Rights and Accountability 25 April 2025
Palestinians carry the bodies of children killed in an Israeli strike on a school-turned-shelter, Gaza City, 23 April.
APA imagesThe following is from the news roundup during the 24 April livestream. Watch the entire episode here.
Israel has imposed more than 50 days of a complete siege on the Gaza Strip while Israeli forces accelerate the forced displacement of Palestinians, pushing them into smaller and smaller areas.
Bombing and airstrikes continue nonstop, killing dozens of people, including many children, every day.
Between 18 March, when Israel broke the so-called ceasefire and resumed its mass-scale slaughter in Gaza, and this week, nearly 1,900 Palestinians have been killed and around 5,000 have been injured.That figure includes approximately 600 children killed and approximately 1,600 children injured in just five weeks.
On Tuesday, 22 April, the Israeli army shelled the al-Durra children’s hospital in Gaza City amid a barrage of attacks on the al-Tuffah neighborhood.
The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza reported that Israeli airstrikes also targeted and destroyed the solar panels on the roof of the hospital, rendering what was left of its pediatric services nonfunctional.On Wednesday, another attack in the same neighborhood in Gaza City targeted the Jaffa school, which had been turned into a shelter for displaced families.
At least 23 people were killed and many more were injured as fires engulfed people’s tents in the courtyard and families sheltering inside the building.
Journalist Abdalqader Sabbah reported that four classrooms were targeted overnight, and in the morning, people gathered in the wreckage of the courtyard to mourn children who were killed in the attacks.
Survivors of the attack, speaking to Al Jazeera, described scenes of absolute horror.An injured man told the agency, “My three cousins – three children – were lost. They were pulled out, completely charred.”
Medics at nearby Al-Shifa Hospital could assist only by sterilizing the wounds, as there were no bandages available to use, Al Jazeera said.
In Jabaliya, in northern Gaza, also on Wednesday, Israeli forces attacked a residential building and when civil defense rescue workers came to provide care for the wounded, the Israeli army bombed the building again, in a so-called double tap strike.
Israeli forces have continued to bomb the tents of displaced people in al-Mawasi, on the sand dunes in southern Gaza, where, earlier in the genocide, Israel designated the area a “safe zone.”On 19 April, an Israeli airstrike targeted the tens of displaced families in al-Mawasi.
Just days later, on 22 April, at least 10 Palestinians were killed in another airstrike on al-Mawasi.A week ago, on 16 April, an Israeli attack on al-Mawasi killed at least 10 Palestinians, including children, one of whom used a wheelchair.
Catherine Russell, the executive director of the UN children’s fund UNICEF, stated that “images of children burning while sheltering in makeshift tents should shake us all to our core.”
Other attacks were reported in al-Bureij refugee camp and in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza over the last several days.
“Severe and inhumane forms of genocide”
Because of the last five weeks of Israel’s complete humanitarian siege on Gaza, the hunger and medical situation is rapidly deteriorating into catastrophe.
According to Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, “Families in the Gaza Strip have been forced to cut the number of their daily meals, resulting in noticeable weight loss among residents. In the near-total absence of fresh and nutritious food, most people now rely almost entirely on the enclave’s limited supply of canned goods, while many others have become fully dependent on food banks for their daily meals.”
The human rights group adds that these food banks, however, “have come under intensified Israeli military attacks in recent weeks, further depriving residents of access to even the most basic food necessities.”
“The starvation imposed by Israel on civilians in the Gaza Strip represents one of the most severe and inhumane forms of genocide, as well as a grave violation of human dignity,” Euro-Med added.
“It extends beyond the mere denial of food, as it also seeks to dismantle the population’s ability to survive by destroying livelihoods, obstructing humanitarian aid, targeting sources of food production and deliberately disrupting essential supply chains.”
Jonathan Whittall of the United Nations’ humanitarian office described the situation in Gaza as “deprivaton by design” amid Israel’s “deliberate dismantling of Palestinian life.”
Heavy equipment targeted, destroyed
Israel targeted and destroyed dozens of heavy equipment vehicles belonging to the Palestinian civil defense in several locations around Gaza on 21 and 22 April.
According to the Jabaliya municipality in northern Gaza, an Israeli military strike destroyed all nine wheel-loaders that were donated and sent in during the January ceasefire, in addition to a sewage suction truck and a 5 cubic meter mobile water tanker.Furthermore, a manhole maintenance vehicle, five service vehicles, a 936 loader, two tractors, a garbage compactor truck, a solar distribution tanker, and a mobile generator to operate water wells all sustained partial damage, the municipality added.
All of its services, including street clearance, waste removal, sewage line maintenance and water services have been completely suspended, exacerbating the already dire situation and heightening the risk of disease.
Journalist Abdalqader Sabbah reported from the scene in Jabaliya, noting that these vehicles were also necessary to recover victims from underneath the rubble.
He stated that this was yet another way that the Israeli army is trying to dismantle all humanitarian services inside Gaza.Hamas condemned Israel’s attacks on these vehicles as “criminal.”
“The targeting of municipal headquarters by Israeli occupation aircraft and the bombing of heavy equipment designated for rescue and rubble removal, including bulldozers and other machinery, is a criminal continuation of the war of extermination,” the political party said in a statement.
“The systematic destruction of livelihoods and civilian facilities in the Gaza Strip will not succeed in pushing our people to surrender to the malicious displacement plans, nor will it succeed in dissuading them from clinging to their land, their determination, and that of their sons in the valiant resistance, to confront and defeat the aggression, and to achieve our legitimate rights to freedom and self-determination.”
Israeli soldiers shoot, kill children in West Bank
Turning to the occupied West Bank, The Electronic Intifada’s Tamara Nassar reported on the tightening restrictions of moment of Palestinians, while Israeli military raids of Palestinian cities and refugee camps reach new peaks of violence over the last 18 months.
Meanwhile, a child was killed in al-Yamoun, near the northern West Bank city of Jenin on Wednesday, 23 April.Defense for Children International-Palestine reported that Israeli soldiers shot and killed 12-year-old Mahmoud Methqal Ali Abu al-Haija with live ammunition.
The child “was struck in the abdomen when Israeli forces opened fire indiscriminately from about 80 meters away,” DCIP stated.
Al-Haija “was carried to a private vehicle which brought him to Al-Hadaf Medical Center in al-Yamoun, after which he was transferred in an ambulance to Jenin Governmental Hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.”Al-Haija, alongside other boys and young men, “were allegedly throwing stones toward Israeli soldiers deployed around the cemetery while other soldiers raided a residential building nearby,” according to information collected by DCIP.
The Israeli military has been carrying out an ongoing military operation throughout the Jenin governorate since 21 January.
On 17 April, Israeli forces shot and killed Jihad Adham Rebhi Adeli, a 16-year-old child, during a raid and invasion into the town of Osarin, south of Nablus.
Palestinian ambulances attempted to reach the scene and provide aid but were blocked by Israeli forces, according to documentation by Defense for Children International-Palestine. Israeli authorities withheld the boy’s body.Israeli forces have killed 23 Palestinian children in the West Bank in 2025, according to documentation collected by DCIP.
Morocco activists block Maersk ship
In international activism news, there were massive protests in Morocco, aimed at stopping the docking and unloading of two Maersk cargo ships headed to Israel.
According to the Mask off Maersk campaign, who we’ve recently hosted on The Electronic Intifada livestream and podcast, “Moroccan port workers and civil society have taken a bold stand against the flow of US military cargo to Israel, halting operations on the Nexoe Maersk ship, which is set to pick up F-35 fighter jet components at Tangier Med port.”These fighter jet parts “are reportedly bound for Israel’s Nevatim Airbase, a key site for F-35 maintenance amid intensified bombardment of Gaza.”
In Casablanca, campaigners say that “mass protests delayed the Nexoe Maersk from docking for nearly 39 hours. Protests also erupted at ports in France, Tangier, Spain and along the US East Coast as part of the #MaskOffMaersk campaign.”Dozens of port workers at the Tangier port “refused to service the ship despite the risk of employer retaliation, with at least one worker resigning in protest.”
Major Moroccan labor unions issued nationwide calls to boycott ships carrying weapons tied to Israel’s war on Gaza.
The Mask off Maersk campaign says, “Despite the fact that Maersk has previously retaliated against Moroccan workers refusing to service ships in the past, and the heavy ongoing repression from the company, workers stood firm against the company’s complicity.”
“We call on international solidarity and organizations to support the brave Moroccan people and workers who are taking a principled stance against the flow of military equipment through their ports to facilitate genocide.”
Highlighting resilience
Finally, as we always do, we wanted to highlight people expressing joy, determination and resilience across Palestine.
On 17 April, our contributor Abubaker Abed published a personal statement and a video on social media about his decision to leave Gaza for medical treatment and to complete his university education.
He is now safe and sound in Ireland, where he will be continuing his studies and looking after his health.
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