Rights and Accountability 12 September 2025
Israel has targeted multi-story apartment buildings and office towers with constant airstrikes in Gaza City.
APA imagesThe following is from the news roundup during the 11 September livestream. Watch the entire episode here.
Israel has killed at least 500 Palestinians and injured nearly 2,300 between 3 September and 10 September, according to official records from the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza.
On 10 September, at least 72 Palestinians were killed since dawn, including 53 in Gaza City alone.
Israel has put the entirety of Gaza City under a forced displacement order as it bombs high-rise apartment and office towers, homes and shelters, vaporizing dozens of buildings, one city block after another, with no end in sight.
Our contributor Asem Alnabih, the spokesperson for the Gaza Municipality, posted this photo of one of the leaflets the Israelis dropped over Gaza City on 8 September.
Since Friday, 5 September, at least seven high-rise towers have been obliterated by constant Israeli airstrikes.The Mushtaha Tower was destroyed on 5 September. Journalist Wessam Shabat filmed this clip showing the moment Israeli warplanes targeted the high-rise.
The Soussi high-rise residential building was struck on 6 September. Instagram user Yazan Rakha filmed this clip.On 7 September, the Ruya commercial building was destroyed. Journalist Ahmad Ibrahim captured the explosion on camera.
The 12-floor building housed the headquarters of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR), along with media offices, medical clinics, sports facilities and other civilian offices and companies.
PCHR said that its office, on the top floor, had been bombarded and extensively damaged since the start of the ongoing genocide. It was also raided by the Israeli army and used as a military base during its previous operations in Gaza City, rendering PCHR’s offices inoperable.The group’s two offices in Khan Younis and Jabaliya were completely destroyed last year.
The Israeli army hit al-Salam tower at night on 8 September. Journalist Faiz Qreiqeh shot this video of the moment the building exploded.
Mahmoud Basal, the spokesperson for Gaza’s civil defense, stated on 8 September that the five buildings that had been destroyed until that point contained more than 200 apartments, with at least 20 people per unit, leaving more than 4,100 residents homeless overnight.
Surrounding the towers, he says, were more than 350 tents, each sheltering families of around ten people, which were also destroyed, displacing another 3,500.In total, more than 550 families, some 7,600 people, have been stripped of shelter and basic necessities, forced into tragic and unbearable conditions. “We continue to call on the world,” he says, “to take action to protect innocent people here in Gaza before it is too late.”
More massive apartment blocks were destroyed on 9 September. And on 10 September, Israel hit the Tayba towers in western Gaza City.
Instagram user Mohammed Hamouda filmed this clip.
Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor stated that the airstrike killed approximately 15 displaced Palestinians who had sought safety in and around the building.
Civil defense worker Mohammad Qumsan described the overwhelming terror of displaced families as Israel’s wanton destruction of Gaza City has escalated.The strike on the Ruya commercial building on 7 September happened just days after the United States officially sanctioned the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, along with Al-Haq and Al Mezan, the leading human rights organizations working on international criminal accountability for perpetrators of atrocity crimes in Palestine.
In a joint statement on 5 September, the human rights groups said, “Threatened by the impact and role of our advocacy, legal research and documentation in exposing Israel’s ongoing international crimes, the United States has resorted to punishing individuals and organizations seeking to uphold the legal system upon which the international community was founded.”
“The implications go beyond Palestine. By protecting Israel from accountability, they are dismantling the international legal order and undermining the possibility of justice for victims of grave crimes anywhere.”
People won’t leave Gaza City on Israel’s orders
Israel also targeted a facility for people with disabilities in central Gaza City on 7 September. Journalist Ahmed Kaheel captured the strike.
Kaheel also documented Israel’s attack on the Thawba mosque that same day in the al-Daraj neighborhood. He says that right after the attack on the mosque, the area was targeted a second time, while he was filming.
Palestinians in Gaza City say they are not leaving their city on Israel’s orders. Journalist Nahed Hajjaj captured this clip of a man standing on a pile of rubble on 10 September, saying “the army is striking high-rise buildings to force people to go south. I’m not leaving. If [Benjamin] Netanyahu destroys everything, I’m not leaving. I will clean this up and live here once again. I’m not leaving. Even if I have to die here, I’m not leaving.”
Palestinians led a demonstration in Gaza City against Israel’s genocidal displacement orders.
Dr. Muneer al-Bursh, the director general of the Ministry of Health in Gaza, posted a photo of himself at the protest on Wednesday. He stated: “In a historic scene, community leaders, families, healthcare teams and all the people of Gaza gathered in one of the largest demonstrations, carrying Palestinian flags and symbolic shrouds, to declare a unified stance: ‘Displacement from Gaza only towards the sky.’
“Gaza tells the world: ‘We will not leave except as martyrs … Here we were born, and here we remain.’”White US nationalist motorcycle gang running security at Gaza “aid” sites
Meanwhile, a BBC investigation found that US mercenary forces working security at the joint American-Israeli private Gaza Humanitarian Foundation killing sites masquerading as aid distribution points include members of a motorcycle gang with an extremist, right-wing, white Christian nationalist ideology.
At least 10 members of the Infidels Motorcycle Club who are working in Gaza for UG Solutions – a private contractor providing security at the GHF sites – have been identified by the British broadcaster, which revealed that seven members of the gang are in senior security positions in Gaza.
“Infidels MC was set up by US military veterans of the Iraq war in 2006 and members see themselves as modern Crusaders, using the Crusader cross as their symbol – a reference to the medieval Christians who fought Muslims for control of Jerusalem,” the BBC says.
“The gang is currently hosting anti-Muslim hate speech on its Facebook page and has previously held a pig roast ‘in defiance of’ the [Muslim] holy month of Ramadan.”
The gang’s leader, Johnny “Taz” Mulford, “is a former sergeant in the US Army who was punished for conspiracy to commit bribery, theft and making false statements to military authorities,” the BBC added.
“He is now the ‘country team leader’ running UG Solutions’ contract in Gaza.”
UG Solutions is paying each contractor nearly $1,000 per day, rising to about $1,600 per day for team leaders at GHF’s so-called “safe distribution sites,” documents seen by the BBC show.
Meanwhile, Israeli forces have killed nearly 2,500 Palestinians and injured more than 17,000 at so-called aid sites since the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation began its operations in late May, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza.
Hundreds recorded dead by starvation
Children and adults alike are continuing to die of starvation across Gaza.
The health ministry said that five deaths from starvation were reported between Tuesday and Wednesday, including a child, bringing the total recorded number of deaths from malnutrition to 404, including 141 children.
The mother of 18-month-old Ali Abdulnasser Abu Adhra, who is hospitalized with extreme malnutrition at Nasser Medical Complex, says that her baby’s weight has dropped to just 3 kilograms (6.6 pounds) and he is suffering from chronic diarrhea and dehydration. He should weigh at least 10 kilograms (22 pounds) for his age.Journalist Mohammad Ashraf Salama captured this clip of the mother and her baby Ali earlier this week. She says that her son is so fragile that medical staff haven’t been able to insert an intravenous cannula into his body for the past 10 days, and that he is in desperate need of treatments that are not available due to Israel’s ongoing blockade.
Maternity facility bombed
Israel is continuing to attack and bomb medical facilities in Gaza.
On 7 September, Israeli quadcopter drones attacked the Association for Women and Child Protection, a maternity care facility, killing a child and a pregnant woman seeking services, and injuring several Palestinians.
A man was also killed. His own child found him in pieces.
The man, identified as Ahmad Ashour Alghoul, was a staff member at the facility.
He had asked his young son Laith to fetch his phone charger from his office nearby. As the boy walked back with the charger in hand, the Israeli drone bombed the entrance to the clinic, with Laith finding his father’s body and head torn to pieces in front of him, according to Ahmad Alghoul’s cousin, the novelist and activist Yousri Alghoul.
Journalist Mahmoud Abusalama reported from the scene following the drone strike. Along with showing several people killed and wounded, his camera captures Laith staring at his father’s body. Abusalama says that another Israeli airstrike has just happened near the hospital.
Settler attacks, army raids in West Bank
Turning quickly to the occupied West Bank, Israeli settlers stormed Masafer Yatta near Hebron on 5 September, stabbing and assaulting the villagers of Khallet al-Daba. Sahat news agency reported that at least 13 Palestinians were wounded, including a 3-month-old baby, two elders and women and children.
On 10 September, armed settlers attacked the homes and properties of Palestinians south of Hebron, according to Wafa news agency.
A local resident said that settlers used tractors and drones to terrorize people and their livestock in the area. He added that settlers have been playing loud music at night, in an attempt to instill fear among the local children.
Israeli soldiers have been raiding towns and villages northwest of Jerusalem for days following a suspected resistance operation by Palestinians earlier this week at the Ramot Junction in occupied East Jerusalem, which killed six people and wounded 12.
Local sources told Wafa news agency on Wednesday that Israeli forces stormed the town of Biddu, amidst confrontations, and fired live ammunition, tear gas and sound bombs at Palestinians. The soldiers raided and searched several homes.The sources added that Israel launched a large-scale raid on homes in the towns of Qatna and al-Qubayba, assaulting people, ransacking and searching their contents, and turning a home into a military barracks. The Israelis detained and interrogated Palestinians on the spot.
Al Jazeera reported on 9 September that during the intensified raids, Israeli forces destroyed three other homes of Palestinian resistance operatives and a detainee accused of an earlier attack as punishment.
“Soldiers encircled the house of detainee Thabet Masalma, accused of having carried out a shooting in December, in the town of Beit Awwa, southwest of al-Khalil [Hebron], before blowing up the property with explosives,” Al Jazeera said.
“The raid sparked clashes with locals, during which Israeli soldiers fired live ammunition, wounding two people. Masalma is accused of taking part in an attack that killed an Israeli settler and wounded three people.”
Highlighting resilience
Finally, as we always do, we wanted to highlight people expressing joy, determination and resilience across Gaza.
Ahmed Muin Abu Amsha, a music teacher and someone we frequently feature in this section, documented his own perilous forced displacement this past week.
But in setting up his tent shelter near the beach, he found a new parachute to protect the kids from the sun, which he said he will put above the tents and the activity space he and his colleagues have established for music classes.
And Instagram user Mohanad Abo Qamar, who regularly posts videos singing with friends and children on the beach, sang a song for the Gaza-bound international flotilla, which is aiming to break the siege on Gaza with dozens of boats this week.
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