Israel not held accountable after 3yrs of military operations in Gaza

CAIRO – 22 July 2017: As a Palestinian from Gaza city, I witnessed the three Israeli military operations on the Gaza Strip 2008-2009, 2012, and 2014. The 2014 military operation was marked by the killing of four children from the same family who were playing football on the beach.

One of my favorite places to escape the continued electricity cuts since 2007 and the summer heat was a café on the beach that I used to resort to during the summer.After the attacks in July 2014 and for a long period of time, I could not go to this place anymore; and the reason was “the Bakr Children”.

Three years ago, in July 2014 four children were killed in the Gaza city harbor while playing football close to their home. This was the start of the Israeli 51-day military operation on the Gaza Strip. Israel claimed that the Bakr children were presumed to be fighters. According to the international humanitarian law, in case of doubt, a presumption of civilian status should have been made.

The four children were playing football on the beach not far from their house when they were killed by three missiles fired by the Israeli forces in short succession. According to “Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights”, the first missile hit a fisherman’s storage shack, killing one of the children (Ismail Bakrar, 9 yes old) instantly. The rest of the children began running along the beach towards the “Al Deira Hotel” that hosts international journalists when the second explosion directly targeted the children moving along the shoreline, killing three, and injuring five people including two children. The three killed children were Ahmed Bakr 9-years old, Zakariya Bakr 10-years old and Mohammed Bakr 11-years old. Palestinians in Gaza mark this day as the “Bakr children massacre”.

“The international news reporters, who witnessed and photographed the attack, confirmed that there were no armed activities taking place in the immediate area at the time,” according to Al-Mezan.

This was only an example of human rights and international law violations committed by the Israeli forces during the military operation on Gaza in 2014. I also can’t forget the case of the 8 children who were killed in a strike on a Park in the “Beach refugee” camp on Eid al-Fitr during a lull in the fighting between the two sides. Israel claimed that it was a misfire by a rocket launched by Hamas.

Al-Mezan center, in partnership with the independent non-profit organization “Visualizing Palestine” and Adalah- the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, developed infographics to highlight the war crimes committed by Israeli military during the 2014 attacks on the Gaza Strip.

The infographics highlight the committed war crimes during the 2014 military operation and Israel’s impunity for these violations of the international law. They also explain how the Israeli investigations, that were impartial and independent as required by the international law, were closed on June 12, 2015 with no charges filed against those who ordered and implemented that attacks that killed the Bakr four children despite the fact that these attacks were not directed at specific military objectives.



Three years after the military operation in 2014 that killed over 1,400 Palestinians including at least 556 children and damaged or completely destroyed 66 schools, reports from various national and international organizations working in Palestine show that the heavily young population in the Gaza Strip suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other mental health issues as a result of witnessing extensive destruction, shelling, injuries and killings.

Furthermore, the “Shelter Cluster” in Palestine revealed in July 2017 that Gaza citizens continue to live in displacement with over 33,000 individuals displaced after the conflict. Many families live in tents and make shifts. The cluster also shows that only 97,144 units out of 171,000 were completely reconstructed since 2014.











The Israeli occupation remains the root cause of the deteriorated situation in the Gaza Strip, according to the “Gaza Crisis Urgent Fund Appeal” by humanitarian agencies in Palestine (July 2017); there are 2 million people in the Gaza Strip in need of humanitarian assistance for life-saving interventions, including health, water, sanitation, hygiene and food security. “Failure to respond to these needs will exacerbate human suffering and increase the risk of a new round of violence,” stated Gaza Crisis Urgent Appeal in July 2017.

According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), the poverty rate in the Gaza Strip reached 39 percent, while severe poverty is 21 percent. The UN Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) for 2017 indicates that 47 percent of the families in Gaza are food-insecure. The percentage is even higher among refugees, with 39 percent, and female-headed households with 32 percent.
The Gaza Strip requires lifting the siege and its effects so that Palestinians in Gaza can live and move normally without restrictions.