Hadash MK Ayman Odeh demands, on Monday, May 26, in a parliamentary question that Defense Minister Israel Katz explain the circumstances behind an Israeli airstrike in Khan Younis on Friday in which nine children from the same family were reportedly killed. Odeh was forcefully removed from the podium in the Knesset last Wednesday, May 21, after a shouting match with far-right coalition members, which he criticized for prolonging the Gaza war. He accused the occupation army of the mounting dead Palestinian children toll. “It is only a war on innocent people, a massacre,” he said.
MK Ayman Odeh (third from left) during the demonstration against the war in Gaza held last Saturday evening, May 24, at Umm el-Fahm (Photo: Al-Ittihad)
In his question, Odeh demands to know who gave the order to bomb the building; what the criteria were for giving that order; what the military policy is regarding “bombing homes with civilians inside them;” and what the policy is for evacuating civilians from their homes. “Nine children under the age of 12 were burned to death inside their home,” says Odeh. “We demand accountability. This crime is not an ‘operational error’ — it is a government waging a war of extermination against civilians. We will not remain silent in the face of war crimes.”
“The Israeli army carried out a strike last Friday on the Al-Najjar family home in Khan Younis, which resulted in the death of nine children from the family,” said in a statement. “Responsibility for this crime does not lie with what they call an operational error, but with a government conducting a genocidal war against the civilian population,” the Hadash MK said. “We will not remain silent in the face of war crimes.” According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, at least 16,503 Palestinian children have been killed in Israeli attacks since October 2023.
In addition, the former Prime Minister of Israel, Ehud Olmert has said Israel is committing war crimes in Gaza, and that “thousands of innocent Palestinians are being killed, as well as many Israeli soldiers.” Olmert, who was the 12th prime minister of Israel from 2006 to 2009, wrote on Tuesday in an opinion piece for Haaretz that “the government of Israel is currently waging a war without purpose, without goals or clear planning and with no chances of success.”
He added: “Never since its establishment has the state of Israel waged such a war … The criminal gang headed by Benjamin Netanyahu has set a precedent without equal in Israel’s history in this area, too.” The former Israeli PM and former leading member of Likud, the same party as Netanyahu, wrote that the “pointless victims among the Palestinian population were reaching monstrous proportions” in recent weeks.
Related: https://maki.org.il/en/?p=32686
