Folks whispered that Nasser al-Astal had come undone, dazed by grief. Weeks after the Israeli airstrike that he stated had crashed into his household’s dwelling, his phrases got here in loud, quivering spurts, darting frantically from reminiscence to reminiscence, from loss to loss — his spouse, two of their sons and 4 of their daughters, all useless.
A daughter-in-law and a son-in-law, useless. His older brother and his household, useless. His first grandchild, useless, he stated, his second by no means born: His elder son’s spouse had been pregnant.
“When I look at photos of my family on my phone, I cry to myself at night,” Mr. al-Astal stated in a telephone interview a number of weeks after his loss. “But men hide their tears, so I try to do it away from people, alone.”
All of their names have been there in black and white on a list of 6,747 Palestinians who Gaza well being officers stated had been killed by Israeli assaults within the first 19 days of the war. No. 14: his spouse, Marwa al-Astal, 48. No. 84: their granddaughter, 1, additionally named Marwa.
The primary 88 individuals on the checklist have been all from the prolonged al-Astal household. The subsequent 72 have been Hassounas. The subsequent 65 al-Najjars. The subsequent 60 al-Masrys. The subsequent 49 al-Kurds.
Such numbers seize the magnitude of Gaza’s loss like little else: household timber dismembered, complete branches of them obliterated.
It has been nearly two months for the reason that checklist was launched on Oct. 26, and the loss of life toll given by Gaza’s Well being Ministry has almost tripled, approaching 20,000.
A ministry spokesman, Ashraf al-Qudra, stated early final month that greater than 100 individuals within the Astal household alone had been killed in Israeli assaults. Of 88 relations on the Oct. 26 checklist, 39 have been recognized as youngsters and 25 as ladies.
Israel’s warfare in Gaza is killing ladies and kids at a faster pace than in nearly another battle on the planet this century.
A couple of of the household’s useless have been linked to Hamas, the armed Palestinian group that has dominated Gaza for 16 years and that led the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel that killed about 1,200 individuals, in keeping with Israeli officers.
One member of the family, Hamdan al-Astal, seems to have been amongst those that attacked Israel. He was not on the Oct. 26 checklist, however Palestinian information media in Gaza reported his loss of life the day after the assault, saying he had participated.
One other member of the family who survived, Yunis al-Astal, is a longtime Hamas lawmaker and firebrand sheikh who has in contrast Jews to micro organism and apes and stated it was justifiable to “wipe them out of existence.”
Ten days after Hamdan al-Astal’s loss of life was reported, relations buried Ramzi al-Astal, additionally recognized in Palestinian information media as a Hamas fighter.
Kin and native information media stated he was killed when an Israeli airstrike leveled his dwelling, alongside together with his spouse and sons Muhammad, 17, and Karim, 11. One among Ramzi’s brothers and at the least 5 nieces and nephews, the youngest 9, have been on the checklist.
They have been simply a few of the 1000’s of civilians who’ve grow to be casualties of Israel’s campaign to eradicate Hamas, relations stated.
“If you want to assassinate him, assassinate him alone,” stated Sami al-Astal, a distant relation, referring to Ramzi al-Astal. “If you want to assassinate him, why did you do it with his children and his family while they were at home?”
Sami al-Astal, a humanities dean at Al Aqsa College in Khan Younis, the southern Gaza metropolis the place a lot of his prolonged household lives, stated some relations supported Hamas, whereas others supported different Palestinian political factions, or none in any respect. Some have been plumbers or medical doctors — extraordinary residents.
He was for peace, he stated, and opposed killing any civilians.
Israel has moved with staggering power in its drive to wipe out Hamas, placing greater than 22,000 targets in Gaza since Oct. 7, in keeping with the navy.
An estimated 20,000 to 40,000 Hamas fighters reside in Gaza, an impoverished, slim strip of land dwelling to greater than two million Palestinians.
Civilians have nearly no safe places to cover or methods to flee. The density of Gaza, the place prolonged households usually reside collectively in multistory buildings and have crowded in much more for shelter through the warfare, turbocharges the potential civilian toll of many airstrikes. It additionally makes it tough to separate combatants from civilians, and Israel accuses Hamas of deliberately inserting members in or close to hospitals, colleges and houses.
Hamas is “unlawfully embedding their military assets in densely populated civilian areas, showing blatant disregard for the civilians in Gaza by using them as human shields,” stated Nir Dinar, an Israeli navy spokesman.
However human rights advocates, many governments and a rising number of experts say that Israel could also be violating worldwide legal guidelines in opposition to placing civilians at “excessive” threat, legal guidelines that require it to do its utmost to guard noncombatants by, for instance, giving warnings or ready till a goal leaves dwelling to strike.
Israel’s closest ally can be asking it to do extra to guard civilians.
“The United States is unequivocal: International humanitarian law must be respected,” Vice President Kamala Harris said this month. “Too many innocent Palestinians have been killed.”
Even when Hamas makes use of civilians as human shields, these civilians are entitled to full safety below worldwide regulation except they straight take part within the combating, stated Janina Dill, an Oxford professor who research the legal guidelines of warfare. Potential warfare crimes by Hamas can’t justify potential war crimes by Israel, she added.
“There’s no guilt by association in international law,” she stated. “Even if a family is sympathetic to Hamas, voted for them, made supportive statements — none of them is a legitimate target at any time.”
Amid a rising worldwide outcry over casualties, Israel has insisted that it’s taking “all feasible measures” to guard civilians, primarily by telling them to evacuate areas with the heaviest combating. Gazans, nevertheless, say the locations they flee to are also being struck.
An Israeli navy authorized adviser, talking on the situation of anonymity below navy guidelines, argued that Israel was not violating worldwide regulation. When contemplating any particular person strike, he stated, elements together with Hamas’s proximity to Israel, its menace of rocket assaults on Israeli civilians and its massive weapons stockpile might have an effect on the brink for what is taken into account proportionate hurt to civilians.
But, Professor Dill stated, the dimensions of Israel’s onslaught, together with feedback by Israeli leaders that they’re extra focused on damage than accuracy, solid doubt on the declare that they’re performing legally. Israel is deploying highly effective unguided bombs in dense areas and focusing on each sort of constructing usually thought-about a civilian constructing, and subsequently legally protected usually, she stated.
Sheer likelihood dictated that the warfare would plow straight into the Astal clan. One of many largest and most influential households in southern Gaza, the Astals quantity within the 1000’s, stated Sami al-Astal, who moonlights as a household historian.
Al-Astals have labored as mayors, farmers, medical doctors and fruit exporters. Others have been waiters and development employees in Israel or distinguished themselves as medical researchers overseas, he stated.
Strikes are battering Gaza so quick that Islam al-Astal, 47, who’s distantly associated to Nasser and Sami, stated she barely had time to depend the relations, outdated classmates, mates and neighbors who’ve been killed, not to mention mourn them.
“We need time,” she stated, “time to breathe, to cry, to feel the normal things in the middle of all this ugliness.”
On Oct. 9, native information media in Gaza reported that an Israeli airstrike on a home belonging to 1 department of the Astals killed at the least 10 individuals. Two days later, the Palestinian Heart for Human Rights stated Israel had hit one other al-Astal dwelling.
At the least 4 extra strikes have chopped into the household tree since then, in keeping with Palestinian information company stories. In all, the household has been struck at the least eight instances over the previous two months, in keeping with relations and people information stories.
The Israeli navy stated it couldn’t tackle questions on particular strikes on the Astals.
Nasser al-Astal, whose spouse, some youngsters, a grandchild in addition to his older brother and his brother’s household have been killed in a single evening on Oct. 22, stated he was working as a safety guard at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis round 3 a.m. when he obtained the decision.
A relative informed him that an Israeli airstrike had crushed the three-story home that he and his household shared together with his brother’s household. They have been coming to the hospital, alive and useless.
He stated he ran to the emergency room in naked ft, he stated. His colleagues tried to calm him as he rushed from one daughter to the following, daughters who had spent latest nights curled up subsequent to him as they slept.
“When will they help us?” his eldest daughter, Hafsa, 24, gasped earlier than she died, he stated.
Hours later, after neighbors pulled them from the rubble, extra our bodies of relations arrived. By 3 p.m., Mr. al-Astal stated, he had lowered all of them into the household cemetery.
Earlier than the warfare, there have been greater than 100 empty plots there, Sami al-Astal stated. Now, they have been all full. Mr. al-Astal stated he buried the ladies in a single mass grave, the boys in one other.
The reminiscences have been tumbling by his thoughts and he couldn’t cease speaking, about his daughters and granddaughter and about Marwa, his spouse of almost 30 years. He had fallen in love together with her when he was 15 and he or she was 13 and lived down the road, he stated.
She had at all times identified tips on how to survive Gaza’s many trials, turning into knowledgeable in economizing when cash was tight and their sons’ college payments have been due. She would cut up their one Friday rooster between 10 individuals. When it turned too tough to purchase bread, she made flatbread.
“She’s the kind of woman who makes you laugh and smile. She was so kind to me, so affectionate to me,” he stated, recalling how she had nursed sick neighbors. “I loved her in good times and in bad times. I can’t imagine that I’ll ever marry another woman.”
The hospital the place he labored was a bedlam of screaming sufferers, bone-tired employees and newly homeless individuals, however directors discovered a small room for him. Although many there have been weeping, they appeared to acknowledge that he, particularly, wanted someplace personal to cry.
On the Oct. 26 checklist, Nasser and Marwa’s oldest son, Hamza, 26, was No. 36. Their second son, Muhammad, 22, was on it, as have been their daughters — Hafsa, 24, Sarah, 19, Fatima, 15, and Weam, 11.
His older brother Muhammad al-Astal and his household, alongside together with his 3-year-old grandson, have been listed, too. His 4-year-old grandson died of his wounds a number of days after the checklist was revealed.
Nasser al-Astal nonetheless had his son Suleiman, 16, and his daughter Shaima, 13, who have been wounded. He stated he hoped Shaima would grow to be a nurse to deal with these injured in warfare with Israel.
And Suleiman?
“I’ll send my son to university to become a journalist,” he stated, “so he can expose the crimes of the Israeli occupation.”
Isabel Kershner contributed reporting from Jerusalem.
