Rights and Accountability 11 July 2025
An Israeil drone strike killed mostly children and women who had lined up to receive aid at a food supplement charity in Deir al-Balah, 10 July.
APA imagesThe following is from the news roundup during the 10 July livestream. Watch the entire episode here.
Israel has bombarded areas across Gaza, killing approximately 670 Palestinians and injuring more than 2,800 between 2 July and 9 July, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza.
The Gaza government media office stated on Monday, 7 July, that Israel had committed 59 separate massacres in 100 hours, killing nearly 300 people – 99 of whom were targeted by the Israeli army at US-Israeli so-called aid distribution points.
On 10 July, the health ministry reported that Israel killed at least 82 Palestinians and wounded 247 in 24 hours.
That day, an Israeli drone strike in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza killed at least 13 people, mostly children and women, when they were lining up outside a volunteer-run charity to obtain food supplements.
Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum reported from the site of the massacre, saying, “Evidence of the strike is all around. This is a small but very deep hole in the ground resulting from the Israeli attack. You can see one of the shoes left by a Palestinian child, a shattered window in a nearby house. There are craters on the wall left by Israeli drone shrapnel.”Reporter Moath al-Kahlout reported from Gaza City on Monday, where attacks on the city and surrounding neighborhoods have been nonstop.
On Tuesday, Israel attacked al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, killing and wounding Palestinian families as they slept. Just before 3am, Israeli airstrikes hit tent shelters, engulfing the area in flames.
A survivor told Al Jazeera, “The attack felt like a ring of fire. These are schoolchildren, what is it about this school? There’s nothing in it except children. It shelters only kids who have nowhere else to go. These drones are targeting nylon tents where people are simply trying to sleep. I honestly don’t know why.”
Another displaced Palestinian who witnessed the attack said he and 10 others sleeping in a tent suddenly woke up to the sound of intense bombing and blinding lights.
“The explosions were so powerful that even our blankets were completely burned,” he said. “We started checking on the children and trying to make sure everyone was OK. My hands are still covered in soot as I’ve been trying to salvage whatever I can.”
On Wednesday, 9 July, Israel dropped an estimated 20 bombs on Gaza City’s al-Tuffah neighborhood, using heavy missiles that leveled buildings to the ground.
A baby girl was pulled from the rubble in the aftermath of an attack also on Wednesday in central Gaza City. Mahmoud Basal, the spokesperson for the Palestinian civil defense, told reporters while holding the infant that “the bombing was on a heavily populated house, the youngest of whom inside the building is this little girl, who is not even a few months old.”
And Israel is issuing consecutive forced displacement orders, mostly in Gaza City and Khan Younis.On 8 July, the United Nations humanitarian office stated that “even the smaller areas where people are being forced to concentrate – now down to about 15 percent of the Strip and shrinking – are fragmented and lack the most basic infrastructure and services.”
“Like the rest of Gaza, they remain extremely unsafe. Across the Strip, families are trying to survive this nightmare, protect their children to the extent possible, and search for whatever minimal food exists,” the UN said.
Since mid-March, when Israel broke the ceasefire, the Israeli military has issued 54 displacement orders, placing about 297 square kilometres under displacement – 81 percent of the Gaza Strip, the UN says.
770 Palestinians killed at US-run “aid” sites
In addition to the relentless airstrikes on Gaza, more than 770 Palestinians have been killed and more than 5,100 injured over the last six weeks trying to obtain meager amounts of food aid at so-called distribution sites run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a joint US-Israeli private mercenary company.
This week, the GHF closed its only food distribution point in central Gaza, forcing tens of thousands of Palestinians to travel long distances toward the south of Gaza in search of food.
Al Jazeera reporter Tareq Abu Azzoum stated on 9 July that GHF suspended operations at the central Gaza site without prior notice, adding to the danger and confusion of starving Palestinians risking their lives to access a box of food.
“This concentration of aid in the south corresponds to what Israel is outlining under its proposal for a so-called ‘humanitarian city’ amid the ruins of Rafah, which would see the transfer of Palestinians from other parts of Gaza. Palestinians are saying they fear Israel might forcibly prevent them from returning,” Abu Azzoum said.
Israel’s concentration camp plan for Rafah
These broad daylight plans for forced relocation of Palestinians into concentration camps in southern Gaza are part of the Israeli government’s vision that Prime Minister and war crimes fugitive Benjamin Netanyahu and top Israeli officials have been pitching to the Trump administration this week in Washington.
Israel’s war minister Israel Katz this week stated that the so-called “humanitarian city” would be built “on the ruins of Rafah.”
The aim of the area would be to “concentrate the population of Gaza and separate it from Hamas,” Katz said, adding that the Israeli government is looking into the possibility of partnering with an international entity to oversee its management.
Katz encouraged “voluntary migration” of Palestinians to other countries and said the government wants to maintain a military presence in Gaza regardless of any ceasefire agreement.
A source identified as an official “familiar with the matter” told Tel Aviv newspaper Haaretz on Wednesday, “The plan is essentially to move all civilian Gazans south, to a large tent city in Rafah, where they will have hospitals and plenty of food. How did the prime minister put it? Give them Ben & Jerry’s, for all I care.”
The Israeli source said that Netanyahu is not ruling out the option of Israel running the compound set to be established in Rafah.
“When the construction of the city is completed and everyone, or almost everyone, has moved south, the question will arise as to who operates these zones, the ‘humanitarian island’ to be established in the south,” the official said.
“The prime minister thinks that in the short term, we should not be afraid to do the job.”
According to Katz, Haaretz reports, the plan involves “moving 600,000 Palestinians, primarily from the al-Mawasi area, into the new zone after security screenings. Once inside, residents would not be allowed to leave. The defense minister added that, if conditions permit, construction of the ‘city’ would begin during the 60-day Israel-Hamas ceasefire currently under negotiation.”
A proposal seen by the Reuters news agency, notably bearing the name of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, described a plan to build concentration camps called “humanitarian transit areas” inside, and possibly outside, Gaza, for Palestinians.
Reuters reported that the $2 billion plan, “created sometime after 11 February and carrying the name of the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, or GHF, was submitted to the Trump administration, according to two sources, one of whom said it was recently discussed in the White House.”
The plan, reviewed by Reuters, describes the camps as “large-scale” and “voluntary” places where the Palestinian population in Gaza could “temporarily reside, deradicalize, re-integrate and prepare to relocate if they wish to do so.”
A slide deck seen by Reuters goes into granular detail on the “humanitarian transit zones,” including how they would be implemented and what they would cost.
“It calls for using the sprawling facilities to ‘gain trust with the local population’ and to facilitate US President Donald Trump’s ‘vision for Gaza.’”
Reuters added that the US State Department declined to comment on the proposal, with a senior administration official denying that anything of the sort is under consideration and claiming that “no resources are being directed toward that end in any way.”
This week, the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights submitted a Freedom of Information Act request for documents related to the State Department’s approval of $30 million in funding for the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.
In its FOIA request, the major civil rights group says that it is seeking records that could reveal whether GHF was also created to further President Trump’s “Gaza Riviera” ethnic cleansing plan.
The Center for Constitutional Rights says it has previously joined other human rights and legal organizations “in warning that individuals and entities involved in GHF could face legal liability for complicity in war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.”
At the same time, an investigation this week published by the Financial Times revealed that the Boston Consulting Group, a major business consulting firm, “helped establish” the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.
It also “modeled the costs of ‘relocating’ Palestinians from Gaza and entered into a multimillion-dollar contract to help launch an aid scheme for the shattered enclave,” the Financial Times added.
According to the investigation, the firm’s team “also built a financial model for the postwar reconstruction of Gaza, which included cost estimates for relocating hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from the strip and the economic impact of such a mass displacement. One scenario estimated more than 500,000 [Palestinians in Gaza] would leave the enclave with ‘relocation packages’ worth $9,000 per person, or around $5 billion in total.”
The international aid group Save the Children said it had already cut ties with the Boston Consulting Group, but this week called the firm’s role in Gaza “utterly unacceptable.”
Newborns starving
While people are killed every day at these US-staffed killing fields masquerading at so-called aid sites, and as thousands of tons of food, medicine, fuel and supplies remain trapped on the other side of Israeli checkpoints just kilometers away, Palestinian children are dying of starvation and preventable, treatable diseases in hospitals that are quickly going dark.
On 5 July, Dr. Ahmad al-Farra, head of pediatrics and maternity at the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis stated that fortified and specialized formula for premature or malnourished newborns is at severely low stocks. He was recorded inside the neonatal intensive care unit by journalist Bara Lafi.
The hospital administration issued a warning on 9 July saying that Nasser’s fuel supplies had run dry and it was entering “crucial and final hours.”
“With the fuel counter nearing zero, doctors have entered the battle to save lives in a race against time, death, and darkness,” the statement read.
“They work in operating rooms without air conditioning, the boiling heat, their faces are sweating, their bodies are weary [from] hunger and fatigue. But their eyes are still burning with hope and determination.”
“Medical teams fight to the last breath. They have only their conscience and hope in those who hear the call – save Nasser Medical Complex before it turns into a silent graveyard for patients who could have been saved.”
Journalist AbdalQader Sabbah reported from Al-Helou International Hospital also on 9 July, where the fuel shortage because of Israel’s total blockade is threatening the lives of premature newborns whose incubators need electricity to run.
Dr. Munir al-Bursh, the director of the Palestinian health ministry in Gaza, stated that Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City is also facing power cuts due to the fuel shortage.He said on Tuesday, 8 July, “We repeat what we’ve said before: when fuel is denied to hospitals, the ventilator stops for a premature baby who suffocates in silence. A patient in intensive care suddenly loses their heartbeat and no one can save them. A wounded young man bleeds on the waiting bed while no operating room is functioning.”
Dr. Muhammad Abu Salmiya, the director of Al-Shifa Hospital, reported that 13 intensive care unit patients mostly on ventilators, about 100 babies in incubators, and 350 patients relying on kidney dialysis services are currently at critical risk because of the severe fuel shortage, the United Nations stated.“He stressed that the hospital is already overwhelmed with hundreds of injured people and will no longer be able to perform surgeries.”
“Operating rooms will shut down, and we will not be able to treat the large influx of injured people. Our oxygen stations will also stop functioning, and a hospital without oxygen is no longer a hospital,” he said.
Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah announced on 7 July that the hospital’s main generator broke down and spare parts were unavailable for its maintenance, and with the fuel shortage, hundreds of patients’ lives are at risk.
Meanwhile, meningitis cases are surging, especially in children, according to local health care workers and international aid organizations.
Dr. Ahmed al-Farra at Nasser Medical Complex reported nearly 40 cases of newly-admitted viral and bacterial meningitis within the space of a week. Al Jazeera reported that in Gaza City, the pediatrics department at Al-Rantisi Children’s Hospital recorded hundreds of cases in recent weeks.
Hospitals still operating are overwhelmed with beds full and severe shortages of vital antibiotics.
“There is no space in the hospitals,” said Dr. Mohammed Abu Mughaisib, the deputy medical coordinator for Doctors Without Borders in Gaza. “There is no space to isolate.”
Airborne and life-threatening bacterial meningitis can spread in overcrowded tents, according to the World Health Organization. Viral meningitis, though less serious, can easily spread in shelters with poor sanitation.
The United Nations humanitarian office warned on 9 July that “in the north of Gaza, 10 water wells have stopped operating due to the shortage of fuel. Another 25 wells that are functioning only partially could also shut down soon. Shorter pumping hours, reduced water production and limited solid waste collection provide fertile ground for diseases spreading – especially among vulnerable people, including children, older people and pregnant women.”
Israel kills child in West Bank
Turning to the occupied West Bank, Israeli forces shot a 14-year-old Palestinian boy in the northern city of Nablus on 6 July.
The child, Eyad Abdul-Muati Eyad Shalakhti, succumbed to his injuries and died on 9 July, according to Defense for Children International-Palestine.
The group says that Eyad was with two of his friends on a hill in the Askar refugee camp when an Israeli military operation began. “After their withdrawal, the military vehicles stopped at the bottom of the hill and shot around seven bullets at the children from a distance of about 20 to 40 meters away,” the group stated.
He “remained lying on the ground bleeding for around 15 minutes. When his friends tried to lift him, they were targeted again with around 20 bullets. The two children were injured, one in the right hand and the other in the foot.”
Doctors determined that Emad “had sustained multiple bullet wounds to his right flank, right foot, and abdomen, as well as shrapnel in both hands.”
Israeli forces have killed 32 Palestinian children in the West Bank in 2025, according to documentation collected by DCIP.
Some 206 Palestinian children have been killed by Israeli forces and settlers in the West Bank since 7 October 2023, the group says.
The United Nations reported that Israeli forces shot and killed two Palestinian men on 7 July, also in the Nablus governorate, during a raid on a house and demanding the surrender of a man wanted by the Israeli army.
According to eyewitnesses, the man’s father-in-law opened the door and was shot.
“A neighbor and relative who attempted to assist the injured man was also shot and killed. According to eyewitnesses, Israeli forces then opened fire, sent a drone into the house, and forced another Palestinian to enter the home to reportedly locate the wanted Palestinian, who was later found killed outside the house. His body was withheld by Israeli forces,” the UN said.
Meanwhile, house demolitions continue to accelerate around the West Bank. The Wafa news agency reported that Israeli forces carried out large demolition campaigns in Ramallah, Jerusalem and Nablus, destroying at least eight homes and two agricultural structures on 9 July.
Demolitions are ongoing in Tulkarm and Nur Shams refugee camps as well. Despite a recent injunction by the Israeli high court, temporarily freezing demolition orders, the UN says that Israel began destroying Palestinian homes in the two camps on 7 July, targeting 104 residential buildings in the Tulkarm camp.
In Nur Shams camp, residents near the camp reported that a building was set on fire by Israeli forces, the UN stated.
Highlighting resilience
Finally, as we always do, we wanted to highlight people expressing joy, determination and resilience across Palestine and around the world.
The Camps Breakerz breakdance crew in Gaza hold regular dance and art classes for kids, and this week they hosted breakdance competitions with some of their students.
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