Palestinian Territory – The Israeli army's escalation in targeting displaced people in Al-Mawasi is turning the Israeli-claimed "humanitarian zone" into a death trap. This forms part of a systematic policy of denying safety to Palestinians wherever they exist and converting every refuge into a target, as part of the genocide aimed at eliminating them in the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli army is directly firing at displaced people in their tents in Al-Mawasi, southwest of the Gaza Strip, randomly killing and wounding them in a daily recurring crime carried out without any military or security necessity. The army is targeting the tents with sniper fire, random shooting from drones and nearby military vehicles, as well as airstrikes and artillery shelling, while at the same time claiming the area is a humanitarian zone and ordering over one million residents of Gaza City to evacuate there.
Euro-Med Monitor's field team has documented repeated attacks on displacement tents in the area in recent days, killing several civilians, injuring many others, and destroying their tents along with the few personal belongings they still had, stripping them of their last means of survival.
We were having lunch inside the tent when we suddenly heard a loud gunshot. We then realised my daughter, Seila, had been struck by a bullet that went through her back and reached the right side of her chest
Firas Nafez Hamdan, the father of five-year-old Seila who was shot in the back by Israeli forces
The team reviewed several videos published by Israeli army members showing them shooting at Palestinians in displacement camps for amusement or to bet on their accuracy. This demonstrates that the shooting is not driven by any specific purpose or military necessity, but rather reflects a deliberate policy aimed at causing maximum civilian deaths and destruction while denying Palestinians any sense of safety.
Euro-Med Monitor documented the killing of Ahlam Raed Fayez al-Shaer, 26, a mother of two, by Israeli army gunfire on the morning of 1 September, while she was making tea in her tent in Al-Mawasi.
Al-Shaer's father-in-law, Karam Hussein Saydam, 60, told Euro-Med Monitor's team that his daughter-in-law was preparing tea for her two children, Ayman and Karam, in the Al-Mawasi area of Khan Yunis when an Israeli quadcopter shot her in the head in front of them.
Saydam said his two grandchildren are now orphans. On 10 May 2023, their father, Ayman, was killed by an Israeli airstrike on the farm where he worked east of Rafah. Since then, their mother had been their sole caregiver, enduring repeated displacement, hunger, and fear after since war began. The Israeli army then killed her with a direct gunshot, without any justification or necessity.
Similarly, Euro-Med Monitor's team documented the killing of journalist Iman Ahmed al-Zamili by Israeli army fire near the Al-Mawasi area of Khan Yunis on the evening of 2 September, as she was trying to obtain drinking water. The team also documented the killing of academic journalist Hassan Douhan on 25 August, after being shot in a displacement camp in Al-Mawasi.
Furthermore, five-year-old Seila Firas Nafez Hamdan was shot in the back by Israeli forces on 16 August in the same area. "We were having lunch inside the tent when we suddenly heard a loud gunshot," her father told Euro-Med Monitor's team. "We then realised my daughter, Seila, had been struck by a bullet that went through her back and reached the right side of her chest."
"We quickly took her to the hospital, where she remained for ten days. She underwent surgery but still suffers from the injury, including a liver rupture, persistent coughs, and fever," he added.
In addition to the shootings, displacement tents were repeatedly targeted by aerial bombardment, as well as artillery fire from Israeli gunboats and tanks. 15 people, including 11 children and one woman, were killed in the Al-Mawasi area of Khan Yunis in an Israeli attack on Saturday, 23 August.
Targeting civilians inside supposedly protected "humanitarian zones" reflects a deliberate policy that nullifies the very concept of protection. When areas designated as safe havens are turned into arenas of sniper fire and shelling, it becomes clear that Israel seeks to prevent the existence of any refuge for Palestinians. This demonstrates a systematic policy of denying the possibility of safety in the Gaza Strip, where displaced people face death from bombardment and gunfire, or slow death from starvation, disease, and the collapse of the health system.
Israel uses displacement as a single weapon to commit multiple crimes. On the one hand, it forces civilians to leave their homes under the pretext of protection, while on the other, it targets them in displacement areas. Displacement thus becomes a primary coercive tool to gather and confine civilians and a means of inflicting the highest possible number of casualties, turning supposed refuges into mass slaughterhouses.
Thousands of families displaced to Al-Mawasi are living in dire humanitarian conditions, deprived of basic necessities such as food, drinking water, and medicine, which heightens health risks and leaves them vulnerable to epidemics and infections. Many are forced to live in worn-out tents or in the open, without protection from heat, cold, or rain. The suffering of children, women, and the elderly is compounded by the lack of medical care and essential services, amid severe overcrowding and the absence of sewage infrastructure, turning the area into an uninhabitable environment that threatens thousands with a slow death.
Israel's pursuit of this policy reveals its intent to leave Gaza's population with only two options: a quick death through bombardment or a slow death through engineered mass starvation and the denial of basic necessities. These actions amount to genocide under international law, as they reflect a systematic effort to impose living conditions calculated to bring about the total or partial destruction of the Palestinian people.
The UN General Assembly must urgently act under Resolution 377 (V) "Uniting for Peace", which authorises it to address situations where the Security Council fails to act due to a lack of unanimity among its five permanent members. Under this resolution, the General Assembly may issue recommendations to UN member states for collective measures to ensure the restoration of international peace and security.
The General Assembly must urgently act under the aforementioned resolution to establish and deploy an international peacekeeping force in the Gaza Strip. This step is necessary to end crimes against civilians, guarantee their protection, secure unhindered access to humanitarian aid, safeguard medical and relief facilities, and stop the systematic targeting of such facilities. Activating this mechanism is both a legal and moral duty of the international community to protect over two million people in Gaza from ongoing genocide and grave violations.
All states, individually and collectively, must fulfil their legal obligations and act urgently to stop this genocide in Gaza, taking every feasible measure to protect Palestinian civilians there. They must enforce Israel's adherence to international law and the rulings of the International Court of Justice and hold Israel accountable for its crimes against Palestinians.
