Rights and Accountability 24 October 2025
People gather at a mass burial site for unidentified bodies of Palestinians who had been returned to Gaza by Israeli forces. Many of the bodies showed signs of torture and field executions, Deir Al-Balah, 22 October.
APA imagesThe following is from the news roundup during the 23 October livestream. Watch the entire episode here.
Since the ceasefire came into effect on 10 October, Israel has continued to violate the basic terms of the agreement, including killing and injuring Palestinians while maintaining restrictions on food and humanitarian aid entering Gaza.
On Friday, 17 October, at least 11 people from the same family were killed in an Israeli attack on a car in al-Zaytoun, a neighborhood of Gaza City.
Journalist Saed Hasballah filmed relatives mourning over the bodies of their loved ones at Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City. Of the 11 people killed, seven were children between 5 and 13 years old.
Hasballah said that Israel bombed the vehicle as the family were checking on their destroyed home. “They had hoped the war was over – that they could return to live upon the rubble of their house – but the occupation’s artillery ended their lives the moment they arrived,” he stated on social media.
Gaza’s civil defense stated that rescue workers recovered the bodies of nine of the victims, but the bodies of two children weren’t recoverable as they were torn apart due to the intensity of the bombardment and the difficult field and environmental conditions in the area.
On Sunday, 19 October, Israel attacked areas across the Gaza Strip with more than 20 airstrikes, after the Israeli army claimed that Palestinian resistance forces had fired on an Israeli tank in the southern city of Rafah.
But the Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Hamas political party, said it was unaware of any events or clashes taking place in the Rafah area and noted that Israel had already been violating the terms of the ceasefire.
According to Ryan Grim of Drop Site, the explosion was caused by an Israeli vehicle running over ordnance as the army was demolishing what was left of houses in Rafah.
Nevertheless, Israel took the opportunity to conduct massive airstrikes as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – a war crimes fugitive – announced that all crossings into Gaza for humanitarian aid were once again being closed as collective punishment.Journalist Ahmed Nofal uploaded this clip of the aftermath of an airstrike in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, as houses and shelters caught fire.
Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud said on Sunday that “fear and panic [dominated] the scene among people in Gaza” during the series of airstrikes.
“We’ve been approached by people, including women and children, who are asking us if the war is back on. Some said ‘now that Israel has got the captives back they’re back at killing us.’ That’s the kind of sentiment we’re hearing,” Mahmoud said.
“People are very concerned in Gaza City after they returned following the ceasefire. They are cornered in this area. The sound of drones can be heard hovering above. The level of fear is on the rise. Let’s not forget Palestinians have endured two years of war. They were not even given the chance to breathe with constant attacks.”
Israel targeted Palestinians in drone strikes while they were retrieving bodies in earlier attacks.
Reporter Mohammed Abusalama captured video of people at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City after Palestinians were targeted multiple times by an Israeli reconnaissance drone near Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza.
The Gaza government media office stated on 19 October that Israel had committed 80 violations of the ceasefire since it came into effect, and that at least 97 Palestinians were killed and 230 injured in those nine days since.Israel’s violations, the media office explained, include shooting, bombing, the use of fire belts, and the arrest of Palestinians, reflecting “its clear desire for escalation on the ground.”
The media office noted that these attacks had been carried out by occupation forces “using military vehicles and tanks positioned on the outskirts of residential neighborhoods, electronic cranes equipped with sensors and remote targeting devices, and combat aircraft and quadcopter drones that continue to fly over residential areas on a daily basis, carrying out shooting operations and direct targeting of civilians.”
The Israeli military ended the 19 October bombing campaign after the US White House appeared to have stepped in, Ryan Grim added, conveying to Israel that it knew what happened with the Rafah explosion. Netanyahu said he would reopen two humanitarian aid crossings.
However, Israeli forces in the so-called yellow boundary line within Gaza have continued to shoot and kill Palestinians.
Mahmoud Basal, the spokesperson for Gaza’s civil defense, said that four Palestinians were killed on Monday in two separate attacks, both times by Israeli gunfire as they were returning to their neighborhoods to check on their homes.
Israeli forces claimed they opened fire on Palestinians who allegedly crossed the yellow line and approached troops in Shujaiya. Al Jazeera reported that Hamas denied knowledge of any such attack, with one Palestinian official accusing Israel of fabricating pretexts to resume the genocidal war on Gaza.
On Wednesday, 22 October, another Palestinian was killed by the Israeli army in al-Tuffah, a neighborhood of Gaza City.
Bodies returned with signs of torture
More Palestinian bodies were returned to Gaza by the Israeli military, showing indications of torture and field executions.
Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor said that its field team observed Israel’s handover of 120 bodies from the Gaza Strip through the International Committee of the Red Cross last week, including many unidentified remains.
Dozens more bodies have been returned to Gaza in recent days, raising the number to 195.
“Medical examinations, forensic reports and observations by the field team revealed conclusive evidence that many victims were killed after being detained,” Euro-Med stated.
“Their bodies bore clear marks of hanging, rope imprints around their necks, injuries from close-range gunfire, bound hands and feet with plastic restraints, and blindfolds. Some bodies were crushed under tank tracks, while others showed severe signs of physical torture, fractures, burns and deep wounds.”
Dr. Munir al-Bursh, the director general of the Ministry of Health in Gaza, said, “The bodies we received were bound like animals, blindfolded, and bore horrific signs of torture and burns that reveal the extent of the crimes committed in secret. They did not die naturally; they were executed after being restrained. These people were not buried underground, they were kept in the occupation’s refrigerators for long months.”
Mahmoud Basal of Gaza’s civil defense filmed the mass funeral of 54 unidentified bodies in Deir al-Balah on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, civil defense teams have been recovering hundreds of bodies from beneath the rubble, working around the clock in brutal conditions while lacking the necessary heavy machinery and equipment to complete their missions. Mahmoud Basal said that an estimated 10,000 Palestinians remain buried underneath the rubble, and condemned the international community’s double standards as members of the International Committee of the Red Cross began urgently recovering the bodies of Israeli captives while ignoring the enormous need for recovery of Palestinian bodies.Basal said, “We receive dozens of appeals daily from families pleading for the recovery of their relatives’ bodies,” and added that he had “provided all international organizations with detailed lists of our emergency needs and technical requirements for recovery operations.”
“Here in Gaza, humanity is divided by identity, pain is measured by political standards, and the dead are left waiting for a justice that never comes,” Basal said.
Humanitarian aid remains restricted
In violation of not just the 10 October ceasefire but, of course, all applicable international laws, Israel’s continued restrictions on the entry of heavy machinery, food, essential supplies, medicine and humanitarian aid are exacerbating the health catastrophe in Gaza.
The Gaza government media office stated on Tuesday that fewer than 1,000 trucks, or roughly 15 percent of all expected aid trucks, have been delivered to Gaza, including only 14 cooking gas and 28 diesel trucks, since the ceasefire took effect.
The media office emphasized that “these limited quantities do not cover the minimum humanitarian and living needs. …The Gaza Strip is in dire need of an urgent and regular flow of no less than 600 aid trucks daily, including food, medical and relief supplies, [as well as] fuel and cooking gas, to ensure the minimum requirements for a decent life.”
Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud said on Tuesday that he hadn’t seen any trucks coming in through the Zikim crossing in the north of Gaza.
He noted that there is no infrastructure, “no warehouses, no roads for these trucks to drive on. Much of the city has been reduced to rubble and the streets are difficult to navigate.”
Abeer Etefa of the World Food Program explained on 21 October that international agencies are doing all they can to scale up the amount of food and supplies into Gaza but are being hindered by Israel’s ongoing closures of most of the crossings, as well as the unprecedented logistical obstacles with Gaza’s infrastructure in collapse and ruin.
Hind Rajab Foundation submits evidence to World Court
Looking at some of the political developments related to the genocide in Gaza, this week the Hind Rajab Foundation submitted a 120-page filing to the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
The filing names 24 Israeli soldiers and commanders responsible for the killing of Hind Rajab, six members of her family, and two Palestinian Red Crescent paramedics, Yusuf al-Zeino and Ahmed al-Madhoun, who were deliberately targeted while attempting to rescue her on 29 January 2024 in Gaza City.
The submission provides detailed evidence identifying the “Vampire Empire Company” of the 52nd Armored Battalion, operating under Israel’s 401st Armored Brigade.
The complaint names Colonel Beni Aharon, commander of the 401st Armored Brigade, Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Ella, commander of the 52nd Armored Battalion, and Major Sean Glass, commander of the Vampire Empire Company, along with 22 identified tank crew members of the same company who directly participated in or facilitated the attack.
On the same day the ICC submission was filed, Al Jazeera Arabic aired a new documentary called “Tip of the Iceberg” in which the Hind Rajab Foundation publicly revealed the identities of the commanders and of tank crew member Itay Cukierkopf.
The remaining 22 names have now been submitted confidentially to the ICC and will be made public progressively, as national level complaints are filed in different jurisdictions, the foundation states.
“This is not only a legal act – it’s a revolt against the global order of impunity. They believed Hind’s murder would be without accountability; we are proving them wrong, step by step,” said Dyab Abou Jahjah, the foundation’s director.
“Twenty-four names are now before the ICC, and more will follow in national courts. Justice is not a favor we ask – it is the inevitable reckoning of truth.”
And on Wednesday, the International Court of Justice issued its advisory opinion, titled “On the Obligations of Israel in relation to the Presence and Activities of the United Nations, Other International Organizations and Third States in and in relation to the Occupied Palestinian Territory” – a brief document that concludes and reaffirms that Israel is an occupying power and is acting in violation of international laws.
Israeli army kills child, settler attacks in West Bank
Turning to the occupied West Bank, Israeli soldiers shot and killed a 9-year-old Palestinian boy while he was playing football in al-Rihiya village near Hebron on 16 October.
Defense for Children International-Palestine reports that Mohammad Bahjat Mohammad Hallaq was playing along with several other young boys in the center of the village.
“Two Israeli military jeeps entered the village, after which four Israeli soldiers exited the vehicles, spread out along the street, and began firing tear gas canisters and live bullets randomly and directly at the children. As Mohammad and the other children fled westward, one soldier took a kneeling position and fired a single live bullet that struck Mohammad,” DCIP stated.
“He was shot in the right side of his pelvis, after which the bullet exited from his left side. Mohammad was able to take a few steps before falling to the ground when an additional tear gas canister was fired in his vicinity.”
A 17-year-old child came to carry Mohammad away when the soldiers fired two additional live bullets at them both.
The older boy managed to pull Mohammad away and carried him to his uncle’s house nearby. Mohammad was then taken in a private vehicle to a local hospital, where he was later pronounced dead, the group stated.
Defense for Children International-Palestine says that Israeli forces have killed 41 Palestinian children in the occupied West Bank in 2025.
On 19 October in al-Ain refugee camp in Nablus, in the north, a 42-year-old man Majed Dawood was shot and killed by Israeli soldiers who then dragged his body across the city, and then beat his wife, before handing over his body.
Journalist Abood DM captured the Israeli soldiers assaulting Dawood’s wife and trying to rip her husband’s body away from her.
And in the village of Turmus Aya, Israeli settlers attacked Palestinians who were harvesting their olives, with one settler brutally beating a middle-aged woman, Afaf Abu Alia, with a large stick.
US journalist Jasper Nathaniel caught the moment the settler beat Abu Alia, and the moments afterwards when locals and activists came to take her to get medical attention.
Nathaniel was also chased by a lynch mob of settlers while trying to document the attacks. He said that the Israeli army led him and Palestinian farmers directly into an ambush by settlers, then left the scene. On Wednesday, the Israeli government advanced a bill to annex and impose Israeli sovereignty on the entire occupied West Bank and another bill to impose Israeli sovereignty over the illegal settlement colony of Maaleh Adumim.The Hamas political party said in a statement that the bills reflected “the ugly face of the colonial occupation. We affirm that the occupation’s frantic attempts to annex West Bank lands are invalid and illegitimate.”
Highlighting resilience
And finally, we wanted to highlight people expressing joy, determination and resilience across Gaza and around the world.
Members of the Gaza Sunbirds, a paracycling team, brought long-awaited meals of chicken and rice to their friends this past week, as finally some food staples were brought into Gaza.
One of the young men says, while holding a beautiful plate of roasted chicken, “I swear, I’ve forgotten how it tastes. Now I’m going to remember what it tastes like.” They knock on the door to their friends’ house and celebrate together.
And journalist Sameh Ahmed filmed his young daughter, Lian, entertaining herself and her dad by pretending that the window in the cloth tent they are using as a shelter is a television screen.“My little girl, Lian, tries to create her own small world of joy inside the tent. With no electricity or television, she found in the tent’s window her own ‘screen,’” Ahmed said.
“She stands before it, dancing and playing, asking me to sit and watch what she calls ‘the TV.’ In every movement, there’s a simple yet painful message: the children of Gaza need life, play, and education – just like all the children of the world.”
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