestinians [6] |
Victims | Palestinian civilians and militants |
Perpetrators | Israel Defense Forces United States (alleged support) [7] |
On 8 June 2024, the Israeli military killed at least 276 people and injured over 698, according to the Gaza Health Ministry and Palestinian health officials, during a hostage rescue operation in the UNRWA Nuseirat refugee camp. [b] [8] The operation's objective was to free multiple hostages taken during the 7 October attack on Israel. The Israeli military acknowledged fewer than 100 Palestinian deaths. [9]
The operation reportedly involved hundreds of ground troops and a heavy initial bombardment on the camp. According to the IDF, violence further escalated when the IDF vehicle carrying three hostages broke down, leading to intense firefights, airstrikes, and naval support. Wounded civilians were taken to the Shuhada al-Aqsa Hospital and Al-Awda Hospital, though Al-Aqsa was reportedly overwhelmed with casualties and experienced communications disruptions due to the intense Israeli bombing. [10]
While the Israeli military was praised for its successful rescue of four Israeli hostages, it was condemned for the high civilian death toll. Both humanitarian organizations and governments described the assault as a massacre, and the United Nations stated the IDF may have committed war crimes. In its defense, Israel said it was targeting Hamas militants who took part in the 7 October attack. [11]
The Nuseirat refugee camp is a long standing UNRWA refugee camp located in the middle of the Gaza Strip, in Deir al-Balah. [12] The camp has been repeatedly bombed during the Israel–Hamas war, with over a hundred Palestinians killed in the attacks. The most recent attack on the camp (on 6 June) occurred only days before the rescue operation, with IDF forces striking the UNRWA school in the camp, killing 37 people, including 14 children. [13] [14] It is unclear how many of this number were civilians. [15] [16]
On 8 June 2024 around midday, the Israeli army initiated a rescue operation for hostages taken during the 7 October attack. [17] According to Israeli military spokesperson, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, the rescue mission took place in the heart of the residential neighborhood in the Nuseirat refugee camp, where four hostages were reportedly kept in two separate residential apartment blocks. [18] [19] According to Omar Ashour, a professor at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, Israeli forces first launched heavy operations on Deir al-Balah and Bureij to draw out militants and obscure its intentions, and then launch an intense assault on Nuseirat. [20]
The operation reportedly involved hundreds of troops and heavy air support that hit the refugee camp. [21] [6] According to witnesses, Israeli military vehicles unexpectedly moved into the camp, with the movement coinciding with heavy bombardment of large areas of the camp. [22] [23] Journalists on the ground also described an intense bombardment, including airstrikes, live ammunition from nearby warships, and artillery shelling. [24]
Special forces entered the refugee camp posing as Palestinian refugees fleeing Rafah, according to Israeli security sources. [25] They reportedly told locals that they were escaping the Israeli assault on Rafah, and Palestinian locals stated that other forces entered in humanitarian trucks. [21] A witness stated Israeli specialized forces had arrived with furniture on their vehicle to appear like refugees, and then, "The operative got out two ladders and came into our home fully armed. Chaos erupted with gunfire and explosions". [26]
According to the IDF, after the Israeli forces had recovered the hostages, at least one of their vehicles broke down. [27] The Israeli military then called in support, "attacking from the air, from the sea and on the ground with massive force." [28] A witness in the camp reported a "crazy bombardment" occurred suddenly. [29] Footage showed Palestinians in the market area diving for cover as missiles flew in and gunfire erupted, and a witness who had been in the marketplace stated that about 150 rockets fell at and around the market place in less than 10 minutes. [30] [31] According to witnesses and video footage, the strikes destroyed apartment buildings and even entire residential blocks throughout the camp. [32] [33]
Per a resident and paramedic in the camp, the assault felt like a "horror movie" and that Israeli drones and warplanes fired randomly throughout the night at peoples' homes and those who tried to flee the area. [18] One witness stated, "Anyone who was moving in the street was killed". [34] Videos showed corpses with entrails spilling out lying on blood-stained streets, although Reuters was unable to immediately verify the footage. [18]
An Israeli drone commander reported that after an initial attack "to drive civilians away", Israel considered anyone who did not flee to be a "terrorist", even if they were unarmed. [35]
Many individual testimonies of eyewitnesses who survived the intense fire-fight have been collected, according to Mondoweiss. [36] In the aftermath, one woman stated, "We don’t know where the children are. We lost them, and now we are being displaced for a third time with no idea where to go." [37] Witnesses described being able to hear people buried under the rubble, but being unable to help rescue them. [38]
Trucks and ambulances rushed wounded people to Al-Aqsa Hospital for treatment. [6] Prior to the operation, the hospital had already been overwhelmed with civilian casualties. A Doctors Without Borders (MSF) representative described the situation at Al-Aqsa as a "nightmare." [23] An MSF paediatric intensive care doctor at Al-Asqa stated the emergency department was a "complete bloodbath… it looks like a slaughterhouse". [39] The same doctor stated only one generator at the hospital was functioning, meaning ventilators, lights, and the internet were not working. [40] Another MSF doctor stated, "We had the gamut of war wounds, trauma wounds, from amputations... to [traumatic brain injuries], fractures and, obviously, big burns". [41] Two weeks after the incident, many of the wounded remained in the hospital. [42] Severely injured patients requiring advanced surgeries were unable to leave Gaza to receive them, due to Gaza's borders being closed. [43]
The total number of casualties are disputed, with Israeli and Palestinian totals differing drastically. The Gaza Health Ministry and local health officials stated at least 274 Palestinians were killed and 698 were wounded due to the Israeli rescue operation. [1] [44] Israeli military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari stated that Israel was aware of "under 100" Palestinians who had been killed in the operation. Neither the Health Ministry nor IDF clarified how many casualties were civilians. [44] [45] The Gazan Health Ministry reported that 64 children and 57 women were killed. [46]
According to Hamas, several Israeli hostages were killed in the Israeli attack. [47] The group stated in a video clip that three hostages were killed during the operation, including an American. [48] The Israeli military denied that any hostages were killed during the operation. [49] [50]
In the immediate aftermath of the operation, the United States was accused of allowing its humanitarian pier to be used by the IDF. This accusation arose after video footage showed an IDF helicopter taking off from a beach with the humanitarian-aid pier in the background. Two U.S. officials denied this. [51] In a statement, the Pentagon spokesperson stated that Israeli helicopters used an area "near" the pier. [52] Martin Griffiths, the UN humanitarian aid coordinator, stated that if the allegations were true, "they are very concerning, because they would put at risk any future humanitarian engagement in that operation". [53] Both Israeli and American officials confirmed that U.S. intelligence assisted the Israeli military for its rescue. [54]
The World Food Programme paused its operation with the U.S. humanitarian pier due to security concerns. [55] UN human rights experts condemned the Israeli forces for allegedly hiding in aid trucks that came from the US humanitarian aid pier, describing the action as a war crime. [56] The UN Human Rights Office also said that both Israeli forces and Palestinian armed groups may have committed war crimes, citing potential "violations of rules of proportionality, distinction and precaution" in the case of the former and "holding hostages in densely populated areas" for the latter. [57]
Yamam, also known as National Counter-Terrorism Unit, is Israel's national counter-terrorism unit, one of four special units of the Israel Border Police. The Yamam is capable of both hostage-rescue operations and offensive take-over raids against terrorist targets in civilian areas. Besides military and counter-terrorism duties, it also performs tactical unit duties and undercover police work.
Nuseirat is a Palestinian refugee camp located in the middle of the Gaza Strip, five kilometers north-east of Deir al-Balah. The refugee camp is in the Deir al-Balah Governorate, Gaza Strip. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the refugee camp had a population of 31,747 and the surrounding Nuseirat municipality had a population of 54,851 in 2017. The camp was established after the 1948 Palestinian expulsion during the 1948 Palestine war.
The year 2023 in Israel was defined first by wide-scale protests against a proposed judicial reform, and then by the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7, which led to a war and to Israel invading the Gaza Strip.
Events in the year 2023 in Palestine.
An armed conflict between Israel and Hamas-led Palestinian militant groups has been taking place in the Gaza Strip and Israel since 7 October 2023. It is the fifth war of the Gaza–Israel conflict since 2008, and the most significant military engagement in the region since the Yom Kippur War in 1973. It is the deadliest war for Palestinians in the history of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.
From 9 October 2023, as part of the Israel–Hamas war, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has conducted airstrikes in Jabalia refugee camp, claiming it was a stronghold for Hamas and other militant groups.
The siege of Gaza City began on 2 November 2023, when the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) surrounded Gaza City, amid the Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip, which was a counterattack to the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel. Gaza City is the most populated city in the Gaza Strip and the battle started on 30 October 2023, when Israel and Hamas clashed in Gaza City. According to Oxfam, there are about 500,000 Palestinians, along with 200 Israelis and other captives, were trapped in a "siege within a siege" in northern Gaza.
In the Israel–Hamas war, as part of the bombing and invasion of Gaza, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has conducted numerous airstrikes in densely populated Palestinian refugee camps in both the Gaza Strip and West Bank.
Events of the year 2024 in Israel.
Events in the year 2024 in Palestine.
The following is a list of events during the Israeli–Palestinian conflict in 2024, including the events of the Israel–Hamas war.
On 6 June 2024, the Israel Defense Forces fired two missiles at Al-Sardi, a UNRWA school in the Nuseirat refugee camp. Though the complex had not been used as a school since the outbreak of the war, UNRWA said approximately 6,000 people were using it for shelter.
The Nuseirat rescue operation was a rescue operation carried out by Yamam, the Shin Bet and Israel Defense Forces with intelligence support from the United States in the Nuseirat refugee camp on 8 June 2024 to recover hostages taken by Hamas from the Nova music festival during the October 7 attacks.
On 9 July 2024, the Israeli Defense Forces bombed Al-Awda school in Abasan al-Kabira near the city of Khan Yunis, in the Gaza Strip, Palestine. The UNRWA-ran that had been converted into a displacement shelter, hosting refugees from the Israeli invasion. At least 31 Palestinians were killed in the attack while over 53 were injured; most of the casualties were women and children. Many of the victims were refugees from Rafah following Israel's Rafah offensive. The attack was the fourth attack on a Palestinian school conducted by the Israel Defense Forces over the prior four days.
On 13 July 2024, Israeli airstrikes hit the Al-Mawasi area near Khan Yunis in the Gaza Strip during the Israel–Hamas war. The attack killed at least 90 Palestinians, among them women and children, and injured over 300. Israel said that the strike targeted Hamas top leaders. Survivors reported that they were targeted without warning in an area they were told was safe.
On 11 September 2024, the Israel Defense Forces bombed the UN-run Al-Jawni school in the Nuseirat refugee camp of central Gaza. The school had been sheltering people displaced by the Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip, including women and children. Per rescuers, 18 people were killed and more than 44 others were wounded. Among the killed were six United Nations workers, including the manager of the UNRWA shelter. This made it the highest death toll for UN staff in any single incident of the Israel–Hamas War and raising the number of UNRWA staff killed since the beginning of the war to 220. The attack was one of a number of attacks on schools during the Israeli invasion of Gaza and the fifth bombing of the Al-Jawni School since October 2023.
Kamal Benaji, a Palestinian displaced from Gaza City who was living in a tent in central Nuseirat, said he saw a small truck with a car in front and another behind pull up in front of a building on the street where he had pitched his tent. The commandos sprang from the truck and one of them threw a grenade into the house. "Clashes and explosions broke out everywhere," he said [...] Palestinian militants armed with machine-guns and rocket-propelled grenades opened fire on the rescuers, as Israel called in heavy strikes from land and air to cover their evacuation to the coast. [...] It was this bombardment that appears to have killed and wounded so many Palestinians.
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