The Zeitoun killings refer to the
Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
i military incursion, led by the
Givati Brigade
The 84th "Givati" Brigade ( he, חֲטִיבַת גִּבְעָתִי, , "Hill Brigade" or "Highland Brigade") is an Israel Defense Forces infantry brigade. Until 2005, the Brigade used to be stationed within the Gaza Strip and primarily perf ...
unit of the
Israel Defense Forces
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; he, צְבָא הַהֲגָנָה לְיִשְׂרָאֵל , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the Israel, State of Israel. It consists of three servic ...
(IDF),
into the
Zeitoun district of
Gaza as part of the three-week
2008-09 Gaza War. In the
Arab world
The Arab world ( ar, اَلْعَالَمُ الْعَرَبِيُّ '), formally the Arab homeland ( '), also known as the Arab nation ( '), the Arabsphere, or the Arab states, refers to a vast group of countries, mainly located in Western A ...
, it is referred to as the Zeitoun District Massacre ( ar, مجزرة حي الزيتون).
A total of 48 residents of Zeitoun were killed, most of them women, children, and the elderly;
27 homes, a mosque and a number of farms were destroyed by Israeli forces.
''The New York Times'' reported that during the three-week conflict "few neighborhoods suffered more than Zeitoun."
A report released by
United Nations Office for Humanitarian Affairs stated that the attack on the Samouni family, who were among the Zeitoun victims, was one of the "gravest incidents" in the conflict.
According to ''
Haaretz
''Haaretz'' ( , originally ''Ḥadshot Haaretz'' – , ) is an Israeli newspaper. It was founded in 1918, making it the longest running newspaper currently in print in Israel, and is now published in both Hebrew and English in the Berliner f ...
'', the IDF delayed rescue services from reaching some of the casualties for three days of the incident.
Amira Hass
Amira Hass ( he, עמירה הס; born 28 June 1956) is an Israeli journalist and author, mostly known for her columns in the daily newspaper ''Haaretz'' covering Palestinian affairs in the West Bank and Gaza, where she has lived for almost th ...
br>IDF closes probe into Israeli air strike that killed 21 members of Gaza family
at Haaretz
''Haaretz'' ( , originally ''Ḥadshot Haaretz'' – , ) is an Israeli newspaper. It was founded in 1918, making it the longest running newspaper currently in print in Israel, and is now published in both Hebrew and English in the Berliner f ...
, 1 May 2012.
Zeitoun residents believed that because the area is a natural choke point where the Gaza strip narrows to just four miles wide, Israeli troops turned their neighborhoods into a military base from which to launch their operations. The IDF has refused to discuss individual charges in detail, but an army spokesman speaking on the condition of anonymity with ''The Los Angeles Times'' said, "As a matter of policy, we do not target civilians." He added, "These situations are very complex and our soldiers do the best they can."
Lt. Col. (ret.) Jonathan D. Halevi of the
Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs
The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (JCPA) is an Israeli research institute specializing in public diplomacy and foreign policy founded in 1976. Currently, the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs's research portfolio consists of five primar ...
, an Israeli think tank and advocacy organisation, said that printed flyers from
Palestinian Islamic Jihad
The Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine ( ar, حركة الجهاد الإسلامي في فلسطين, ''Harakat al-Jihād al-Islāmi fi Filastīn''), known in the West simply as Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), is a Palestinian Islamist par ...
and its associated websites named five members of the Samouni extended family as being affiliated with the group in some role. Halevi also states that militants from that organisation were operating in the area around the time Israeli tanks began shelling the group of homes belonging to the Samouni extended family.
[Blocking the truth behind the Gaza war](_blank)
JPost, September 22, 2009[Blocking the Truth of the Gaza War](_blank)
JCPA, September 18, 2009[Goldstone: ‘If This Was a Court Of Law, There Would Have Been Nothing Proven.’](_blank)
The Forward, October 16, 2009
According to the ''New York Times'', members of the Samouni family "did not deny that Hamas militants operated in the area. A family member said there was no active Hamas resistance in the immediate vicinity, although militants were firing rockets at Israel a little more than a mile away."
''Newsweek'' reported that the survivors of Zeitoun all insisted that they were simply farmers and that their area had never been used to fire rockets.
The Samouni family
According to accounts by family members, on January 4, 2009, the first day of the Israeli incursion in the Zeitoun district, the Samouni clan were ordered out of their houses (most of them were later demolished
) by Israeli soldiers and told to gather in a nearby home. They were forced to move again to another building, with over 100 members in one home. On January 5, Israelis began demolishing the wall of the house. According to eyewitnesses, when one of the occupants went to alert the Israeli soldiers that people were inside, including women and children, the soldiers began to shoot at the house. After a short lull, the house was shelled and hit by missiles fired by the Israeli Air Force, severely damaging the building and killing and injuring the occupants.
A total of 49 members of the Samouni extended family were killed, according to ''
The Daily Telegraph
''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally.
It was fo ...
'' and ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' newspapers, reporting from Zeitoun, while ''Newsweek'' divided the number killed into 29 family members and 19 others. Articles in ''Haaretz'' say just 21 family members were killed, and do not mention other deaths. A large number of the dead were women and children; the ''Telegraph'' reported that the dead were, "mostly women, children and elderly".
Members of the Samouni family had been sheltering in one of the house, trying to avoid attracting the attention of Israeli soldiers who were in the area, who had previously gathered them into that particular house. On Monday morning, 5 January 2009, four men left the house to gather firewood for cooking. Next to the house was a small wooden structure, and the men had reportedly begun climbing on this to take the boards apart. This activity was seen in
aerial drone photographs, and the poles that the men were carrying were mistakenly identified as rocket-propelled grenades by an Israeli Givati Brigade commander operating from a remote location. One soldier later testified to
Breaking the Silence that soldiers had received information that a rocket-propelled grenade squad were located in the area. On seeing the drone photographs, the Israeli commander called for a missile strike against the men outside the house; they ran into the Samouni house for shelter, which was then struck twice with subsequent missile fire.
Amira Hass
Amira Hass ( he, עמירה הס; born 28 June 1956) is an Israeli journalist and author, mostly known for her columns in the daily newspaper ''Haaretz'' covering Palestinian affairs in the West Bank and Gaza, where she has lived for almost th ...
br>IDF closes probe into Israeli air strike that killed 21 members of Gaza family
''Haaretz'', 1 May 2012.[Amira Has]
What led to IDF bombing house full of civilians during Gaza War?
at Haaretz 24 October 2010.
Another attack on family members was reported to have occurred in the house across the street on January 4. According to one of the local residents, Israeli soldiers came to her house where she and 18 other family members were sheltering from the fighting outside, and deliberately shot at her family members.
According to a report from ''Newsweek'', published online in ''The Daily Beast'', Zahwa Samouni, and her son Faraj, said that prior to the alleged shooting, her husband presented his ID to the IDF and identified himself as the owner of the house. After he told them that he has children and pleaded for them to hold their fire, they shot him repeatedly, about 20–30 times, "I don't know how many" according to witnesses. He along with his four-year-old son were killed.
In another incident, a witness reported that after forcing 45 members of the Samouni family into one room, the IDF blindfolded and cuffed eight male members of the family and subsequently interrogated them. The family were then ordered outside, and three of the men were ordered by soldiers to "walk to Gaza City" and to not "come back". During the pleas of the men's wives, a soldier shot one of the men as they were leaving.
According to a report from ''Newsweek'', published online in ''The Daily Beast'', one killed Samouni member was found on the street on January 4. His hands were cuffed, but the circumstances of his death are not clear as there were no eyewitness accounts reported as of January 19, 2009.
A representative from the Israeli thinktank and advocacy organisation, the
Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs
The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (JCPA) is an Israeli research institute specializing in public diplomacy and foreign policy founded in 1976. Currently, the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs's research portfolio consists of five primar ...
, Lt. Colonel (res.) Jonathan Halevi, said that an examination of freely accessible Palestinian sources show that five members of the Samouni family were affiliated with Palestinian Islamic Jihad group; Tawfiq al-Samouni, who was killed on January 5, was a Palestinian Islamic Jihad operative, according to Halevi. He suggests that the official Palestinian Islamic Jihad version of the occurrences on the days of the incident indicate that its fighters had been operating in the area against IDF. Based on the evidences, he suggests that it is plausible civilians were caught in the fighting.
According to Israeli soldiers who took part in operations in the Zeitoun district, and who spoke with ''Haaretz'' and
Breaking the Silence, brigade commander Col. Ilan Malka insisted that not a single ambulance should enter the sector under his responsibility, fearing Hamas attempts to capture Israeli soldiers. A soldier said that Col. Malka insisted the wounded should be taken on foot for medical care, to meet ambulances at a distance of over three kilometers away. The ambulances were kept at a distance, according to the Red Cross, by an earth mound put in the road into the area by the Israeli military. But many reports from the field stated that some groups of civilians who did try to walk to the ambulances were turned back, with soldiers firing at them.
Israel said that it cooperated with medics during the war although battlefield conditions sometimes made permitting access impossible. It said it would address this incident after it concluded its investigations. The IDF said it did not target civilians and in challenging situations in which fighting occurred within residential areas, civilian casualties were unfortunately possible.
Local witnesses said that most of the family members who died had been killed instantly, while others sustained wounds and were unable to receive help in time, due to the IDF's alleged refusal to allow paramedics access to the wounded.
One Palestinian doctor said that over 100 phone calls were made by residents seeking help for the injured. While two medics were sent, they were reportedly blocked by the Israelis. Israel said that it cooperated with medics but it was sometimes impossible to permit access because of the battlefield conditions.
Among those wounded in the Monday attack was 12-year-old Ishaq Samouni, who bled for two days before he died on Wednesday.
On Wednesday, Israelis ordered a three-hour pause in hostilities to allow entry of rescue workers and humanitarian aid. Paramedics found four exhausted children beside their mothers' corpses; the children were in the open for 48 hours with Israeli soldiers nearby. The head of Red Cross operations in the Gaza Strip said the first rescue team could only take out only the wounded, and had to leave the dead, because they only had 4 ambulances and they had limited time. Israel restricted the entry of the ambulances and medics had to walk and then carry the injured in a donkey cart back to the ambulances a mile away. On the following Thursday, the Red Cross stated that the Israelis did not fulfil its role in the care and vacating of the wounded as required by international law. The rest of the corpses were collected two weeks later, a day after the IDF disengaged.
The IDF denied that they were targeting civilians. The ''New York Times'' reported that
Hamas
Hamas (, ; , ; an acronym of , "Islamic Resistance Movement") is a Palestinian Sunni-Islamic fundamentalist, militant, and nationalist organization. It has a social service wing, Dawah, and a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Bri ...
members launched rockets at Israel about a mile away from the residents, and that Zeitoun "is known to have many supporters of Hamas."
The IDF stated that their purpose was to besiege areas from where Hamas launched rockets, and that Zeitoun was one of these areas. Disputing this claim, Zeitoun residents claimed that Hamas did not have much support in their area and that the residents are mostly supporters of
Fatah
Fatah ( ar, فتح '), formerly the Palestinian National Liberation Movement, is a Palestinian nationalist social democratic political party and the largest faction of the confederated multi-party Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and ...
.
In a statement from the IDF, an Israeli official said they are investigating the attacks but did not deny the attacks were intentional.
The
United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...
high commissioner for human rights,
Navanethem Pillay
Navanethem "Navi" Pillay (born 23 September 1941) is a South Africa, South African jurist who served as the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights from 2008 to 2014. A South African of Indian people, Indian Tamils, Tamil origin, she wa ...
, along with other international aid officials advocated an investigation in Zeitoun for possible war crimes.
Racist graffiti
Two of the houses belonging to the Samouni clan were the only buildings that were not completely demolished. Slogans were found inside written in Hebrew and English, including "
Death to Arabs
Death to Arabs ( he, מוות לערבים ) is an anti-Arab slogan which is used by some Israelis and is considered a hateful, genocidal, and racist slogan. It is used in multiple contexts, such as football, graffiti, marches in Jerusalem and ...
"; "The Only Good Arab is a Dead Arab", and "Arabs are pieces of shit". One slogan "1 is down, 999,999 to go" evidently referred to Gaza's Palestinian population of around one million people.
Another depicted a gravestone marked with the legend, "Arabs 1948–2009". An officer from a unit in the area stated, "Sometimes soldiers don't differentiate between Hamas and Arabs."
The IDF spokesperson said that the graffiti is "against any code of behavior of the IDF or moral values" and if the graffiti could be substantiated "soldiers will be punished."
The Helw and ad-Daya families
According to the testimonies from the family members collected by LA Times correspondent, Israeli soldiers stormed the home of the Helw family, shooting 55-year-old Fuad Helw in front of his family and then instructing the rest of the family, 13 members, to leave the home. The family was assured by soldiers that they would not be targeted, however, as they were walking, they came under Israeli gunfire. Three family members were injured and a one-year-old was killed.
According to an account from Gaza residents delivered to
B'Tselem
B'Tselem ( he, בצלם, , " in the image of od) is a Jerusalem-based non-profit organization whose stated goals are to document human rights violations in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories, combat any denial of the existence of su ...
, an air strike collapsed the home of Ad-Daya family, killing thirteen family members.
References
External links
The Plight of Al Samouni Family in Gaza: in their own voices Al-Haq
Al-Haq () is an independent Palestinian human rights organization based in the city of Ramallah in the West Bank. Founded in 1979, Al-Haq monitors and documents human rights violations committed by parties to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict ...
Fate Of One Family Illustrates Gaza War's Ferocity NPR
National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...
Satellite map showing location of buildings likely destroyed in al-Zeitoun during Gaza War UNOSAT
UNOSAT is the United Nations Satellite Centre. It is hosted at the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), with the mission to promote evidence-based decision making for peace, security and resilience using geo-spatial informa ...
/UNITAR, 19 January 2009,
BBC News
BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broadca ...
.
{{Gaza crisis
2009 in the Gaza Strip
Airstrikes during the Gaza War (2008–2009)
January 2009 events in Asia
History of Gaza City
Massacres of Palestinians
Massacres in the Gaza Strip
Mass murder in Gaza
Zeitoun, Gaza