Ramzi Mahmoud
November 21, 2019•Update: November 21, 2019
GAZA CITY, Palestine
The recent massacre perpetrated by the Israeli army against the al-Sawarka family in Gaza Strip recalled a bloody history of massacres against Palestinian families.
At least 692 people from 133 Palestinian families have been martyred in Gaza by Israeli forces since 2006, according to a report prepared by Anadolu Agency based on human rights sources.
On Nov. 14, eight members of the al-Sawarka family, including five children, were killed by an Israeli airstrike on their home in Deir al-Balah city in central Gaza Strip.
The airstrike took place during a two-day military escalation following the killing of Bahaa Abu al-Atta, a senior commander of Islamic Jihad, and his wife Asmaa in an airstrike on their home in eastern Gaza Strip.
The blockaded Gaza Strip was subjected to three Israeli wars in 2008, 2012 and 2014 during which the majority of the death toll took place.
Notable massacres
One of the most notable massacres committed by the Israeli occupation forces against families in Gaza took place in the summer of 2006, when the Israeli navy battleships shelled at the shore of the town of Beit Lahia city in the northern Gaza Strip.
A family of nine people were killed and only a girl survived who appeared on media screaming in shock.
In November of the same year, Israeli artillery opened fire at a residential neighborhood on the border, east of Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza Strip, killing 19 people of the Athamna family -- half of them were children.
During the 2008-2009 war, 29 people of the al-Samuni family were killed in the Shejaiya neighborhood in January 2009.
In 2014, 26 people of the Abu Jame family were killed in Khan Yunis in southern Gaza.
The Daya family of Gaza's Zaitoun neighborhood lost 22 people in January 2009 and the families of al-Najjar and Abu Jabr lost 20 people each in July 2014.
On Aug. 1, during the 2014 war, more than 200 Palestinians were killed by Israeli artillery shelling in Rafah town, as 23 families lost three or more people in the attacks.
Palestinians say they do not expect the targeting of Palestinian families to stop, in the absence of any accountability by the international community for violations by Israel.
