“What is significant in this war compared to previous experience are the heavy attacks on families,” said Hamdi Shaqqura, the deputy director of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights.

“You have dozens of families smashed. Sometimes no single family member is left. There are hundreds of cases and everyone is very significant,” he said.

Mahmoud Abu Rahma, a director at Al-Mezan human rights group, also stressed that direct attacks on buildings are regarded as serious breaches of international law and “may amount to war crimes.”

The rights body also said that at least 871 cases of houses having been damaged or destroyed have been recorded during Israel’s recent aggression against Gaza, resulting in the death of 908 people.

In one case, Israeli forces arrested seven male members of a family and took them to a facility at Erez border crossing on July 17. They were then freed without any charge after three days, but they could not return home due to Israel’s fierce attacks. That left eight other members of the Wahdan family in their house. The night before a ceasefire being announced, Israeli troops ordered the eight to stay at home during the truce period.

“I talked to them on the phone at nine o’clock in the evening and the Israelis had left the area 10 minutes before and told them not to move, to stay in the house,” said Amin Zaki Wahdan, one of the family member arrested by Israeli forces.

The house, however, was attacked and completely destroyed during the ceasefire.

The Israeli military aggression has taken the lives of more than 2,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians, and wounded over 10,200 others in Gaza since July 8.

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