DaysofPal – The Gaza Human Rights Center has warned that Israel’s continued control of approximately 70 percent of the Gaza Strip, coupled with the daily killing of civilians across the territory, demonstrates that Israeli occupation forces are no longer limiting their actions to forced displacement and the shrinking of habitable space. Instead, the center said, the remaining areas of Gaza have been transformed into “open killing zones” where civilians are targeted in residential neighborhoods, shelters, displacement sites, and near Israeli military deployment areas commonly referred to as the “Yellow Line.”
In a statement issued on Monday, the Center said its field team had documented continued Israeli attacks in recent days through airstrikes, artillery shelling, direct gunfire, and sniper fire, describing the incidents as ongoing violations of the principles of distinction, proportionality, and precaution required under international humanitarian law to protect civilians.
The Danger of the “Yellow Line”
The center also warned that the deliberate ambiguity surrounding the locations of Israeli military deployment lines and the absence of clearly marked or publicly announced boundaries have effectively turned these areas into deadly traps for civilians.
It cited United Nations verification showing that 196 Palestinians, including 18 women and 43 children, were killed between October 10, 2025, and April 2026 in areas near Israeli military positions. According to the Center, those areas lacked clearly identifiable boundaries, exposing civilians to repeated risks of being killed without warning or any realistic opportunity to avoid danger.
The rights group added that dozens more casualties had been recorded during the following two months in the same areas, alongside increasing Israeli measures aimed at further reducing the space available for civilians.
As part of this pattern, the Center documented the killing of Hamouda Ezzat Ali Abu Daqqa and the injury of 15 other Palestinians on Monday morning after an Israeli airstrike targeted a vehicle on Al-Rashid Street in the Al-Mawasi area west of Khan Younis. The center noted that Al-Mawasi is densely populated with tens of thousands of displaced people who had previously been ordered by Israeli occupation forces to relocate there as a designated shelter area.
Earlier the same day, the Center documented the killing of Fadi Falah Daghmash and his wife, Reham Rashid, while several other civilians were wounded after an Israeli airstrike hit a residential apartment near the Jordanian Hospital in the Tel al-Hawa neighborhood southwest of Gaza City. The Center said the attack was further evidence of continued strikes on civilian homes in populated areas.
The statement also referred to earlier incidents, including an Israeli drone strike on Sunday, July 5, 2026, that targeted a group of civilians near Al-Samer Junction in Gaza City, killing Jawhar Abdul Balawi and Ahmed Yahya Al-Batsh. The previous evening, Saturday, July 4, an Israeli drone reportedly struck a group of civilians near Abu Sharkh Roundabout west of Jabalia refugee camp, killing Hudhaifa Hussein Allah Al-Hawajri and injuring several others. On the same day, another strike targeted a motorcycle near Asqoula Roundabout in Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighborhood, killing Mohammed Najeeb Ashour.
A Systematic Policy of Attrition
“These incidents and hundreds of similar cases show the existence of a systematic policy of killing civilians throughout the Gaza Strip regardless of the existence of active hostilities or any immediate threat,” the center said. It argued that civilians are being exposed to lethal attacks wherever they move, whether inside the remaining populated areas or near Israeli military deployment zones.
The Center said the continued targeting of civilians in areas with no clear indication of danger, as well as in locations where residents had previously been forced to seek refuge, constitutes a grave violation of the Geneva Conventions and customary international humanitarian law. It described the attacks as an unlawful use of lethal force against individuals who are entitled to full legal protection.
The rights group further warned that Israeli control over roughly 70 percent of Gaza’s territory, combined with continued attacks on the remaining inhabited areas, has forced more than two million Palestinians into overcrowded enclaves lacking the most basic necessities of life.
The statement said residents were in danger of being killed at any time from any direction, turning the entire Gaza Strip into a theater of constant killing, persecution, and forced displacement that was making life unlivable and forcing Palestinians to leave their homeland.
The Gaza Human Rights Center renewed its call on the international community to take immediate action to halt these crimes, implement effective measures to protect civilians, stop the genocide, and ensure that those responsible are held accountable through international justice mechanisms. It warned that continued impunity only encourages further grave violations against the civilian population in Gaza.
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