Gaza’s “Safe Zones”: Burned Alive in Their Sleep. Mondoweiss

On the morning of April 17, 2025, horror returned to Khan Younis. At the European Hospital, Umm Ibrahim Abu Shaar, 49, sat beside the charred bodies of her family, killed in an Israeli airstrike that struck a tent encampment in the Mawasi area—labeled a “safe zone” by the Israeli military.

The airstrike ignited a massive fire that engulfed several tents, turning them into ash within moments.

The fire was so intense that many victims were burned alive. Among the 15 bodies recovered were eight children. Witnesses described them as blackened, melted, and unrecognizable. A mother and her three children were found reduced to skeletons, their features erased by the blaze.

“We heard the explosion and saw flames erupt instantly,” said Yousef Abu al-Rus, a survivor who gave testimony to Mondoweiss. “We tried to get close, but the fire was too strong. We saw women and children burning right before our eyes—and our children saw it too.”

According to Abu al-Rus, four tents housing four families were hit by a single missile. The weapon caused a level of destruction never seen before, melting even aluminum cooking pots. “What would such a weapon do to a child barely three years old?” he asked, still in disbelief.

The victims had gone to bed the night before after attending a family wedding. Hours later, they were dead—killed in what many now describe as a deliberate targeting of civilians under the false promise of safety.

“They told us to go to the safe zone. It was a trap,” Abu al-Rus said. “We bury our children as skeletons and melted bones. Where are we supposed to go?”

This was not an isolated incident. Israeli airstrikes on April 17 continued across the Gaza Strip. The Ministry of Health in Gaza reported 40 Palestinians killed within 24 hours. The Civil Defense recovered six more bodies in Beit Lahia, where a tent sheltering displaced people was also targeted. Later that day, the al-Ayyoubiya School in North Gaza was bombed, along with residential homes throughout the strip.

Among the dead in Beit Lahia were three children from the al-Atal family, reportedly killed by a drone-fired bomb. Witnesses said the drone hovered directly over the tent before striking. “Their bodies were dismembered,” said Marwan al-Atal, a relative. “Even if someone in that tent was wanted by Israel, why kill the children too? Is this Netanyahu’s idea of military success?”

The repeated bombings of displacement camps, shelters, and schools reflect a grim reality: nowhere in Gaza is truly safe. As families flee one strike only to be killed in another, the term “safe zone” becomes not a refuge, but a cruel illusion.

The international community continues to call for accountability. Yet, for grieving families like Umm Ibrahim’s, justice remains distant. In Gaza, the fire keeps returning—and with it, the recurring question: Where can Palestinians go to be safe?

Comments

Never Attack a Revolution—Unless It’s Gaza

By Malik Mukhtar There is a peculiar confidence that comes with being wrong for decades and still being invited back to explain the world. Yossi Alpher—former Mossad official, veteran intelligence analyst, and institutional voice of Israeli “realism”—offers us precisely that confidence in his January 12, 2026 reflections on Iran. His message, distilled, is simple: things are complicated, revolutions are unpredictable, and humility is required . This is sound advice. It just arrives from the wrong mouth, at the wrong time, over the wrong bodies. Because while Alpher warns us—correctly—not to “attack a revolution, ” Israel has spent the last two years doing something far more obscene : attacking a trapped civilian population with no revolution , no army , no air force, no escape —and calling it self-defense . Intelligence: A Sacred Failure, Repeated Faithfully Alpher recalls, with admirable candor, the catastrophic ignorance of Western and Israeli intelligence during...

Gaza Beyond the Alibi of Hamas: Genocide as Method, Silence as Accomplice.( From Chris Hedges report )

We are the most informed generation in human history—and perhaps the least disturbed by what we know. From the first missiles that struck Gaza’s residential blocks to the slow starvation that followed, everything was visible. Every destroyed home. Every burned hospital. Every child pulled from rubble. And yet, the global emotional temperature barely rose. In an age of total visibility, feeling itself has become scarce. Watching has replaced witnessing. Knowing has replaced responsibility. This moral numbness is not accidental. It is cultivated . And at the center of this cultivation stands a single word, endlessly repeated, ritually invoked, and strategically deployed: Hamas . Hamas has functioned not as an explanation, but as an alibi. The Choice Was Announcedk From Day One From the earliest days of Israel’s assault, the policy was articulated with chilling clarity: Gaza’s population would be given two options— stay and starve, or leave . This was not the language of counte...

Ras ‘Ein al-‘Auja: How Ethnic Cleansing Happens Without a Declaration

Ethnic cleansing rarely announces itself with sirens or official decrees. More often, it arrives quietly—through sleepless nights, smashed water tanks, stolen sheep, armed men grazing livestock on stolen land, and the slow realization that survival itself has become impossible. On 8 January 2026 , Israel completed what it had been methodically engineering for months: the forcible transfer of 26 Palestinian families from the shepherding community of Ras ‘Ein al-‘Auja in the southern Jordan Valley. That is 124 people , including 59 children , pushed from homes their families had lived in for decades—not by a single evacuation order, but by sustained terror. This is not a humanitarian crisis caused by “clashes.” It is not a byproduct of war. It is a deliberate policy outcome . Violence as Policy, Militias as Instruments Ras ‘Ein al-‘Auja lies about ten kilometers north of Jericho. It is the last remaining shepherding community in the southern Jordan Valley , and the largest sti...

Ana Kasparian: The Voice That Won’t Be Silent — A Call for Truth in an Age of Power

Ana Kasparian is one of the most recognized and outspoken voices in contemporary political media. As a co-host of The Young Turks — a trailblazing online news and commentary program — she has spent nearly two decades dissecting U.S. politics, media, power, and foreign policy with unapologetic clarity and fierce conviction. She is not just a commentator — she is a truth-seeker who challenges power at every turn , refusing to soften her words for comfort. Schooled in journalism and political science, Ana’s commentary continues to mobilize millions, especially younger generations who feel unheard in mainstream discourse. A Voice Against the Status Quo Ana’s rhetoric can be bold, controversial, and deeply passionate — because she refuses to accept narratives that obscure the underlying truth about power and influence. On American democracy and foreign policy, she strikes at the heart of what many hesitate to articulate: “ We don’t actually live in a true democracy here in t...

Dr. Randa Abdel Fattah. De-Invited by Association: When Grief Becomes a Pretext and Palestinian Identity a Liability

How Dr. Randa Abdel-Fattah Was Silenced in the Name of “Sensitivity” In a remarkable feat of moral gymnastics, Australia’s literary establishment has once again demonstrated how grief can be weaponised, principles suspended, and Palestinian identity rendered dangerously “inappropriate ” —all in the name of cultural sensitivity. Dr. Randa Abdel-Fattah , a respected author, academic, and public intellectual, was quietly de-invited from Adelaide Writers’ Week following the Bondi Junction massacre. Not because she had any connection—real, implied, or imagined—to the atrocity. Not because she endorsed violence. Not because she violated any law or ethical standard. But because, apparently, the mere presence of a Palestinian Muslim woman who speaks about justice is now considered culturally unsafe during national mourning . One wonders: unsafe for whom? The Logic of the Absurd Festival organisers were careful—almost impressively so—to state that Dr. Abdel-Fattah had nothing to do wi...

Ainnbeen

Search This Blog