Palestinian Territory – The evidence surrounding the Nuseirat Massacre committed by the Israeli army on 8 June 2024 is now supported by a growing body of documented data, most notably the Al Jazeera documentary Nuseirat 274: The Hostage Massacre. The film offers a significant contribution to reconstructing the sequence of events and exposing the nature of the force used against the civilian population.
The testimonies and visual material presented in the film closely align with the findings of Euro-Med Monitor's field investigation and reinforce evidence of Israel's use of indiscriminate and disproportionate firepower in a densely populated civilian area, in clear violation of international humanitarian law.
This level of documentation, combining professional journalism with human rights investigation, underscores the need to launch an independent investigation with international criminal jurisdiction to uncover the truth, hold those responsible for the massacre accountable, and prevent the recurrence of such violations against the civilian population in the Gaza Strip.
Al Jazeera's investigative film provides evidence-based documentation and detailed field analysis of one of the deadliest massacres committed by the Israeli army during the ongoing genocide in the Gaza Strip, which left 274 Palestinians dead and 814 injured in a single day.
The data presented in the film, consistent with Euro-Med Monitor's field documentation, constitutes conclusive evidence that the Israeli army committed a full-fledged war crime on 8 June 2024 in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza. The military operation, ostensibly aimed at "liberating hostages," in fact resulted in hundreds of civilian casualties due to the excessive use of force and the deliberate targeting of civilians without military necessity, including in areas far from the site of the Israeli special operation.
At the time, Euro-Med Monitor's field team documented the Israeli army carrying out intense and concentrated aerial, land, and sea attacks lasting approximately two hours on the Central Market area of the Nuseirat refugee camp, which is densely populated with tens of thousands of civilians daily. The attacks later expanded to much of central Gaza, resulting in a high number of casualties.
The investigation, aired by Al Jazeera on its digital platform Al Jazeera 360, employed a rigorous methodology that combined open-source analysis, satellite imagery, and air navigation data with exclusive testimonies, photographs, and never-before-published footage. It accurately reconstructed the scene of the massacre and systematically refuted the Israeli army's narrative of the incident.
The film also exposes precise details of the deliberate targeting of civilian objects during the Israeli operation, including multiple airstrikes on residential homes, such as the Shalat family home where over 30 civilians were killed, and the intentional targeting of women and children in densely populated areas, indicating a premeditated intent to maximise civilian casualties.
Following the massacre, the Israeli army announced that its forces, in coordination with the General Security Service (Shin Bet) and the Israeli police (Yamam), had recovered four Israeli detainees in an operation conducted by special forces in the Nuseirat refugee camp.
The Israeli special operation involved intensive, indiscriminate air and artillery attacks used to cover the withdrawal of Israeli forces, resulting in extensive civilian casualties and widespread destruction of civilian objects. These actions violated international humanitarian law, including the principles of humanity, distinction, military necessity, proportionality, and precaution.
At the time, a young man named Faisal, who requested anonymity for his surname, told the Euro-Med Monitor team that Israeli fighter jets and drones launched intensive attacks, initially targeting the northwest area of Nuseirat camp before expanding to broader areas. This included indiscriminate shelling from Israeli vehicles positioned at the entrance to al-Bureij camp and in the al-Awda Street area, northeast of Nuseirat.
He added that the intense Israeli bombardment forced thousands of civilians to flee Nuseirat camp, but they were pursued by Quadcopter drone fire and artillery shells, resulting in dozens of deaths and injuries. Numerous bodies were seen in the Julis Street area in the centre of the camp.
The killing of Palestinian journalist Ahmed Elshayyah, a field contributor to the documentary, in an Israeli airstrike carried out after the investigation was completed, underscores Israel's policy of targeting journalists and those documenting its actions, as part of a broader effort to conceal evidence and eliminate witnesses.
The Nuseirat Massacre cannot be dismissed as a military error or an isolated incident, as it was neither accidental in execution nor exceptional in context. The operation involved the use of heavy, indiscriminate firepower in a densely populated civilian area, despite prior knowledge of the presence of hundreds of civilians. This reflects a deliberate policy of targeting the civilian population collectively and inflicting the highest possible number of deaths among a besieged, starving, and forcibly displaced population.
It constitutes both a war crime and a crime against humanity, as part of a widespread and systematic attack against civilians, as well as an act of genocide, given the clear intent to destroy a portion of the Palestinian population. This occurs within a broader context of public incitement, mass killings, the infliction of severe suffering, forced displacement, siege, starvation, deprivation of necessities, and the systematic destruction of civilian areas.
Immediate, independent, and impartial international investigations into the targeting of civilians in the Nuseirat Massacre are essential. Pressure must be exerted on Israel to allow international and UN fact-finding missions into the Gaza Strip, as per international law and the rulings of the International Court of Justice.
The International Criminal Court must investigate all crimes committed by Israel in the Gaza Strip, including the Nuseirat Massacre and the thousands of other atrocities perpetrated by the Israeli army in the enclave. The Court should also broaden the scope of its investigation into individual criminal responsibility to include all those involved, issue arrest warrants, and prosecute them in accordance with international law and the Rome Statute. Furthermore, the Court must acknowledge the reality of the situation in Gaza and address Israel's actions seriously and objectively, recognising them as constituting genocide.
All states, both individually and collectively, must fulfil their legal responsibilities by taking urgent action to stop the genocide in the Gaza Strip, through implementing effective measures to protect Palestinian civilians; ensuring Israel's compliance with international law and the decisions of the International Court of Justice; and holding Israel accountable for all crimes against the Palestinians in the Strip. The International Criminal Court must implement the arrest warrants for the Israeli Prime Minister and Minister of Defence at the earliest opportunity, in accordance with the principle that there is no immunity for international crimes.
The international community must also impose economic, diplomatic, and military sanctions on Israel for its systematic and grave violations of international law. These sanctions should include an arms embargo; an end to all political, financial, and military support; freezing the assets of officials involved in crimes against Palestinians; imposing travel ban on these officials; suspending the operations of Israeli military and security industries companies in international markets; banning involved companies' access to banking services; and suspending trade privileges and bilateral agreements that provide Israel with economic benefits that enable its continued crimes.
Countries with universal jurisdiction courts must issue arrest warrants for Israeli political and military leaders involved in the ongoing genocide and initiate legal proceedings, even with the accused in absentia, to fulfil their international legal obligation to prosecute serious crimes and combat impunity.
