The Occupation Escalates Genocidal Crimes in Gaza by Targeting Displaced Persons, Civilians, and the Means of Life in Parallel with Mediators’ Efforts to Secure a Ceasefire

Date: 8 June 2025

Press Release

The Occupation Escalates Genocidal Crimes in Gaza by Targeting Displaced Persons, Civilians, and the Means of Life in Parallel with Mediators’ Efforts to Secure a Ceasefire

The International Commission to Support Palestinian Rights (ICSPR) is following with grave concern the dangerous and ongoing escalation of Israeli occupation crimes in the Gaza Strip, which are taking an even bloodier and more dangerous turn through the continued targeting of civilians, displaced persons, shelter tents, homes, civilian vehicles, police personnel, and civil crews, in the context of the genocidal war now entering its thirty-second consecutive month, amid a staggering international failure to provide protection for the civilian population or ensure respect for the rules of international law.

At a time when meetings continue in Cairo between Palestinian factions and mediators to discuss ways of securing a ceasefire, Israeli occupation forces are continuing to send bloody field messages through escalating killings, destruction, and attacks on civilians, in a manner that undermines the prospects for de-escalation and confirms their determination to impose facts by military force.

The Israeli occupation’s targeting earlier today of Anwar Aziz Square in Jabalia camp in the northern Gaza Strip resulted in the killing of three civilians, including a child returning from school, and the injury of 16 others with varying wounds. Meanwhile, the occupation forces’ targeting yesterday, Sunday, of a Palestinian police point on Al-Rashid Street west of Khan Younis led initially to one martyr and ten injuries, before the same forces struck the Al-Nass intersection on the same road, raising the toll to five martyrs and seventeen wounded. Field information indicates that the targeted police personnel were carrying out civilian duties related to maintaining community security, combating chaos, securing humanitarian aid, and pursuing outlaws.

An Israeli drone also targeted a civilian vehicle near Al-Lababidi Street west of Gaza City, resulting in the killing of three civilians, including a girl, and the injury of several others, in a new crime added to the record of direct targeting of civilian objects and civilian means of transport.

In Gaza City, occupation forces continued targeting the tents of displaced persons in the Passport area west of Al-Rimal neighborhood, where an Israeli drone struck a tent belonging to the Qaddoum family in the vicinity of Al-Rimal Boys Elementary School, killing eight civilians, including two women and a child, and injuring around twenty others, some of them critically.

The victims identified include:

• Suzan Mohammed Salem Qaddoum, 49.

• Mervat Mohammed Salem Qaddoum, 50.

• Abdullah Riyad Masoud Qaddoum, 34.

• The child Mariam Abdullah Qaddoum, 8.

• Naeem Abdul Aziz Al-Sarsawi, 51.

• Mohammed Atiya Abu Afash, 36.

• Farhat Zuhair Harara, 38.

• Fawaz Saad Mahmoud Saad, 68, who later died of his wounds.

Civilian Mehran Rizq Filfil, 37, was also killed as a result of direct gunfire from occupation forces stationed east of Gaza City toward civilians in Al-Zaytoun neighborhood.

In Khan Younis, the young man Mohannad Othman Yassin Farawna, 25, was killed after an Israeli drone targeted a tent erected فوق a destroyed house on Al-Zeini Street in the center of the city, while five other civilians were injured. This crime carries an especially cruel human dimension, as the martyr was due to celebrate his wedding later that same day after completing preparations for his modest tent, which he had hoped would mark the beginning of a new life with his bride. However, the Israeli strike turned his awaited joy into yet another funeral added to the chain of tragedies endured by the residents of the Gaza Strip.

ICSPR has also documented the targeting of other tents for displaced persons in Al-Mawasi of Khan Younis and Al-Ihsan camp, resulting in the killing of the young woman Bushra Hani Al-Barahma, 18, and the injury of more than sixteen civilians, in addition to the destruction of tents and homes in densely populated displacement areas and the targeting of homes only minutes after evacuation orders were issued, depriving civilians of any real chance of survival.

Alongside these direct killings, occupation forces continue to impose catastrophic living conditions on more than two million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip through siege, starvation, and the blocking of humanitarian aid, medicine, and fuel, which has led to the near-total collapse of the healthcare system and intensified the suffering of patients, especially cancer patients and those with chronic illnesses, who now face the risk of death due to the depletion of essential medicines and treatment.

The International Commission to Support Palestinian Rights (ICSPR) affirms that the targeting of displaced persons’ tents, civilian vehicles, inhabited homes, civilian police personnel, community facilities, and humanitarian teams constitutes a grave violation of international humanitarian law, especially the four Geneva Conventions, and breaches the principles of distinction, proportionality, and military necessity. These acts amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity and form part of the acts constituting the ongoing crime of genocide against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip.

Accordingly, the International Commission to Support Palestinian Rights (ICSPR):

• Condemns in the strongest terms the continued crimes of mass killing and the targeting of civilians and displaced persons in the Gaza Strip.

• Stresses the urgent need for mediators and the High Contracting Parties to the Geneva Conventions to act to secure a ceasefire and bring an end to the genocidal war, in a manner that guarantees protection for civilians in Gaza who face daily killing, hunger, displacement, and deprivation of the most basic necessities of life.

• Calls on the United Nations and the High Contracting Parties to the Geneva Conventions to take effective measures to provide international protection for Palestinians, ensure respect for the rules of international humanitarian law, hold Israeli occupation leaders accountable before international justice, guarantee the opening of all crossings, allow the entry of humanitarian aid, medicines, and fuel without restrictions or conditions, and enable the travel of patients and the wounded as well as the return of those stranded.