BEIRUT (AP) — To a degree never seen before, the air and ground campaign in Gaza is killing entire Palestinian families.
Entire lineages, sometimes four generations of the same family, perished in single air raids or in a series of air raids against members of the same family sheltering together from the bombs. Often there is no warning.
An Associated Press investigation identified at least 60 Palestinian families where 25 people or more were killed in bombings between October and December. It was the deadliest and most destructive phase of the war, now in its ninth month.
Here are the key takeaways from AP’s analysis:
No one left to document the toll
Several families have almost no one left to document the death toll and thousands are unable to count all their deaths because many bodies remain under the rubble.
The AP review covered casualty records released by the Gaza Health Ministry through March, online death notices, family and neighborhood social media pages and spreadsheets, accounts from witnesses and survivors, as well as data from Air Wars, a conflict monitor based in London. The AP also geolocated and analyzed 10 Israeli attacks, among the deadliest of the war, between Oct. 7 and Dec. 24. Together, the attacks killed more than 500 people.
Among those hardest hit is the Mughrabi family: more than 70 people were killed in a single Israeli airstrike in December. The Abu Najas: More than 50 people were killed in the October attacks, including at least two pregnant women. The large Doghmush clan lost at least 44 members in an attack on a mosque and the total soared more than 100 weeks later; in the spring, more than 80 members of the Abu al-Qumssan family were killed.
“The numbers are shocking,” said Hussam Abu al-Qumssan.
No warning, no access
Gaza was under siege before the war, but since October 7, Israel and Egypt have completely blocked access to external reporting teams or independent investigators. Hundreds of local reporters juggled covering the relentless Israeli bombing raids – 6,000 in the first five days of the war – while running for their own lives and seeking shelter for themselves and their families.
In the first month after Hamas’ deadly Oct. 7 attack on Israel that killed about 1,200 people, the Gaza Health Ministry said 300 Palestinian families lost more than 10 members. This is double what occurred during 2014’s devastating 51-day war.
The 10 attacks analyzed by the AP mainly hit residential buildings, houses and shelters where parents, children and grandparents huddled together for safety. In no case was there an obvious military target or direct warning to those inside. The Salem family lost at least 270 members in total.
At one point, the Salems raised a white flag on their building, which was in the middle of a battle zone. They told the army they would not leave because they said nowhere was safe.
More than 170 family members were killed in two attacks eight days apart. Three attacks over four weeks killed 30 al-Agha members; and a series of attacks on a refugee camp in December killed 106 people from at least four families. A Dec. 24 attack was the first time Israel admitted it had “mistakenly” attacked near its intended targets.
In an attack on the crowded Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza, Israeli bombs destroyed an entire block of buildings. Nearly 40 members of the Abu al-Qumssan family were killed, while the number of victims of the October 31 attack remains unknown. Unusually, Israel identified a target, saying it pursued a senior Hamas commander.
Why is it part of war crimes and genocide cases
Israel said takes steps to mitigate again not cause harm to civilians. In previous conflicts, it has often directly warned civilians about the possibility of being targeted. But in this war, this method is rarely used, being replaced by evacuation orders for entire areas that not everyone can or will obey.
When civilian deaths are involved, the laws of war boil down to a question of proportionality, that is, whether the military advantage justifies the destruction.
The world’s top court, the International Court of Justice, is considering whether Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. O murder of families over generations is a fundamental part of t he case.
Separately, the International Criminal Court prosecutor seeks arrest warrants by two Israeli leaders for war crimes and crimes against humanity, including the intentional killing of civilians, as well as by three Hamas leaders for crimes related to the October 7 attack.
Craig Jones, a professor at Newcastle University who has studied the role of Israel’s military lawyers, said Israel had clearly relaxed its standards for civilian casualties, fueled by anger over the October 7 attacks and domestic politics.
The law of war allows for a “kind of hurried war” with a greater number of civilian casualties, where the military needs to respond quickly and in changing circumstances. But “Israel is clearly violating the law because it is pushing the rules so far,” he said.
How the deaths affect the Palestinian future
The deaths of so many Palestinian families will resonate for generations. Kinship goes far beyond the nuclear family in Gaza. The complexes, often multiple buildings of three stories or more, are occupied by an entire lineage.
When the Salem family home in northern Gaza was destroyed in 2009, Youssef and his brothers helped rebuild it for their father and uncles. It was damaged again in 2014. It is now a skeleton, burned from the inside.
Palestinians will remember entire families who disappeared from their lives, said Ramy Abdu, president of the Geneva-based EuroMed Human Rights Monitor, which monitors the war in Gaza.
“It’s as if an entire village or village has been destroyed.”
