Amnesty International announced that three Israeli airstrikes in central and southern Gaza in April led to the deaths of 44 civilians, including 32 children, and has called for the International Criminal Court to investigate these incidents as war crimes.
The organization reported on Sunday that these airstrikes occurred on April 16 at the Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza, and on April 19 and 20 in Rafah in the south of the Strip. Amnesty International’s official, Erika Guevara Rosas, stated, “These devastating strikes wiped out families and took the lives of 32 children,” emphasizing that the organization’s investigation provides “key evidence pointing to unlawful attacks attributed to the Israeli military.”
Amnesty International conducted interviews with 17 survivors and witnesses, visited a hospital treating the wounded, and collected shrapnel photos. It added that in all three cases, “the organization found no evidence of military targets at the sites targeted by the Israeli military or in their vicinity,” noting that it has not yet received responses to its inquiries from the Israeli military.
According to the organization, the April 16th airstrike in Maghazi targeted a street where children were playing table soccer, resulting in the deaths of 10 children aged between 4 to 15 years and 5 men.
In Rafah, an airstrike on April 19 struck the home of Abu Radwan, a retired employee, killing 9 members of his family, including 6 children, according to the organization. On April 20, an airstrike destroyed the Abdel Aal family home in east Rafah, killing 20 people, including 16 children and 4 women, and injuring two other children.
Amnesty International wrote that “the International Criminal Court must initiate an investigation into war crimes” in these three airstrikes.
