ALJAZEERA
Human Rights Watch says 54 children among dead in ‘unlawful’ attack on residential building on October 31.
An “unlawful” Israeli air attack that killed 106 people in a residential building in central Gaza on October 31, 2023, was an “apparent war crime”, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has said.
The inquiry was based on testimonies from 16 people the group spoke to between January and March, satellite images, dozens of photographs and videos from the site, as well as those shared on social media, the international rights group said on Thursday as it released the findings of its investigation.
It called on governments to suspend weapons transfers to Israel and support the International Criminal Court’s (ICC’s) investigation in Palestine, saying the attack was among the “deadliest single incidents for civilians” since Israel’s war on Gaza started in October.
Witnesses said 350 or more people were staying in the Engineers’ Building, south of the Nuseirat refugee camp, when four aerial munitions struck it that afternoon within about 10 seconds, without warning. At least 150 people were seeking shelter after fleeing their homes elsewhere in Gaza.
The building was demolished.
The New York-based group said it found no evidence of a military target in the vicinity of the building when the attack took place, which according to HRW made the air attack “unlawfully indiscriminate”.
The victims included “children playing football, residents charging phones in the ground-floor grocery store, and displaced families seeking safety”, HRW’s associate crisis and conflict director Gerry Simpson said.
