Findings from AP investigation into Palestinian families decimated in Gaza

BEIRUT (AP) — Israeli air and ground attacks in the Gaza Strip are killing entire Palestinian families on an unprecedented scale.

Whole bloodlines, sometimes four generations of the same family, have perished in single or multiple air raids on family members who had sought shelter together from the bombs. Often there was no warning.

An Associated Press investigation identified at least 60 Palestinian families where at least 25 people were killed in bombings between October and December, the deadliest and most destructive phase of the war, now in its ninth month.

Here are the key findings from the AP analysis:

There is no one left to document the toll

In many families there is hardly anyone left to document the number of victims, and thousands cannot name all the dead because so many bodies are still lying under the rubble.

The AP analysis included casualty records released by Gaza’s Health Ministry through March, online obituaries, social media pages and spreadsheets from families and neighbors, accounts from witnesses and survivors, and data from Airwars, a London-based conflict monitor. AP also geolocated and analyzed 10 Israeli strikes between Oct. 7 and Dec. 24. These attacks were among the deadliest of the war. In total, more than 500 people were killed in these attacks.

The Mughrabi family was the worst hit: a single Israeli airstrike in December killed over 70 people. The Abu Najas family: attacks in October killed over 50 people, including at least two pregnant women. The large Doghmush clan lost at least 44 members in an attack on a mosque, and the total continued to rise over 100 weeks later; by spring, over 80 members of the Abu al-Qumssan family had been killed.

“The numbers are shocking,” said Hussam Abu al-Qumssan.

No warning, no access

Gaza was already under siege before the war, but since October 7, Israel and Egypt have completely blocked access to foreign reporting teams or independent investigators. Hundreds of local reporters have had to simultaneously cover the relentless Israeli bombings – 6,000 in the first five days of the war – while also running for their lives and seeking shelter for themselves and their families.

In the first month after Hamas’ deadly attack on Israel on October 7 that killed around 1,200 people, 300 Palestinian families lost more than 10 members, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, double the number that died during the devastating 51-day war in 2014.

The 10 attacks analyzed by AP primarily hit apartment buildings, homes and shelters where parents, children and grandparents were huddled together for safety. In no case was there an obvious military target or direct warning to those inside. The Salem family has lost at least 270 members in total.

At one point, the Salems raised a white flag on their building, which was in the middle of a combat zone. They told the army they would not leave because they felt there was no safety anywhere.

More than 170 members of the family were killed in two bombings eight days apart. Three attacks within four weeks killed 30 members of al-Agha; and a series of attacks on a refugee camp in December killed 106 people from at least four families. In an attack on December 24, Israel admitted for the first time that it had “mistakenly” attacked outside its intended targets.

In an attack in the overcrowded Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza, Israeli bombs destroyed an entire block of houses. Nearly 40 members of the Abu al-Qumssan family were killed, and the number of casualties in the October 31 attack is unknown. Unusually, Israel identified a target, saying it had targeted a senior Hamas commander.

Why it is part of the war crimes and genocide cases

Israel has said it is taking measures to reduce harm to civilians. In previous conflicts, it has often warned civilians directly of attacks. In this war, however, this method is rarely used. Instead, evacuation orders are issued for entire areas, which not everyone can or will obey.

When it comes to civilian casualties, the law of war revolves around the question of proportionality: whether military advantage justifies destruction.

The International Court of Justice, the world’s highest court, is examining whether Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. A central part of the case is the killing of families across generations.

In addition, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court is requesting arrest warrants against two Israeli politicians for war crimes and crimes against humanity, including the deliberate killing of civilians, and against three Hamas leaders for crimes related to the October 7 attacks.

Craig Jones, a lecturer at Newcastle University who has studied the role of Israeli military lawyers, said Israel had significantly relaxed its standards for civilian casualties, reflecting anger over the October 7 attacks and domestic politics.

The laws of war allow for a “kind of hasty warfare” with higher civilian casualties, in which the military must react quickly and under changing circumstances. But “Israel is violating the law so clearly because it is pushing the rules so far,” he said.

What impact the deaths have on the future of Palestine

The death of so many Palestinian families will resonate for generations to come. In Gaza, kinship ties extend far beyond the nuclear family. An entire bloodline lives in residential complexes, often several buildings with three or more floors.

When the Salem family’s house in northern Gaza was destroyed in 2009, Youssef and his brothers helped rebuild it for their father and uncles. It was damaged again in 2014 and is now just a skeleton, burned from the inside.

Palestinians will remember entire families that disappeared from their lives, said Ramy Abdu, chairman of the Geneva-based EuroMed Human Rights Monitor, which monitors the Gaza war.

“It is as if an entire village or hamlet had been wiped out.”