Leaked Drone Footage Has Shown Israel Directly Bombed And Killed Four Unarmed Civilian Men In Gaza
Directly targeting civilians is a war crime under International Humanitarian Law, also known as the rules of war.
Leaked drone footage has shown Israel targeting and killing four unarmed civilians walking in Khan Younis in Gaza with missiles, causing outrage.
The footage, which was obtained by Al Jazeera and widely circulated on social media, was taken from an Israeli drone that was shot down in Khan Younis in early February.
The video shows four unarmed Palestinian men walking on a road that was bulldozed by Israeli forces before they withdrew from the area.
It is clear from the video that the four civilians are unarmed and do not pose any danger.
The drone then follows and targets the men with several missiles, killing two of them with the first missile.
Then the third man is hit by another missile, and the fourth is seen stumbling to the ground and trying to crawl away before he was also struck and killed by a missile.
Al Jazeera said that the four men had been searching for their homes or what remains of them in Khan Younis.
Out of all of the Gaza Strip, Khan Younis has witnessed the most severe damage and the “highest number of newly destroyed structures” according to the UN.
The Israeli military told the Times of Israel that the footage was from an “active combat zone in Khan Younis, which had been significantly evacuated of the civilian population, and in which the troops experienced many encounters with terrorists who fought and moved [around] in civilian clothing, and disguised weapons in buildings and property that are believed to be civilian.”
It added that it was investigating the footage.
Directly targeting civilians is a war crime under International Humanitarian Law, also known as the rules of war.
Israel’s ongoing attacks on Gaza since Oct. 7 has killed more than 32,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children.
