The Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) continue their wide-scale military aggression against the Gaza Strip, now entering its second year, marked by mass killings, systematic destruction, and the deliberate use of starvation and siege to fragment and isolate Gaza’s cities. These actions are part of Israel’s deliberate persistence to commit the crime of genocide against the Palestinians.
Over the past days, the IOF have committed a series of horrific crimes across the Gaza Strip, including in al-Mawasi, west of Khan Younis—an area the IOF had declared a so-called “humanitarian zone.” These attacks have resulted in the injury and killing of dozens of civilian casualties, including women and children.
According to documentation by PCHR field researchers, at around 11:50 on Thursday, 2 October 2025, an Israeli drone struck a field kitchen in al-Mawasi, west of al-Qararah town, northwest of Khan Younis. At the time, displaced volunteers were preparing meals for displaced families. The attack killed 11 people, including an elderly man, his four sons, and one of his grandchildren, as well as several young men working in the kitchen. Seven others were injured, three of them seriously.
Those killed were identified as: Jom’ah Ishaq Salem Shurrab (69); his sons Mohammed (37), Mahmoud (35), Osamah (32), and Ahmed (28); his grandchild Jom’ah Salem Shurrab (10); Ibrahim ‘Adel Ahmed al-Khateeb (18); Ahmed Diab Mustafa al-‘Akkad (30); Zakaria Yousif Zakaria Shubair (23); ‘Ezz al-Deen Nabil Budeir (21); and ‘Abdul Rahman Bahaa’ Sallam Shurrab (18), who later succumbed to his injuries.
Witnesses confirmed that the field kitchen, established in early 2004 as a mobile facility to serve the displaced, prepared around 25 pots of food daily. The Israeli attack completely destroyed the site, turning a vital humanitarian mission into a bloody massacre that left a devastating impact on the surrounding displaced crowds, many of whom depended on the kitchen as their only source of food.
Ahmed Hosni Mohammed Shurrab, the owner of the land, where the field kitchen was established, said to PCHR:
“I heard an explosion in the Seraj al-Kheir field kitchen located on my land, about 100 meters from where I was staying. I looked toward the sound and saw smoke rising from the kitchen. I immediately rushed to the site and, upon arrival, found my uncle, Jom’ah Shurrab (69), lying dead along with his sons, one of his grandchildren, and three of the kitchen’s workers. All of them were lying on the ground, drenched in blood- some on their backs, others on their stomachs. I saw two of my cousins, Osamah and Mohammed, with their feet amputated. Soon after, young men displaced in the camp arrived, and together we began loading the bodies into cars and even onto an animal-drawn cart. We transported them all to a field hospital.” When asked about the weapon used in the attack, he said: “It may have been a drone detonated in the area.”
IOF also continued their airstrikes across various areas of the Gaza Strip, among which our field researchers documented the following:
At around 00:10 on Wednesday, 01 October 2025 Israeli warplanes bombed a residential square in al-Shati’ refugee camp, west of Gaza City, killing seven people whose names are documented and retained by PCHR.
At around 4:30 on Tuesday, 30 September 2025, Israeli forces attacked with a suicide drone a house belonging to the al-Baz family, located behind the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) headquarters in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip. The attack killed a woman and her six children, including three young women and a girl, all of whom were displaced from Jabalia in northern Gaza and had been renting the house. A resident of the area was also seriously injured. The victims were identified as Samira Mas’oud ‘Omar Abu Lehiah (55), and her children: Do’aa (31), Maram (29), Sujood (25), Mohammed (23), Ahmed (20), Hala (17), children of Mahdi Mousa Abu Lehia.
IOF also continued their policy of killing Palestinian civilians near aid distribution sites. At dawn on Tuesday, 30 September 2025, dozens of civilians gathered at the U.S. aid distribution site on the Netzarim axis, south of Gaza Valley. While they were gathered at the site, at around 8:00, IOF heavily and directly opened fire at the civilians. The attack killed 14 people, including 7 children, (PCHR keeps their names), and wounded 40 others with varying injuries.
These crimes clearly demonstrate that the areas designated by the IOF as “humanitarian zones” are nothing but open fields of killing, while the displacement routes imposed by IOF have turned into death traps. Civilians attempting to flee bombardment or explosive-laden vehicle detonations find themselves once again the targets of direct Israeli attacks. Moreover, vital civilian facilities that provide essential services for the displaced, such as community kitchens and hospitals, are deliberately targeted.
In a new escalation, on 01 October 2025, IOF announced the closure of al-Rasheed coastal road to all movement from the southern Gaza Strip toward Gaza City as of 12:00 p.m., stating that those who had not yet managed to evacuate Gaza City would be allowed to move south without search.1 Later, at around 14:50 on the same day, an Israeli drone targeted a car carrying displaced persons near al-Bahhar Restaurant on al-Rasheed Street, southwest of Gaza City, killing a mother and her two children and injuring five others. Those killed were identified as Karima Ibrahim Ahmed al-Mutawwaq/’Asaliyah (35) and her children: Yousif Jihad Yousif ‘Asaliyah (10) and Razan Jihad Yousif ‘Asaliyah (5 months). On the following day, IOF advanced toward the area known as the Netzarim axis on al-Rasheed Street, where they began establishing sand berms and deploying snipers behind them, before later withdrawing several hundred meters eastward.
This measure is intended to restrict people’s movement and further enforce the isolation and siege of Gaza City, where IOF are waging a large-scale military assault aimed at taking full control of the city and forcibly depopulating it, as only about 300,000 residents remain.
The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) stresses that the acts committed by IOF form part of a broader, systematic policy targeting the civilian population and deliberately rendering life in Gaza impossible. These measures are integral part of Israel’s genocidal policy against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, aimed at erasing them and annihilating their very existence.
PCHR further urges the international community, the United Nations, and the Security Council to fulfil their obligations and take immediate measures, including:
