Gaza War: Hundreds of Palestinian Families Erased from Civil Registry

Hundreds of families were killed by Israeli occupation forces in Gaza. (Photo: via Social Media)

By Abdallah Aljamal – Gaza

The Palestinian Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip has confirmed that Israeli forces have killed all members of over 600 families, removing them entirely from the Palestinian civil registry.

Erasing Entire Generations of Families

Gaza resident, Abdul Rahman Al-Shatli, said in an interview with The Palestine Chronicle that Israeli forces killed all members of his nephew Mahmoud Al-Shatli’s family through the shelling of the family’s home in the Nuseirat Refugee Camp, in central Gaza.

Al-Shatli explained that his nephew Mahmoud, along with Mahmoud’s wife and their four children, were all killed while taking shelter at his wife’s family home.

Al-Shatli said that the home “was densely populated with women, children, and civilians. The Israeli army intentionally targeted the house, causing a high number of casualties.”

“My nephew’s family has joined hundreds of Palestinian families who have completely disappeared during this aggression. There is no one left from Mahmoud’s family. Consequently, my nephew’s family was removed from the civil registry and transferred to the registry of martyrs,” al-Shatli continued,

In the same context, Gaza resident, Mohammad Al-Assar told The Palestine Chronicle that Israeli forces killed all the members of his uncles’ and cousins’ families.

“The occupation killed all the members of my uncles, Dr. Abdel Rahman Al-Hour and the elderly sheikh Ziyad Al-Hour, along with all the members of their families and grandchildren,” he said.

“All the members of my cousin, Mohammad Al-Hour’s family were killed, as well as all the members of my cousin Tariq Al-Hour’s family and my cousin Ziyad Al-Hour’s family. They all took refuge together from the rockets at my uncle, Dr. Abdel Rahman’s house, but Israel’s bombs reached them, killing all of them. They were all civilians with no affiliation to any Palestinian organization,” al-Assar added.

Families Bid Farewell to Civil Registry

Gaza resident, Safaa Nofal, told The Palestine Chronicle that the Israeli army killed all the members of her uncle, Dr. Ameen Nofal’s family. It was a massacre that claimed the lives of dozens of women and children.

Nofal explained, “We lost all the members of my uncle Ameen’s family, and we lost all the members of his sons’ families. All of them were killed in an Israeli airstrike on their house in the village of Zawaida, which has caused us immense tragedy and indescribable shock.”

“My uncle Ameen Muhammad Nofal, his wife Tamam Youssef Nofal, and their children – Mu’tasim, Mu’min, Maisara, and Amal – were killed, and their sons Mu’ath and Mustafa were severely injured,” Nofal continued.

“The families of Mu’tasim – Mu’tasim, his wife, Ahmad, Ali, Amina, and Fatima – Mu’min – Mu’min, his wife, Islam, Mahmoud, and Inas – Maisara – Maisara, his wife, and Shaimaa – Muhammad’s sons, Ameen, Hamza, and Ahmad – and Mu’ath’s daughter, the child Mayyas, as well as Mustafa’s sons, Muhammad, Amro, Mahmoud, Tamam, Ameen, and the one-day-old Omar, were all killed,” she explained.

“We do not know who to grieve for. The catastrophe that befell our family is enormous. We do not know whether to cry for my uncle, his wife, and their children, or cry for their wives, or cry for their young children, or cry for this situation that we have reached, where the occupation continues to shed our blood in the midst of a tragic global silence.”

Ibrahim Musa is a resident of the Nuseirat Refugee Camp. He explained that Israeli forces killed all the members of his neighbors’ family, the Al-Naqla family.

“The occupation killed a small family of four members, the family of the young man Muhammad Al-Naqla, by shelling a house in a densely populated residential area in the middle of the Nuseirat Camp.”

Ibrahim issued an urgent appeal to all free people of the world to stand with the Palestinian people, put an end to Israel’s crimes.

Israel’s ongoing large-scale aggression on Gaza has already led to thousands of killed, wounded, and missing persons, as well as the destruction of thousands of buildings and housing units, and the displacement of more than a million people to the southern areas of the Gaza Strip.

Abdallah Aljamal is a Gaza-based journalist. He is a correspondent for The Palestine Chronicle in the Gaza Strip. His email is abdallahaljamal1987@gmail.com

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