In a harrowing incident that underscores the brutal cost of defiance under occupation, a young Palestinian civilian was killed in the Gaza Strip for refusing to collaborate with Israeli intelligence. Mohammed Iyad Tabasi, 24, worked as a janitor at a field hospital in Al-Zawayda. On Tuesday morning, as he stepped out of his displacement tent to take a phone call, an Israeli drone struck. Witnesses say the missile tore his body apart.

For weeks, Tabasi had reportedly received phone calls from Israeli intelligence attempting to recruit him. They offered money, marriage assistance, and promises of an easier life — all tied to the condition that he inform on those around him. He repeatedly declined. According to relatives, the final call came just minutes before he was targeted and killed.

Human rights organisations, including the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, have condemned the killing as an extrajudicial execution, highlighting that Tabasi held no military role and posed no threat. His only 'crime' was refusing to betray his community. His family, already displaced and struggling, now mourns a son whose dignity cost him his life.

This tragedy is not isolated. Rights groups have documented a pattern in which Palestinians who refuse to cooperate with Israeli intelligence face not only coercion and psychological manipulation, but also retaliatory violence. Released detainees recount threats against their families and fake images of loved ones under attack — all tools to force collaboration under duress.

Targeting civilians for non-cooperation represents a grave breach of international humanitarian law. Yet for many Palestinians, this law feels distant. What they live is the reality of an ongoing campaign that erodes their communities from within, turning survival into resistance — and resistance into a reason to die.