Last Updated on December 13, 2023
Palestinians say that Israeli forces shot Palestinian women, children, and babies “execution-style” inside a school in northern Gaza, where civilians displaced by the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas were seeking refuge.
Al Jazeera obtained and published exclusive photographs and video footage reported to be from inside the Shadia Abu Ghazala School in the area of al-Faluja, not far from the Jabalia refugee camp that has been attacked by Israeli forces in recent days. The attacks have forced already displaced civilians to flee the camp and shelter in places like the Shadia Abu Ghazala School where, apparently, they once again fell under attack.
“New pictures from a school sheltering displaced Palestinians in northern Gaza show bodies piled up following an Israeli attack,” Al Jazeera reported on-air, with footage of dead and wounded Palestinians purportedly inside the school rolling in the background.
“Witnesses say a number of people, including women, children, and babies, were killed execution-style by Israeli forces while they were sheltering inside.”
“The Israeli soldiers came in and opened fire on them,” a Palestinian woman who says she witnessed the attack told Al Jazeera.
“The Israeli soldiers stormed the school, took all the men, then entered classrooms and opened fire on a woman and all the children with her, even the newborn babies among them,” she went on.
“The Israeli soldiers executed those innocent families at point blank [range].”
Watch Al Jazeera’s coverage below:
#VIDEO: ‘The Israeli soldiers executed those innocent people at point blank’
Palestinians say Israeli forces executed Palestinian women, children, babies inside a school used as a shelter by refugees, who were run out of their camp by Israeli attacks. pic.twitter.com/3VbHZcTrWf
— Frankie Stockes (@realStockes) December 13, 2023
While both sides of the Israel-Hamas conflict have accused the other of killing and committing other crimes against civilians, and evidence exists to validate the claims of both sides to varying degrees, in the Western press, reports on alleged Israeli war crimes have been few and far between.
Recently, in an apparent effort to skirt accusations of brutality against his troops and his government, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused the International Criminal Court of hating Jews, because it dared look into reports of Israeli war crimes.
“When the ICC investigates Israel for fake war crimes, this is pure antisemitism,” said Netanyahu, before claiming that Israel should be exempt from war crimes investigations because it’s a Jewish country.
“The court established to prevent atrocities like the Nazi holocaust against the Jewish people, is now targeting the one state of the Jewish people.”
Read More: Investigating Israeli War Crimes is ‘Pure Antisemitism’ says Netanyahu
Remarkably, while the Western press has refused to scrutinize the Israeli government and war machine, segments of the Israeli press have taken a far different position, and have questioned the Israeli government’s US-backed official narrative of the 10/7 Hamas attacks on Israel that sparked the ongoing war.
Many of those same outlets have platformed Israeli eyewitnesses to the 10/7 attacks, who say that Israeli forces are responsible for the majority of Israeli civilian casualties.
As National File previously reported:
Eye-witness Tuval Escapa, an Israeli security team member at the Kibbutz Be’eri, told Haaretz that “the commanders in the field made difficult decisions – including shelling houses on their occupants in order to eliminate terrorists along with the hostages.”
Yasmin Porat, an Israeli woman who gave an interview to Israel Radio, corroborated Escapa’s story, saying that Israeli special forces “eliminated everyone, including the hostages.”
What’s more, is that another Haaretz report revealed that the Israeli military even ordered an aerial strike on its own base in the Erez Crossing, “in order to repulse the terrorists.” At the time, the base was “filled” with Israeli Civil Administration officers and soldiers.
The eyewitness testimony casts major doubt on Israeli claims surrounding the 10/7 attacks, which have changed over time and have included horrific stories of beheaded and burnt babies, which have yet to be validated and which even the Israeli military says it can’t confirm, despite several corporate journalists claiming (apparently falsely) to have seen photographs of such atrocities.
Related: Israel Ignored Intel Warnings that Predicted Hamas Attack
