A 21-year-old Palestinian medical student killed by a “precision-guided” Israeli bomb while studying; a four-year-old Palestinian girl killed in her sleep during an Israeli air strike; a young Palestinian woman living with a disability left without her electric wheelchair when Israeli bombs destroyed her home without adequate warning. These are just a few of the victims of Israel’s latest military assault on the occupied Gaza Strip. The assault began on 9 May 2023 with the targeted killing of three high-ranking commanders of Al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of Palestinian Islamic Jihad. On that first night of bombing, 10 Palestinian civilians were killed and over 20 were injured, a high toll that could and should have been avoided by those planning, ordering and authorizing the attack.
During the five-day offensive, which ended on 13 May, Amnesty International documented the killing by Israeli forces of 31 Palestinians, including 11 civilians, as well as substantial destruction and damage to Palestinian property. Amnesty International also documented the killing by inherently inaccurate rockets fired by Palestinian armed groups of three Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip and two civilians in Israel.