Hamas: Israel's crimes in Tel al-Hawa and the execution of the elderly and children require urgent international accountability

Hamas said in a statement on Friday that "Israel's crimes in Tel al-Hawa, southwest of Gaza City, and the execution of the elderly and children are horrific violations and despicable behavior" that require urgent international accountability.

Hamas added that "the atrocities revealed by the Israeli army's retreat from the Tel al-Hawa neighborhood southwest of Gaza City, after days of incursion into it amidst violent shelling and targeting of all aspects of life, are war crimes, genocide, and ethnic cleansing."

The statement said, "The Israeli army's setting fire to residential buildings before leaving Tal al-Hawa, preventing the Civil Defense from reaching buildings that were burned with all their families inside, and recovering the bodies of entire families killed in Tal al-Hawa as a result of the Israeli bombing, confirms that it committed brutal massacres and atrocities that are shocking to humanity."

She pointed out that "the shocking scenes of cold-blooded executions of elderly Palestinians inside their homes, including three elderly women from the Ghalayini family, in addition to the executions of defenseless civilians, including children, are crimes that violate all human values ​​and confirm the despicable and cowardly behavior of this fascist army and its criminal leaders, who kill children, women and the elderly."

The movement stressed that "these heinous crimes are the responsibility of the United Nations, the international community and its institutions, especially the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court, to take urgent measures to stop the war of extermination waged by Israel against the Palestinian people, in which it practices endless chapters of violations of all values ​​and norms and all international laws and treaties, without the Netanyahu government finding a real deterrent step to end it."

Earlier on Friday,  the Civil Defense in the Gaza Strip said its crews found charred bodies of Palestinians and completely burned homes in the industrial area and Tal al-Hawa  in Gaza City after the Israeli army withdrew from the area.

The Civil Defense added that its crews "have recovered 18 bodies so far from the industrial area and Tal al-Hawa, west of Gaza, after the occupation forces withdrew from the area at dawn today."

For his part, the government media office in Gaza said: "We are receiving news of serious atrocities committed by the occupation in the Tel al-Hawa neighborhood in Gaza City."