The incident, which happened in a Khan Younis area that the Israeli military had declared a “safe zone,” highlights fresh concerns about how civilians have been treated during the conflict.
The five guys try to move along a lonely, reasonably calm street in southern Gaza, panic visible on their faces as they raise their hands in the air. Not far away, plumes of dark smoke shoot high into the sky.
A young man is waving a homemade white flag in the air. A middle-aged man is seen on camera stating, “The small group is trying to reach family members trapped down the street,” while making hand gestures. Gleaming on one of his fingers is a gold wedding ring.
Shortly after, gunfire pierces through the buzzing sound of drones, causing the guys to duck and seek shelter. But the man with the wedding ring passes out before they can flee.
Nine recordings that NBC News was able to acquire and verify show the events that transpired in the Al Mawasi area in Khan Younis, which the Israeli military had declared a “safe zone.” It calls into further question how Israeli soldiers are treating people ensnared in a conflict that has already claimed the lives of 25,000 Palestinians, 10,000 of them are youngsters.
Locals rush to pull the body off the street as the gunfire stops. A female yells. A throng has gathered around the body, and one man is trying desperately to bring the dead man back to life. Prayers and sobs can be heard.
Once more, there is gunfire, and the bigger group flees to the university’s courtyard nearby.
According to NBC News, one of the several Israeli tanks in the area is believed to have fired the shots, according to Palestinian cameraman Ahmed Hijazi, who saw the incident and captured the footage.
The dead man was hit by “direct fire” from the tanks, with one bullet entering his heart immediately. After the gunfire, Hijazi ran back to the group and carried on recording. “He was immediately killed,” she claimed.
NBC News is unable to verify Hijazi’s version of who fired first, which is consistent with an ITV News report on the same event that presented alternative viewpoints. Israeli tanks can be seen lining the road in another video that was captured from a building at Al Aqsa University and confirmed by NBC News.
This Monday, the Israeli military declared that it had completely surrounded the region and that its forces were intensifying their ground assault “to the west” of Khan Younis.
Additional footage from the scene shows Hijazi and other Palestinian refugees rushing to save the man who is critically injured and gushing blood from his chest.
Inquiring as to whether Israeli forces had fired at the guys, NBC News gave the Israel Defense Forces a raw, one-take video of the shooting along with information about its exact location and timing. The IDF was “not aware of this incident,” a spokesman claimed, adding that “the video is clearly edited, and we have no way to comment.” If IDF soldiers were present in the region on Monday, the spokeswoman declined to comment.
Requests for information and comments regarding the incident were not immediately answered by Hamas representatives.
According to the men’s words on video and the NBC News eyewitness interview, the group of guys had intended to rejoin with the about fifty family members they had been split away from prior to the incident. According to the man with the wedding band, his brother and his brother’s children were surrounded by Israeli tanks, and the men were returning east in hope of retrieving them.
“My brother was not brought by them. The man states in the video, “God willing, we want to go get him out,” only minutes before he is slain.
The five guys start to go along the road toward the smoke in the third video, which was taken on Monday shortly after three o’clock in the afternoon. When at least three shots are fired, one of them is carrying a green ID card in addition to the white flag, which results in the death of the older man.
“We carried him and took him to his wife and his daughter, his family members who were waiting for him,” Hijazi said, referring to others in the throng. “A physician was present, and he used artificial respiration and pressure to check if the patient was still breathing.”
Hijazi recognized the man as an Abou Sahloul family member and a well-known clothing retailer in the neighborhood. He was dubbed Ramzi by ITV. It was one of the worst moments Hijazi had seen during the battle, something that was “hard to forget and comprehend.”
Based on metadata provided by Hijazi, which includes additional information embedded in the video, including the location, date, and time of the incident, and geolocation analysis by NBC News, the incident occurred just outside the walls of Al-Aqsa University on Al-Bahr Street, a short walk from Al-Khair Hospital.
The road is lined with makeshift tents and shelters that were once home to a portion of the hundreds of thousands of inhabitants who were forced to flee their homes in search of safer circumstances in the southern city of Rafah.
Parties to an armed conflict are required by the rules of war, often known as international humanitarian law, to take all reasonable steps to differentiate between civilians and combatants, and they are only permitted to target the latter. Waving a white flag is a widely recognized gesture as an additional attempt to demonstrate that one is unarmed and wishes no harm, even though people are not required to do so.
U.S. authorities have seen the video, State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel said Wednesday, but he would to comment on the specifics.
“That is for the IDF to undertake and determine, based on the circumstances of that situation,” Patel responded when asked if the United States would back an Israeli probe.
He stated, “We have made it very evident to our Israeli allies that they must do everything within their power to protect civilians during an operation and look into any legitimate claims of law or war crimes that may surface.”
