Israeli army executed dozens of elderly people in Gaza: Rights monitor

ATHENS (AA) – The Israeli army has executed dozens of elderly people in Gaza since October 7, according to a human rights watchdog.

In a statement, Geneva-based Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor said that 1,049 elderly men and women have been killed so far —about 1% of the estimated 107,000 elderly people who live in the Gaza Strip, and 3.9% of all Palestinian deaths.

“The majority of them were crushed to death under the debris of their homes or the shelter centres where they sought safety after Israeli aircraft bombed their homes, or while being forced to seek basic necessities in the streets and marketplaces. Alarmingly, however, dozens were targeted in killings and field executions,” it said.

The monitor said: “The elderly are paying a high price for the disproportionate attacks carried out by Israeli forces, as hundreds of them have been killed in Israel’s genocide, and thousands more injured.”

According to the group, numerous elderly civilians, including both men and women over the age of 70 and even 80 have experienced detention.

“Testimonies from released detainees affirm that they were denied access to treatment and subjected to torture and abuse, regardless of their difficult health situation and/or advanced age,” it added.

The elderly residents of Gaza had witnessed the Nakba of 1948. They had lived through Israel’s wars and assaults, displacements and were living witnesses of the erasure of Palestinian history and identity.

Since October 7, Israel has relentlessly pounded the Gaza Strip with heavy artillery, killing at least 20,258 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injuring more than 53,020, according to health authorities in the enclave.

The Israeli onslaught has left Gaza in ruins with half of the coastal territory’s housing stock damaged or destroyed, and nearly 2 million people displaced within the densely-populated enclave amid severe shortages of food and clean water.