DaysofPal – Israel targeted entire Palestinian families in the Gaza Strip after they rejected offers to collaborate with its military against Hamas, killing dozens in a wave of strikes described by rights groups as “collective coercion.”
According to Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, Israeli intelligence agents reached out to prominent families in Gaza, offering them protection and the ability to remain in their homes if they agreed to form armed groups against Hamas. When those families refused, their homes were bombed, killing scores of civilians.
One of the starkest cases involved the Bakr family in the al-Shati refugee camp, west of Gaza City. Family elders said they were contacted by Israeli operatives who asked them to establish a militia to take control of the camp once Hamas was defeated.
The Bakr family rejected the offer, insisting their refusal was based on principle rather than allegiance to any Palestinian faction. Within a day, Israeli air strikes leveled their homes, killing at least nine people, including children.
Similar attacks followed in other neighborhoods. The Dairi and Daghmash families, both of whom had reportedly refused comparable Israeli overtures, saw their homes destroyed in strikes on Friday and Saturday. More than 60 people were killed in those attacks.
Euro-Med said these incidents are not isolated but part of a broader Israeli strategy to fracture Gaza’s social fabric. The group noted that Israel’s internal security service, Shin Bet, has been contacting clan leaders as part of a plan to divide the enclave into “local fiefdoms” ruled by family-based militias.
“What began as individual extortion has escalated into a systematic, collective practice,” Euro-Med stated. “Families are being forced to choose between betraying their communities or facing mass killing, starvation, and forcible displacement.”
The organization added that testimonies it gathered confirm families were threatened with siege or death if they refused to cooperate. Humanitarian aid, it said, has been weaponized into a bargaining chip.
“Relief is being stripped of its unconditional character, turning it into a tool of extortion that places civilians’ lives on coercive bargaining tables,” the group warned.
Palestinian factions praised the families’ refusal, calling it a “safety valve” for Palestinian society. In a joint statement, they described the stance as “an honorable position that will be remembered in the brightest pages of Palestinian history,” stressing that it delivered a blow to Israel’s attempts to infiltrate and divide Palestinian communities.
Israel has a history of arming local groups in Gaza. In June, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu openly admitted on X that Israel had made use of clans opposed to Hamas, dismissing criticism with the words, “We made use of clans in Gaza that are opposed to Hamas…” What’s wrong with that?”
According to Euro-Med, Israel’s latest tactics go beyond local collaboration, amounting to “organized collective coercion.” The rights body said that forcing families into militias under threat of annihilation demonstrates genocidal intent and constitutes a war crime.
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