Thursday, September 19, 2024

Israel bombed a residential block in Gaza. Then drones shot at anyone trying to rescue the survivors

On September 17, the Israeli army bombed a block near the al-Bureij refugee camp, completely destroying seven homes and trapping dozens under the rubble. When rescuers arrived at the scene to help, Israeli drones started firing at them as well.
 September 18, 2024 
Palestinians residents conduct search and rescue operations among the rubble of demolished buildings following an Israeli attack on houses at the Bureij Refugee camp in the Gaza Strip on September 18, 2024. (Omar Ashtawy/apaimages)


The Israeli army bombed an entire residential block east of al-Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip at dawn on September 17. Over seven buildings housing Palestinian families were completely destroyed, caving in on top of the heads of their inhabitants. According to witnesses, the Israeli army prevented ambulance and Civil Defense crews from reaching the site to rescue those who may have survived, using quadcopter drones to shoot at anyone who arrived.

Civil Defense teams had first arrived at the site at around 5:30 a.m. and began rescue efforts, despite the difficulty of working in the dark without proper equipment.

The spokesperson for the Civil Defense in Gaza, Mahmoud Basal, told Mondoweiss that when Civil Defense teams first arrived at the site, they found that all the bombed houses had been inhabited by three families. The Tartawi family, the Abu Shawqa family, and the Batran family accounted for over 50 people in the buildings.

“Our teams arrived on site and saw the bodies of the martyrs under the rubble and the ceilings that had fallen on top of them,” Basal told Mondoweiss.

Not long after first responders started pulling victims out from under the rubble, the Israeli army’s drones arrived and shot upon rescuers, journalists, and bystanders.

“There were also voices of people under the rubble, but suddenly while the teams were working, Israeli drones began shooting at the location and ordering people through speakers to leave the area immediately,” Basal said.

“Our crews withdrew after several people were injured, including civilians who participated in digging for martyrs alongside the Civil Defense crews,” he added.

The rescue teams were only able to retrieve the bodies of four people, including a child, before they were forced to leave the scene.

“The bodies of the citizens and the injured are still under the rubble. The screams of people were clear, and many were still alive,” Basal continued.

One Civil Defense member was shot and injured in the leg by the Israeli quadcopter drones, according to Ashraf Abu Amra, a correspondent for Al Jazeera present at the scene who spoke with Mondoweiss.

“During the withdrawal [of Civil Defense teams], suddenly the Israeli planes resumed bombing other homes of families east of al-Bureij camp, bringing the number of destroyed homes in less than an hour to 4 homes,” Abu Amra told Mondoweiss.

As the injured were deliberately left to bleed to death or suffocate under the rubble, including entire families, the Israeli army continued to bomb other houses in the same area.

‘They are killing our families and preventing us from rescuing them’


Muhammad Abu Shawqa, 22, immediately headed to the site when he first heard that his relatives’ home in al-Bureij had been targeted. Muhammad used to live in al-Bureij, but he fled to Nuseirat because he thought it was less dangerous, as al-Bureij is located on the eastern border of central Gaza, adjacent to the Israeli border.

When he arrived at the site of the bombing, despite the extreme risk of moving in the streets at dawn, he discovered that his uncles, cousins, ​​and their families were all in the bombed home.

“As soon as I got there, I saw fire, smoke, and screams coming out of the bombed houses,” Abu Shawqa told Mondoweiss. “The roofs had collapsed on top of each other, and body parts were sticking out from under them. Everyone was trying to rescue those screaming from under the rubble, but we were suddenly in the line of fire from the Israeli army.”

“The army shot directly at us,” he continued. “We started running away through the rubble, as if we were guilty and wanted. Several people fell in front of me, shot in different parts of their bodies. We were confused about whether to run away or help rescue those who were under the rubble, or even to help those who had come to aid in the rescue efforts!”

“They are killing our families and preventing us from rescuing them,” Abu Shawqa said. “Is there anything more difficult than hearing the screams of your family and neighbors as they die under the rubble, being unable to do anything for them?”

“We left under fire, knowing that none of those who remained under the rubble would survive,” he said.

The next day on Wednesday, September 18, Abu Shawqa managed to return to some of the bombed areas. He found a father attempting to rescue his son, whose body was stuck between two ceilings that had collapsed on top of one another.

“Some of the boy’s limbs were sticking out from between the two ceilings,” Abu Shawqa recounted. “His father was circling around his son’s hanging body and crying, and he kept saying, ‘How do I get him out from between two collapsed ceilings?’”

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