Israel targeting entire families in Gaza: Watchdog

GAZA CITY

Israel's targeting of Palestinian civilians in its ongoing military offensive in the Gaza Strip – including entire families – has reached unprecedented levels, according to a Tuesday statement by a European rights watchdog.

"Fifty families targeted by Israeli forces have either been killed entirely or lost most of their members," the Geneva-based Euro-Mid Observer for Human Rights (Euro-Mid) asserted.

The watchdog said that the number of fatalities resulting from the targeting of Palestinian families had reached 213.

The Euro-Mid condemned Israel's targeting of a residential building in the southern city of Khan Yunis that left 26 Palestinians – including 18 children – dead, leaving only three survivors from five families who had inhabited the building, which was reduced to rubble by Israeli warplanes Sunday evening.

The statement also condemned the killing of 11 members of the al-Kilani family – including five children – by an Israeli airstrike on their residential building in central Gaza City on Monday night.

"These examples of targeting entire Palestinian families and the noticeable rise in civilian victims over the past few days indicate the absence of an entity capable of changing the situation," the Euro-Mid statement read.

The statement went on to warn of an "unprecedented number of civilian Palestinian victims" if the international community did not immediately move to resolve the conflict.

The Palestinian death toll from Israel's ongoing offensive against the Gaza Strip – now in its third week – has reached 583, mostly civilians, according to health officials in Gaza.

Since July 7, Israel has pounded the embattled coastal enclave with fierce air and naval bombardments with the stated aim of halting Palestinian rocket fire.

On Thursday night, Israel stepped up its offensive to include ground operations, sending thousands of troops into the embattled Palestinian territory.

The Israeli army said that 27 of its soldiers had been killed thus far, most of the casualties occurring since the beginning of the ground incursion.

Israel's military operation, dubbed "Operation Protective Edge," is the self-proclaimed Jewish state's third major offensive against the densely-populated Gaza Strip – which is home to some 1.8 million Palestinians – within the last six years.

By Ola Attalah

www.aa.com.tr/en