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Photos:
Fighters from the Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Palestinian Hamas movement, carry the body of 30-year-old Maslih Shabir in Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip, during the funeral of Palestinians who were killed the previous day in an Israeli operation to blow up a tunnel stretching from the Gaza Strip into Israel, October 31, 2017. (Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90). Published by 972Mag

Israeli soldiers discover a tunnel in the Gaza Strip during ‘Operation Protective Edge,’ July 20, 2014. (Photo by IDF Spokesperson). Published by 972Mag
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The Israeli army is preventing search and rescue teams from entering the Gaza buffer zone to retrieve the bodies of Palestinian militants. Rights groups: ‘There is no way to justify the severe and intolerable harm to the lives and dignity of the trapped individuals.’

By +972 Magazine Staff

Rights groups are demanding that the Israeli military allow search and rescue teams access to an Israeli-imposed no-mans-land along the Gaza border to rescue Palestinian militants trapped in a tunnel destroyed by Israel earlier this week.

Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel and the Gaza-based Al Mezan Center for Human Rights filed a petition Thursday night to the Israeli Supreme Court on behalf of Gaza resident Hassan Abdel Jalil Sbahi, the father of one of the missing individuals. A hearing is scheduled for Sunday of next week.


On October 30, the Israeli military destroyed a cross-border tunnel along the Gaza border area, killing five top members of both Islamic Jihad and Hamas. According to a senior Israeli officer, the IDF knows of 14 people killed in the incident, five of them operatives who worked in the tunnels, as well as nine rescuers who died either due to the tunnel’s collapse or from inhaling smoke from explosives.

The army claims the tunnel had been dug from the Gaza Strip and into Israeli territory, close to Kibbutz Kissufim. Palestinian rescue crews have so far recovered seven bodies and evacuated 18 people wounded in the blast.

In the petition, the rights groups argue that “protecting the wounded in times of war and the duty to allow them to receive medical treatment, the evacuation of bodies, as well as the immunity of ambulances, hospitals and medical teams, are fundamental principles of international humanitarian law and the Fourth Geneva Convention.”

According to the army, Israel will not allow Palestinians to search for the remaining missing Palestinians unless progress is made on returning the missing Israeli soldiers who were captured during the 2014 Gaza war, and are long-assumed to be held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Adalah attorney Muna Haddad called on the court to hold an urgent hearing. “Preventing the location and rescue of missing persons in the area currently under Israeli military control is a blatantly illegal policy,” Haddad wrote in the petition, calling the act “contrary to the laws of war and humanitarian law which are anchored in the Geneva Conventions.”

The petitioners argued that “protecting the wounded in times of war and the duty to allow them to receive medical treatment, the evacuation of bodies, as well as the immunity of ambulances, hospitals and medical teams, are fundamental principles of international humanitarian law and the Fourth Geneva Convention.”

Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem also criticized the IDF’s decision, calling it “vengeful” and “immoral,” while criticizing Hamas for refusing to return the bodies of Israeli soldiers captured during the 2014 Gaza war.

The petition further stressed that the army is using the trapped Gazans as bargaining chips:

“[Mordechai and Zamir] are seeking to use the trapped people, and the possibility of locating and rescuing them, as a bargaining chip – something that this court has already ruled impermissible. There is no way for them to justify this most severe and intolerable harm to the lives and dignity of the trapped individuals.”
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GAZA (Ma’an) -- Oct 31, 2017

At least seven Palestinians were killed, and 12 others were wounded after Israeli forces blew up an underground tunnel between the southern Gaza Strip and Israel on Monday, according to Palestinian and Israeli sources.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health officially declared the death of seven Palestinians, all fighters in the armed wings of the Hamas and Islamic Jihad movements in Gaza.

The killed fighters were identified as Hussam Abdullah al-Sumairi, 32, Muhammad Marwan Al-Agha, 22, Ahmad Khalil Abu Armaneh, 25, Omar Nassar al-Falit, 27, Hassan Aaba Hassanein, Mesbah Fayek Shbeir, and Arafat Abu Morshed.

The Palestinian Civil Defense forces told Ma’an that rescue teams had saved a number of fighters who were trapped in the tunnel after the explosion, while the ministry of health said at the time that the number of wounded was around 12.

Following the explosion, Israeli media reported that the Israeli army staged a “controlled detonation” in the area around the Gaza Strip, saying the activity was pre-planned.

Despite killing seven and wounding more than a dozen others, the Israeli army spokesperson reportedly said that the army had “no intention of escalating matters," and that the tunnel had yet to become operational when forces blew it up, according to Ynet news.

Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman stated that the tunnel "was a blatant violation of (Israeli) sovereignty and all acceptable rules between societies, countries and organizations that respect themselves." He added that the recently built tunnel "proves that despite the Palestinian reconciliation, the Gaza Strip remains a kingdom of terrorism. As far as we're concerned, the responsibility (for the tunnel) is without a doubt that of Hamas, which rules Gaza."

Meanwhile, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Hamas movement, released a statement following the attack, saying that “the blood of the martyrs would not be wasted, and that the Israeli occupation bears responsibility for the consequences of this aggressive escalation.”

Israeli officials have accused Hamas of "preparing" for another war with Israel and have threatened retaliatory measures against the Gaza Strip as a whole. However, despite Hamas' inflammatory rhetoric against Israel, the movement has not officially claimed responsibility for any military action from Gaza against Israel since the 2014 war.

While the tunnels in Gaza are used by Hamas as a source of tax revenue and inflow of weapons, they also supply highly demanded necessities for Gazans -- who have been trapped under Israeli siege for a decade -- including food, medicine, and much-needed infrastructure materials.

The majority of the two million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are sealed inside the coastal enclave due to the continuation of the military blockade imposed by Israel and upheld by Egypt on the southern border.

The destruction from three Israeli offensives since 2008, including damage to the enclave’s water, sanitation, energy, and medical facilities, coupled with slow reconstruction due to the blockade, led the UN to warn that Gaza could be “uninhabitable” by 2020.