Videos show Israeli soldiers executing Gaza civilians in Rafah 'safe zone'

Footage has emerged of Israeli soldiers apparently executing Palestinians in an area of Gaza declared a “safe zone” for civilians by the Israeli military.

Three videos broadcast by Al-Jazeera English on Wednesday showed Palestinian civilians being shot dead by Israeli forces on Al-Rashid Street, the coastal road connecting the north and south of the Gaza Strip.

The street was previously the site of an Israeli massacre which killed over 100 desperate Palestinians trying to collect aid last March.

In one video, reportedly taken on 1 June, a Palestinian is shown walking along the beach. He is then stopped by Israeli soldiers and shot dead.

Another video, dated 17 May, showed Palestinian civilians walking north along the beach road. One person can be seen moving away from the group to show that they were unarmed but was shot dead. Al-Jazeera also broadcast footage of Israeli soldiers seizing the executed man's body.

A third video, dated 31 May, showed a civilian standing with their hands raised shortly before being shot dead by Israeli forces. A second person is killed in the same way later in the day.

Al-Jazeera declined to show the moment of death for all the executed people, due to its disturbing nature.

Anthony Loewenstein, a journalist and author of The Palestine Laboratory, told Al-Jazeera that the footage had displayed the "complete criminality and unaccountability" of Israeli forces in Gaza.

This is not the first time Israeli soldiers have been accused of executing unarmed civilians in the Gaza Strip.

Last December Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor said that Israeli soldiers had executed dozens of elderly Palestinian civilians in “direct shooting operations”, and there have been numerous other reports of “field executions” of Palestinian civilians by Israeli forces.

Israel’s indiscriminate war on Gaza has killed at least 37,202 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured nearly 85,000.

The coastal Palestinian territory has been completely devastated by Israel’s assault, with residential areas, schools, hospitals, and other civilian facilities deliberately targeted and destroyed.