Nearly 3,000 Palestinians were killed in nearly 350 separate incidents during the first 17 days of the war in Gaza, a first step toward identifying every civilian killed during Israel’s military genocide, Airwars said.
Although the 2,993 victims mentioned are only a fraction of the total death toll of 39,000 cited by the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza, Airwars said the effort shows that it is possible to name those killed while the war is ongoing.
“The military often tells us that it’s impossible to know who was killed and how. But one of our main messages is to show that it is possible. The only thing that holds us back is the size of our team,” said Airwars director Emily Tripp.
Airwars managed to add to the 65 people killed in an Israeli airstrike on a market in the Jabalia refugee camp on October 9, the deadliest single incident in the first two and a half weeks of this year.
Investigators relied on a series of reports, mainly Facebook posts from relatives and friends, to identify those killed in the attack, which occurred at 10:30 a.m. local time on a busy market street.
Imad Hamad, 19, was among those killed. His father, Ziyad Hamad, asked why his son deserved to be killed as he tried to buy bread, according to an Amnesty International report compiled by Airwars.
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“Losing my child, losing my home, sleeping on the floor of a classroom? My children are wetting their beds, because of panic, because of fear, because of the cold. We have nothing to do with this. What did we do wrong? I raised my child, all my life, for what? Seeing him die while buying bread,” said Ziyad Hamad.
Each recorded death is linked to one of 346 specific incidents that have been examined so far. “We know how and when every single person was killed,” Tripp said.
According to him, Airwars’ goal is to produce a document on each episode that can form the basis of future efforts to achieve accountability. “Our job is to act as a bridge between chaos and justice to serve civilian victims of military action around the world. We see what we do as important preliminary work before further investigations can be conducted,” Tripp added.
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Children represent the largest group of those recorded as killed by Airwars, at 1,129 or 37.7%. This comprises 28.4% males and 23.5% females. The ages of the remainder are unknown and cannot be categorized with certainty.
The group was also able to further validate nearly 75% of the names of the victims obtained, 2,236 men, women and children, by cross-referencing them with a list of 7,000 names released by the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza in late October. At the time, the Health Ministry sought to refute criticism that the list of victims was inaccurate or too large to be credible.
“The figures from the Ministry of Health are reliable. You don’t have to wait years to be sure,” he said.
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A small number of those killed were known to be Hamas commanders, but it was unclear how many of the group’s fighters were on Airwars’ list.
Israel says it does not target civilians and accuses Hamas of using hospitals and other civilian buildings for military operations.
Conflict monitors say the intensity of the Israel-Gaza war, which began after Hamas fighters suddenly emerged from the strip to attack Israel on Oct. 7, has killed about 1,200 people, far exceeding any conflict that has occurred in the past decade.
Airwars has so far recorded more than 4,450 civilian casualties since the start of the war and has analyzed 550 of them, including 346 from the first 17 days.
Another 200 are being reviewed by a team of 10 to 15 investigators, most of whom work in Arabic, tracking media and social media reports. One of the hallmarks of this conflict is the high death toll that each attack brings.
Despite the 17th date, Airwars has recorded more than 100 deaths from several other incidents, including three in late October; an airstrike on al-Taj, an attack on the Jabalia refugee camp and the bombing of a tower east of the Nuseirat camp.
“Before this conflict, it was very rare to find cases where more than 10 civilians were killed,” Tripp said. “But here, suddenly, we find that in a third of our cases we have reports of 10 civilians killed,” he concluded. (Theguardian/Z-2)
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