Rights and Accountability 16 May 2025
The Israeli army issued forced displacement orders to Palestinians in Gaza City amidst heavy airstrikes. (Omar Ashtawy / APA Images)
The following is from the news roundup during the 15 May livestream. Watch the entire episode here.
Israel has accelerated its attacks on Palestinians in Gaza, massacring dozens of people each day in tent shelters, in schools turned into housing for displaced families, in residential buildings and inside two hospitals.
Israeli Prime Minister and war crimes fugitive Benjamin Netanyahu declared that even if captured Israeli soldiers are released under the terms of a ceasefire, he is still intent on escalating attacks and “destroying Hamas.”
He said, “we’ll take them,” meaning the Israeli captives, “and then we’ll go in. There will be no way we will stop the war.”
Netanyahu boasted to lawmakers in the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that the Israeli army is “destroying more and more houses [in Gaza, and that Palestinians] have nowhere to return.”
“The only obvious result will be Gazans choosing to emigrate outside of the Strip,” Netanyahu continued. “But our main problem is finding countries to take them in.”
Since Israel broke the ceasefire on 18 March, the Palestinian health ministry in Gaza says that more than 2,800 Palestinians have been killed and nearly 8,000 have been injured. The ministry states that as of 14 May, approximately 53,000 Palestinians have been killed since 7 October 2023, with thousands more missing and buried under the rubble.
On 15 May, more than 100 people were killed in airstrikes on homes and tent shelters in Jabaliya, Khan Younis, and other areas in Gaza.
On 14 May, the Israeli army issued forced displacement orders for Palestinians in Gaza City, including yet another order to empty Al-Shifa Hospital.
The army spokesperson said that Israel planned to attack “with great force.”The Israeli military had killed more than 80 Palestinians since dawn on Wednesday, including approximately 50 killed in Jabaliya, in northern Gaza.
Al Jazeera reporter Tareq Abu Azzoum stated that air strikes targeted five residential buildings packed with civilians in Jabaliya and the Jabaliya refugee camp.
“Civil defense teams reported that the scene of the attack was horrific. Firsthand accounts say the Israeli army launched consecutive strikes without any prior warning and that many of the victims remain under the rubble. We continue to get testimonies saying the morgue of the Indonesian Hospital has been flooded with bodies,” Abu Azzoum stated.
Mohammad Awad, an emergency doctor in the Indonesian Hospital, told the French news agency AFP that supply shortages meant his department could not properly handle the flow of wounded.
“There are not enough beds, no medicine, and no means for surgical or medical treatment, which leaves doctors unable to save many of the injured who are dying due to lack of care,” he said.
Jabaliya has been under heavy bombardment all week. On Friday 9 May, a United Nations aid distribution center that had also been sheltering displaced families was attacked, killing at least four Palestinians.
On 11 May, Israel bombed the Fatima Bani Assad school that has been sheltering displaced families, killing at least 15 people. Journalist Mahmoud Abusalama reported from the scene. He said that the Israeli military bombed the school, turning the site into widespread destruction. “Displaced people were sleeping, holding onto the hope of a ceasefire agreement, but Israeli airstrikes targeted them here without warning.”Israeli gunboats fired on Gaza fishers on 10 May, injuring Palestinians trying to find any source of food for their families in the sea.
Two Khan Younis hospitals bombed
On Tuesday 13 May, Israel bombed two hospitals in Khan Younis, in the south – the European Gaza Hospital and the Nasser Medical Complex.
Israel used bunker buster bombs and firebelts on the European Gaza Hospital, killing at least 28 Palestinians and wounding dozens in multiple strikes. Israeli media claimed, without evidence, that there were tunnels under the hospital and that Muhammad Sinwar, the military commander of the Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, was the target of the attack.
CCTV footage obtained by Al Jazeera shows the moment Israel bombed the courtyard of the hospital.Journalist Moaz Abu Taha spoke to hospital staff and medical workers who showed massive pieces of shrapnel that tore through the facility.
Both staff and medical workers described shrapnel and the bombing ripping through emergency areas and damaging parts of the building.
Attacks on the European Gaza Hospital continued on Wednesday 14 May. Six consecutive airstrikes hit areas around the hospital compound, targeting a bulldozer that was working to clear rubble and recover bodies underneath from Tuesday’s attacks.
A doctor at the European Gaza Hospital, Adnan Issa, recorded this voice message for logistics coordinator Afeef Nessouli who works with the medical group Gila in Gaza. Issa said that there was continuous bombing.
As of Thursday 15 May, the European Gaza Hospital has been forced to close completely. The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza says that Israel’s attacks caused significant damage to infrastructure, including sewage lines, damage to internal departments and destruction of roads leading to the hospital.
Nasser Medical Complex, also in Khan Younis, was bombed in the pre-dawn hours on Tuesday 13 May, killing two Palestinians.
Eighteen hospital beds in the surgical department, eight beds in the intensive care unit and 10 inpatient beds were destroyed, according to medical sources.
The attack was a targeted assassination of journalist Hassan Aslayeh, who was a contributor to local and international news outlets and was a prominent reporter in Gaza.
In early April, Aslayeh was the intended target of a drone strike on a media tent outside the hospital. The strike killed reporter Ahmed Mansour, who was captured on video sitting in a chair with his head and chest on fire.Mansour died a few days later while receiving treatment in the intensive care unit.
The Israeli army had accused Aslayeh of being affiliated with Hamas’ armed wing and claimed that he had participated in the 7 October attacks.
Aslayeh, who was severely injured in the attack on the media tent, told Mondoweiss two days after the attacks, on 9 April, “The occupation is trying to obliterate the image of Palestinian journalists with these false claims that they belong to Hamas and other factions.”
“Anyone with even a passing knowledge of Hamas and how the Qassam Brigades operate will instantly recognize how utterly incoherent the Israeli army’s claims are,” noted Mondoweiss contributor Tareq Hajjaj, who profiled Hassan Aslayeh. “But Israel is counting on people’s ignorance and gullibility to believe that a dedicated journalist who operates in the field 24/7 also moonlights as a Hamas fighter.”
Aslayeh knew there was a target on his back. He told Mondoweiss, “It would not be difficult for the occupation to assassinate me again, especially with the increasing incitement I hear and see against me. They may target me inside the hospital, in this room of mine. What can I do?”
“I am not fighting. I am working, and I bear responsibility for my profession,” Hassan Aslayeh continued. “If the Israeli army kills me, the photos I took and the stories I told the world will live on. My name, my cause, and my voice will live on – and the occupation will die.”
Journalist Ahmed al-Najjar reported from Nasser Medical Complex on Wednesday.
The Gaza government media office says that Hassan Aslayeh, assassinated in his hospital bed at Nasser Medical Complex, was the 215th journalist and media worker in Gaza killed since October 2023.
Condolences and condemnations over Aslayeh’s assassination poured in from all across Gaza and around the world.
There was a massive funeral procession in the streets in Khan Younis for Hassan Aslayeh on Tuesday, amidst the rubble.Last Saturday, Israeli forces shot and killed a 12-year-old boy, Muhammad al-Bardawil, in al-Mawasi. The child, along with his father, Said, was an eyewitness to the massacre of paramedics and first responders in Rafah on 23 March.
That day, the Israeli army had ambushed a convoy of ambulances, executed the paramedics and threw their bodies into a mass pit. They also buried the ambulances in the sand.The boy and his father were on their way to go fishing when they were detained by Israeli soldiers before the attack on 23 March, and subsequently abducted.
They were interviewed by the New York Times for its investigation into the massacre.A second round of testimonies was scheduled for Muhammad al-Bardawil to assist in an international commission on war crimes, with testimonies and evidence submitted to the UN office and the South African legal team at the International Court of Justice.
But he was killed before he was able to provide further eyewitness testimony.
Third month of starvation
More than 70 days have passed since Israel closed all the crossings into Gaza, creating mass starvation and an engineered medical catastrophe for Gaza’s 2 million Palestinians.
The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza stated on 11 May that there is now a dangerous acceleration of a severe shortage of pharmaceutical supplies, and that 43 percent of essential medicines are at zero stock. 64 percent of medical supplies are at zero stock, and emergency, operating room, and intensive care units are operating on depleted stocks, with critical cases on the rise.
Since the aid blockade began on 2 March, 57 children have reportedly died from the effects of malnutrition, according to the health ministry. This number is likely an underestimate and is expected to increase.
A new alert published on 12 May by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, the global standard for assessing food insecurity, says that starvation has reached unprecedented levels.The entire population of Gaza is now classified in the emergency phase, with more than 71,000 children aged 6 months to 5 years suffering from acute malnutrition – including more than 14,000 severe cases.
The situation is growing equally dire for pregnant and breastfeeding women, with an estimated 18,400 women expected to require urgent treatment to avoid life-threatening and irreversible health consequences for both mothers and infants.
Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor says a “silent death” is sweeping through Gaza’s community of elders as well.
“Now entering its third consecutive month, the intensified siege has had devastating and long-term effects – disproportionately harming Gaza’s most vulnerable,” Euro-Med says.
“Israel’s systematic policy seeks to destroy all means of survival and eliminate any path to staying alive. This deepens the humanitarian catastrophe, making it a central instrument in the execution of genocidal policy.”
“Over the past week, 14 elderly Palestinians were documented to have died across Gaza from complications related to hunger, malnutrition, and lack of medical care. These deaths are directly linked to Israel’s complete closure of border crossings and its prevention of humanitarian aid and essential goods from entering the Strip since 2 March,” the rights group stated.
A proposed Israeli-American mechanism for humanitarian aid in Gaza, Euro-Med added, “is nothing more than a new maneuver aimed at prolonging the illegal and comprehensive blockade. It repackages the crime of starvation in a misleading humanitarian guise, falsely legitimising its continued use as a weapon in the ongoing crime of genocide.”
The aid agency Oxfam said this week that “Gaza’s starvation is not incidental – it is deliberate, entirely engineered – and has now created the largest population facing starvation anywhere in the world – a preventable famine unfolding in real time. It is unconscionable and is being allowed to happen.”
Journalists killed
On 15 May, Israeli forces killed two more journalists in airstrikes on Khan Younis, in southern Gaza.
The Gaza government media office said that Ahmed Anwar Abdel Hadi Al-Helou, who worked as an editor for the Quds News Network, and Hassan Marzouq Sammour . who worked as a broadcaster and presenter for Sawt Al-Aqsa Radio, were killed along with their families in separate bombings.
After Hassan Aslayeh’s assassination, the Gaza government media office says that 217 journalists and media workers have been killed since October 2023.Home demolitions
Turning to the occupied West Bank, Israeli forces on 14 May demolished more homes in the Nur Shams refugee camp in the northern city of Tulkarm as the military aggression on the camp entered the 95th day, according to local news reports.
Wafa news agency reported that Israeli bulldozers tore down residential buildings in the vicinity of the Abu Bakr As-Siddiq mosque, at a time when infantry soldiers deployed on a large scale and opened live ammunition at Palestinian civilians and even at media personnel.
The Israeli soldiers obstructed residents from entering the refugee camp to retrieve their belongings before the demolition of their houses.Local estimates indicate that Israeli army bulldozers tore down 20 structures in the previous week, and the occupation troops blew up other residential structures whose owners were displaced.
Two weeks ago, on 1 May, Israeli occupying forces issued military orders to demolish 106 Palestinian-owned structures in Tulkarm and Nur Shams refugee camps, giving residents 24 hours to evacuate.
In Jenin, also in the northern West Bank, Israeli forces have expanded their incursion into the Jenin refugee camp for more than 115 days.
The Jenin municipality said that Israeli forces have completely demolished approximately 600 homes inside the camp, while the rest have been partially damaged and rendered uninhabitable. The occupation continues to fire live ammunition intensively in the camp, Wafa news agency reported.
Two weeks ago, the Jenin-based veteran journalist Ali Samoudi was arrested after Israeli soldiers raided his home, beat him, and took him to a military barracks.
The 58-year-old reporter has now been sentenced by an Israeli military court to six months administrative detention, which is an arbitrary imprisonment without charge or trial, and he is currently in Meggido prison. Administrative detention orders can, of course, be renewed indefinitely.
Samoudi was working alongside Al Jazeera correspondent Shireen Abu Akleh when she was assassinated by an Israeli sniper in May 2022. He was also shot in the shoulder during that attack on journalists.CNN, which has worked with Samoudi over the years, stated that the Israeli military acknowledged that it does not have “sufficient evidence” to substantiate terrorism funding allegations it leveled against Samoudi but the military court sentenced him anyway.
The military’s administrative detention order cites Samoudi’s “presence posing a danger to the security of the region” as justification for his detention.
He is one of 20 journalists detained and held under administrative detention since the start of the war in Gaza, according to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society.
Highlighting resilience
Finally, as we always do, we wanted to highlight people expressing joy, determination and resilience across Palestine.
Our longtime contributor Mohammad Asad, an incredible photojournalist, recently posted these images to his Instagram account. He says that after two months of Israel’s forced starvation policy, he had no choice but to dive into the sea, trying to catch any fish to get a little protein for his children.
And Mahmoud Zuaiter, a prominent actor and comedian in Gaza, posted this clip last week in Gaza.
Editor’s note: A previous version of this report misspelled journalist Moaz Abu Taha’s name. It has been corrected.
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