Palestinian Territory – Israeli forces brutally killed two elderly Palestinians after using them as human shields during an invasion of Gaza City’s southern Al-Zaytoun neighbourhood last May, Euro-Med Monitor field investigations have revealed.
The victims of the crime were identified by the Euro-Med Monitor field and legal teams as married couple Mohammed Fahmi Abu Hussein (70) and Mazyona Hassan Fares Abu Hussein (65).
An investigation by the Israeli website “HaMakom” has revealed that an Israeli officer from the Nahal Brigade tied a chain of explosives around the neck of a 70-year-old Palestinian man and made him go inside houses in the Al-Zaytoun neighbourhood to inspect them and make sure they were safe for eight hours. According to the website, he and his wife were shot by Israeli army forces after they finished the mission.
The details of Israel’s killing of the Abu Hussein couple are identical to those posted on the “HaMakom” website about an incident involving an unnamed couple, according to Euro-Med Monitor’s investigations. The two most notable pieces of evidence are the fact that both the date of the incident posted by “HaMakom”—May 2024—and its location—Al-Zaytoun neighbourhood in Gaza City—match what was widely reported in the media. The estimated ages of the victims that were reported in the news also match the conclusions drawn from the investigations. Further, the victims were a married couple, which aligns with the recently disclosed details of the crime.
One of the most notable pieces of evidence in favour of this theory is the information about explosives, which has been verified by Euro-Med Monitor field researchers. and strengthens the idea that the two incidents are related to the same heinous crime in which the victims were used as human shields before being murdered.
Euro-Med Monitor investigations have uncovered horrific details not posted about by the Israeli “HaMakom” website. These details suggest that the two victims were used as human shields and that their execution was carried out by the detonatation of explosives that were still attached to the wife, if not both members of the couple, rather than by gunfire.
Mazyona Hassan Fares Abu Hussein’s body was reduced to nearly nothing, with an earring serving as her only identifying feature. Meanwhile, Mohammed Fahmy Abu Hussein’s right leg was completely missing, and his the right side of his body was totally disfigured, indicating that at least one member of the couple was killed by detonating explosives rather than by gunfire.
Following the incident, the son of the two victims, Ahmed Mohammed Fahmy Abu Hussein (38), told the Euro-Med Monitor field team that pieces of his parents’ bodies were taken from Salah al-Din Road, in the east of Gaza. “We had to evacuate Al-Zaytoun neighbourhood when the occupation forces arrived, but my parents stayed because they were too old and had trouble moving,” he stated. “Up until 10 May 2024, when we heard the fear in their voices during the final call, we were in continuous communication with them. According to what my father told me, the occupation forces had broken into their house and [ordered them] to leave for the southern Gaza Strip.”
He continued: “I tried to call again a few minutes later, but the phone was off. Only when the forces left and we discovered the house completely burned did we learn of their fate. Following a search, we discovered pieces of my father’s body at Al-Ahli Hospital, and my mother was in fragments on Salah al-Din Street, where it seems that she was killed by setting off explosives.”
Ahmed Abu Hussein went on to say: “My father’s right leg was amputated, and the right side of his body was completely gone. It was hard to identify him other than by certain features, like a tattoo on his hand. My mother’s body was utterly destroyed; we could only make out a few pieces of her face and [were only able to] identify her by the gold-covered teeth on her jaw.”
Added Abu Hussein: “The Israeli army’s admission and subsequent announcement that they had used my father as a human shield and then brutally murdered him alongside my mother shocked us. After days of losing contact, we hoped they were still alive, but we later learnt that they had been brutally murdered in a manner we could not have predicted.”
According to the victims’ son, his parents had a bag full of cash and gold with them before they were killed, but the bag was gone following the killing.
This crime violates international humanitarian law and can also be considered part of the genocide committed by the Israeli occupation army against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip since 7 October 2023, in which civilians have been brutally killed for no other reason than for being Palestinian.
Additionally, this crime is a grave breach of international law, which forbids the use of civilians as human shields and declares deliberate killings to be crimes against humanity and war crimes that call for prompt prosecution.
The Israeli army’s admission of this crime does not permit avoidance of responsibility; rather, it serves as direct evidence of the serious violations committed by Israel in the Gaza Strip. The international community must move swiftly to hold the perpetrators accountable and ensure that they do not escape punishment, as well as guarantee that a larger investigation into the ongoing genocide in the Strip is conducted immediately.
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The International Criminal Court must look into the aforementioned crime as part of its ongoing investigations into crimes committed by Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, plus take it into account as further proof of Israel’s ongoing genocide in the Gaza Strip. The international community must act right away to stop the genocide from continuing and safeguard the civilian population in the Strip, as well as take responsibility for exposing all occupation-related crimes and prosecuting those responsible.
Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor is a Geneva-based independent organization with regional offices across the MENA region and Europe
