Nowhere Is Safe in Gaza. We Need a Ceasefire | Opinion

What would you do if your house, full of your sleeping family, was bombed in the middle of the night? That's exactly what happened on the night of December 19 to Omar Zu'rub. An Israeli military strike hit his two-story house in Rafah, Gaza, killing 22 civilians, including 11 children.

All those sleeping on the first floor of the completely destroyed house were killed: Omar himself, age 75, his wife Rowaida, 70, and their son Mahmoud, 36. Mahmoud's wife, Mervat, 35, was also killed along with the couple's four children: Farah, 16; Omar, 14; Mohammed, 13; and Dima, 1. Omar's other son Mamdouh, a 39-year-old civil servant, was staying with his family on the top floor. He was killed alongside his daughter Roua, who had just turned 16.

In an adjacent house owned by journalist Adel Zu'rub, more than 70 people who had fled from other parts of Gaza were sheltering. The strike killed Adel and nine members of another family.

Mohamed Zu'rub, who survived, said, "sometimes I still cannot figure out if this was real or a nightmare. My nephew has a daughter, who is not yet three weeks, his other son is not yet two years old.... Can you imagine these children's bodies being crushed under the rubble?"

Amnesty International did not find any indication that the residential buildings hit could be considered legitimate military objectives or that people in the buildings were military targets. Even if Israeli forces had intended to target legitimate military objectives in the vicinity, these attacks evidently failed to distinguish between military objectives and civilian objects. Direct or indiscriminate attacks on civilians and civilian objects are war crimes.

This strike is just a snapshot of the mass civilian suffering that has been inflicted across the occupied Gaza Strip by the Israeli military since the attacks by Hamas and other armed groups, which included war crimes, on October 7. Rafah, a city in the southernmost part of Gaza, is supposedly the "safest" area, yet many civilians there are still being killed in unlawful attacks.

Worse yet, Israeli forces are gearing up for a ground operation in the area, which will have devastating consequences for the million-plus people crammed into just 24 square miles following successive waves of mass displacement from other parts of Gaza.

In their stated intent to use all means to destroy Hamas, Israeli forces have shown a consistent disregard for civilian lives. They have pulverized street after street of residential buildings, killing civilians on a mass scale and destroying essential infrastructure. We have witnessed and documented serious violations of international humanitarian law, including war crimes, by all parties—and they are continuing unabated. Palestinians remain at risk of genocide in Gaza.

Despite claims to the contrary, Israeli forces have not shifted their conduct in the phase of the conflict following the November pause in hostilities. On January 9, just before 11:00pm, an Israeli strike hit the two top floors of the Nofal family's five-story building located in Tal Al-Sultan, a neighborhood to which the Israeli military had repeatedly ordered displaced residents to flee. The attack killed 18 civilians, including 10 children, and wounded at least eight others.

Nidal Nofal, a nurse who lives on the ground floor of the building, told Amnesty International that relatives from Khan Younis had been staying with them since the Israeli military issued instructions to leave for Rafah:

The map [Israeli forces] sent specifically mentioned Tal Al-Sultan as one of the safe neighborhoods. Minutes before 11pm, my son shouted that he had heard a strike.... Once I opened the door and looked outside, I saw shards of glass flying all over the place.

Amnesty International's weapons experts examined photos of fragments recovered from the rubble. They identified the weapon that struck the house as a GBU-39 Small Diameter Bomb, which explains the specific damage to the top floors. A GBU-39 is a precision-guided weapon with a smaller warhead made in the U.S. by Boeing. Not only are war crimes happening on our watch—they are happening with weapons made in the U.S. and provided by the U.S. government.

Both President Joe Biden and Secretary Antony Blinken have said they care about protecting civilians, but after more than 29,000 people killed—including 12,000 children—and some 60,000 injured, it is clear that the Israeli government isn't listening. It is past time for Washington to back up its words with action and take the necessary steps to ensure U.S. military funding is not being used to commit violations of international law.

At this very moment, President Biden and some members of Congress are ready to greenlight billions of dollars in military and security funding to the government of Israel. This is unthinkable, immoral, and unlawful at a moment when there's serious and credible concern about atrocities, including further war crimes and the risk of genocide. Worse yet, it sends a chilling message of impunity to Israeli authorities.

Enough is enough. The U.S. government must immediately stop sending weapons to Israel or risk complicity. President Biden must demand a ceasefire urgently to protect civilians, ensure sufficient humanitarian assistance, and secure the safe release of remaining hostages.

Paul O'Brien is the executive director of Amnesty International USA.

The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.