The group waves a white flag - one is shot dead

 

News 

 

The war between Israel and Hamas  

 

Civilians waving white flags in Gaza - shot dead  

 

Nivette Dawod  

 

Published 19.18  

 

The group carries a white flag and says they want to help family members in Gaza.  

 

Shortly afterwards, one of them is shot dead.  

 

The video clip from British ITV is now spreading around the world.  

 

On Tuesday, a Palestinian cameraman was in the area of al-Mawasi in southern Gaza, a place that the Israeli military has directed Palestinians to and called "safe".  

 

After interviewing several fleeing Palestinians on behalf of British ITV, he encountered a group of five men. All stood facing the direction they had all fled from, where the fighting was going on, with their hands over their heads. They also carried a white flag, a symbol often used by civilians who want to show that they are not an armed target.  

 

One of the men, 51-year-old Ramzi Abu Sahloul, said: 

 

- My mother and brother are still there, with about 50 or 70 other refugees. The Israelis came and said we have to evacuate, but they didn't let my brother leave. We want to try to get them now.  

 

Several shots  

 

After the interview, the cameraman started to leave the scene, but turned around shortly afterwards to take one last picture, his colleague describes on the channel's website.

 

In the film clip, several shots are then heard being fired.  

 

The five men start running, and seconds later Ramzi Abu Sahloul falls to the ground.  

 

According to ITV, the 51-year-old was shot in the chest. The four other men tried to use the white flag to stop the flow of blood, but his life could not be saved. Soon the entire flag was colored red.  

 

At the same time, the shelling continued.  

 

May constitute war crimes  

 

The clip, which aired yesterday, has created an outcry. 

 

Both Amnesty International and the Norwegian Refugee Council have stated that the incident may constitute a war crime. 

 

Amnesty's spokesperson also tells the British channel that similar incidents "happen with an unpleasant regularity" against Palestinians in Gaza during Israel's war against Hamas.

 

"Heinous accusations"  

 

Most recently at the beginning of January, a clip was published by the site Middle East Eye in which a Palestinian woman evacuating from Gaza City with a child is said to be shot by Israeli military. Even in that case the party carried a white flag. The Israeli military (IDF) has not commented on that incident.  

 

In a comment to ITV about Tuesday's event, the IDF states that it does not know the whole thing, and that it does not carry out "field executions". 

 

"It is imperative to emphasize that the alarming, defamatory and gross mischaracterization of the war, with these abhorrent allegations, can only be seen as an extension of Hamas's propaganda efforts to defame the IDF and undermine our goal of crushing Hamas and ensuring that the terrorist organization never again has power to build a terrorist army, invade Israel, murder, burn, rape and abduct Israelis," they also write.  

 

FACTS 

Background  

More than 100 days have passed since October 7, when Hamas attacked Israel in what is being called the worst massacre of Jews in modern times.  

 

Over 1,100 people, mainly Israelis, were killed and 240 people were kidnapped. Over 130 of them are still believed to be with Hamas in Gaza.  

 

The military invasion that Israel launched shortly afterwards against the Gaza Strip - with the aim of eradicating Hamas - has been very bloody. By Palestinians it is called a new Nakba, the name of the expulsion of Palestinians that took place in 1948 when the state of Israel was established.  

 

According to the Hamas-controlled health department in Gaza, over 25,000 Palestinians are estimated to have been killed by Israeli attacks, the majority of them women and children. Over 60,000 have been injured.  

 

A whole outside world has been able to follow the war, both through daily updates from the Israeli military (IDF) and the local Palestinian journalists who report from inside the isolated Gaza with their lives at stake.  

 

The UN, the World Health Organization and several aid organizations warn that no place in Gaza is safe, that the medical system is collapsing, and that people are living in famine-like conditions.