The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) condemns in the strongest terms the grave and rapidly escalating Israeli military assaults, including the mass killings and family extermination, targeting Palestinian civilians who have been forcibly displaced by evacuation orders and relentless bombardment to an area less than 15% of the Gaza Strip.
Over the past few days, the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) have intensified their aerial and artillery assaults across the whole Gaza strip, targeting houses, displacement tents, shelters, and gatherings. These attacks have killed 375 Palestinians and injured 1,560 others, mostly children and women. Entire families have been wiped out over the past three days; according to statistics, IOF killed an average of 5 Palestinians and injured 22 more every single hour.
PCHR’s staff has documented deliberate attacks by IOF on densely populated neighborhood in western Gaza City, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have sought refuge following successive displacement orders from eastern and northern Gaza City. This pattern of attacks demonstrates the IOF’s intent to forcibly displace civilians and subsequently target them in their areas of displacement, constituting part of a broader campaign of intimidation and genocidal policy. Through these mass killings, the IOF are deliberately driving civilians further south, aimed at depopulating Gaza City and northern Gaza.
As part of PCHR’s documentation, on Thursday, 3 July 2025, at around 01:40, the Israeli warplanes targeted Mustafa Hafez Preparatory School for Girls, serving as a shelter for hundreds of displaced civilians located in al-Rimal neighborhood, western Gaza City. This area contains several schools that have been turned into displacement shelters. This direct airstrike targeted the ground floor in the southeastern building of the school, killing 16 people, including 8 children, 2 women, and 3 persons who had been forcibly deported from the West Bank after being released from Israeli prisons in the 2011 prisoner exchange deal involving Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. Among those killed were 12 members of Hajilah family.1
On the same Thursday, at around 23:00, the Israeli warplanes targeted a tent set up by al-Shalabi family near the ruins of their previously destroyed house located in the vicinity of al-Sakran Square in al-Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip. The airstrike killed Farid Ahmed Mohammed al-Shalabi (67), his wife Sabah Ibrahim al-Shalabi/ al-Sa’idi (62) and their son, Eyad Farid Ahmed al-
Shalabi (38).
On Wednesday, 2 July 2025, at around 16:40, Israeli warplanes targeted a building for the Ministry of Endowments and Religious Affairs, a shelter to dozens of displaced civilians in ‘Asqoulah area in al-Zaytoun neighborhood, eastern Gaza City. The direct airstrike killed 12 individuals, including 6 Palestinians and 4 women, and injured 45 others with varying degrees of injuries, according to medical sources. It should be noted that 10 members of the al-Gharabli family were among those killed, and PCHR keeps the names of all the victims.
While IOF continue to target aid seekers near the distribution points established in areas under their full control in Rafah and southern Gaza City, killing many of them daily, recent hours have also witnessed attacks on Palestinians attempting to obtain food from local vendors and stalls.
At around 20:25 on the same Wednesday, an Israeli drone fired a missile at a group of people gathered in front of a falafel stall to the south of the administration building of al-‘Awda Hospital, run by Al- Awda Health and Community Association, in al-Nusirat refugee camp in central Gaza Strip. As a result, 8 people, including three children and a woman, were killed, and PCHR keeps their names. Also, about 25 other people sustained various injuries: some of them in critical condition. Among the injured were two hospital security personnel, whose injuries were described as moderate. Additionally, the hospital’s administration building and electric generators sustained partial damage due to the strike.
At approximately 19:00 on the same day, an Israeli warplane launched a missile on a group of people gathered in front of a vegetable stall near al-Aqsa Club in the new camp in al-Nusirat refugee camp, in the center of the Gaza Strip. The strike killed 9 people, including five children and an elderly man, and PCHR keeps their names. Also, about 30 other people sustained various injuries, some of which were reported critical.
Hundreds of thousands of starving displaced people in al-Mawasi area in Khan Yunis and the outskirts of the camp remain under direct bombardment and mass killings by the IOF. At around 23:00 on the same Wednesday, Israeli warplanes targeted displaced people’s tents in northwestern al-Mawasi area in Khan Yunis. As a result, 16 displaced people, including 9 children and 3 women, were killed, and PCHR keeps their names. At approximately 02:25 on the same day, Israeli warplanes targeted displaced people’s tents in northwestern al-Mawasi area in Khan Yunis, killing 5 people, including a father and his three sons, including a child, from Abu Tu’aima family, as well as three women. Additionally, others sustained various injuries.
At approximately 10:50 on Tuesday, 1 July 2025, an Israeli warplane launched an airstrike on al-Hallaq family’s 2-storey house in western Khan Yunis refugee camp, west of Khan Yunis. As a result, 12 people, including 8 children and 3 women, were killed. Among them were the owner of the targeted house, his wife and their three children, one of whom remains trapped under the rubble, with search operations still ongoing. The remaining victims were killed inside their houses along with children who were playing in the incident scene. Additionally, others sustained various injuries.
At around 12:10 on the same day, Israeli warplanes targeted tents of displaced people in northwestern al-Mawasi area in Khan Yunis. As a result, 8 displaced people, including 5 women and 3 children, were killed, and PCHR keeps their names. Also, others sustained various injuries.
At approximately 15:45 on the same day, an Israeli warplane bombed a tent for displaced people in southwestern al-Mawasi area in Khan Yunis. As a result, 7 displaced people, including 3 children and a woman, were killed. Those killed were from Abu Lebdda and Abu ‘Eiyadah families, and PCHR keeps their names.
At around 15:30 on the same day, Israeli warplanes targeted a residential square in eastern Gaza City, completely destroying four houses on top of their residents. The destroyed houses belonged to Abu Samra, al-Madhoun, Kishko, and Samour families. The strike killed 31 people, including 9 children and 5 women, and PCHR keeps their names. Additionally, dozens were injured, while 10 others remain missing.
Given this serious escalation, PCHR fears that these violent acts, committed in parallel with ongoing negotiations for a potential ceasefire, reflect an Israeli policy that weaponizes Palestinian civilians, and the massacres committed against them as bargaining chips to exert pressure and extract illegitimate negotiating gains.
The targeting of areas where residents sought refuge after being forcibly displaced from the northern and western parts of the Gaza Strip, coupled with the intensification of mass killings there, reflects the IOF’s deliberate intent to expand the scope of the genocide they have been committing for nearly 21 months.
PCHR calls on the international community, foremost among them the High Contracting Parties to the Geneva Conventions, to urgently intervene to halt these crimes, provide immediate protection to civilians in the Gaza Strip, and end the impunity fueled by double standards and international complicity.
