The blockade that Israel imposes on Gaza not only stops humanitarian assistance to the population or access to the press from abroad. The closure also affects observers from different organizations, including the United Nations, which is making independent investigations on the ground into possible war crimes or human rights abuses difficult. The longest and deadliest war that the Strip has suffered, where more than 37,000 people have already died, represents a challenge for human rights organizations, both local and international, that try to gather first-hand information.
On June 19, the UN denounced possible crimes against humanity due to the use of heavy bombs in populated areas of Gaza, despite the fact that “Israel obstructed the investigations of the Commission (of investigation) and prevented its access to Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory. ”. The UN was trying to delve on the ground into the events that occurred since October 7, 2023, when the Islamist movement Hamas attacked Israel and the current conflict began, but in order to carry out its investigations it has relied on interviews with victims and witnesses carried out. remotely and during missions in Turkey and Egypt. Also with the use of open source sources and verifications through advanced forensic analysis, satellite images and forensic medical reports.
Human rights organizations such as Human Rights Watch (HRW) or Amnesty International (AI) confirm to Morning Express that the veto that Israel imposed on the access of its teams years before the current contest is maintained. That is why they have to develop their research supported by workers from their organizations who are inside.
The consequences of the wall erected by Israel in the main theater of the conflict are worrying, according to Bill Van Esveld, acting associate director for Israel and Palestine at HRW: “The risk is that international crimes and rights violations will not be reported, increasing the risk that these crimes will continue and harm even more people; exclude any hope of justice for victims and survivors; contribute to an incomplete image of the reality of the conflict in the media and for policy makers; and open the door to misinformation, misrepresentation and propaganda.” At the same time, Van Esveld adds, this Israeli blockade “also makes it difficult to investigate crimes or violations committed by Palestinian armed groups, of course.”
NGOs with personnel inside Gaza, with equipment often depleted and under bombs, seek to access the scenes of the events to carry out verifications, interview victims and witnesses, take photos and record videos or specify the location and then make confirmations via satelite. “We had years of experience from previous conflicts in working under pressure and violence, but this has surpassed everything,” explains by phone Yamen Al Madhoun, one of the field managers of the Palestinian NGO Al Mezan, which these days still has a twenty professionals on staff within the Strip. At 46 years old, Al Madhoun has spent 23 years dedicated to human rights in Gaza, although it has been just over a month since he escaped with his family and settled in Egypt.
“Israel has not complied with the provisional measures of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that require it to allow entry to independent investigators to evaluate the complaint of genocide” presented by South Africa, regrets in responses via email Van Esveld, of HRW. This humanitarian organization has had to hire people who are within the enclave. In some cases, he comments, they conduct interviews with Gazans who have managed to leave. “Our investigations must be carried out remotely, which is difficult and resource-intensive: to assess the legality of an attack, for example, we must first identify several eyewitnesses and then interview them remotely,” explains the person in charge. for Israel and Palestine from HRW.
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Two of the latest reports published by Al Mezan this June include the death of a six-month-old baby, a nine-year-old child and a 13-year-old adolescent due to malnutrition and problems in healthcare. In addition to publishing photos, the organization identifies and interviews the parents and provides the name and contact of the worker who carried out the mission on the ground.
“Remote work with Gaza is relatively easy,” clarifies, however, Donatella Rovera, a war crimes researcher at Amnesty International with extensive experience in the Strip, although she acknowledges that Israel has not allowed access to profiles like hers since 2012. “We have video, telephone, WhatsApp, everything we want. The only thing is that they don’t allow us to enter,” adds Rovera, contrasting the communications available in the Palestinian enclave with other conflicts that he has visited recently, such as Sudan, Chad or Tigray (Ethiopia), “much more difficult” to document.
Those 12 years without being able to access the Strip have led them to have a network of contacts and field workers who are the ones who now fulfill the mission on the ground. “I worked in Gaza for more than 10 years, I lived there. That’s why we have people we know very well working for us for 20 years although, for security reasons, their names do not appear. But they are the ones who do the primary work. For example, they go to the site of a bombing, take photos, videos, GPS coordinates and look for remains of ammunition among the rubble. They also contact people, although later I am the one who calls and does the interview,” Rovera details by phone.
In addition, for their reports they also follow Telegram or WhatsApp channels from both sides and verify data through unofficial open sources (OSINT, according to its acronym in English), something increasingly common in war information. The Amnesty International researcher acknowledges, however, that “everything is much slower not being able to be on the ground” and since October they have “published quite little” about the conflict.
Bombings in Yabalia
At noon on November 1, several Israeli bombs fell in a residential area of the Jabalia refugee camp, in the north of the Strip, killing dozens of people. An Israeli statement stated that it was an operation against Hamas, like the one they had carried out the day before in the same place. An investigation by Euro-Med Monitor has now concluded that at least 120 people died, most of them women and children, many belonging to the Abu Eida family. They have managed to identify 80, of which 30 were children and 30 women. There are still unidentified victims and human remains yet to appear, adds the report, to which Morning Express has had access.
“The investigation found no evidence of the presence of military objectives or armed elements in the area at the time of the attack,” the text states. Euro-Med Monitor adds that in recent months its team has visited the site on several occasions and has interviewed eight survivors and witnesses, whose identities and statements are recorded in the investigation. According to their testimonies, between six and eight bombs fell. The images captured of the damage, the help of satellites and the use of forensic architecture allowed them to calculate that the attack caused damage in an area of 4,500 square meters, left craters up to 10 meters in diameter and 2.5 meters deep and damaged a twenty buildings, homes and a daycare.
The work has been coordinated from Egypt by Ahmed Omar, a 36-year-old architect who, until the beginning of the war, had no experience in human rights. “We are always afraid for the safety of the team,” he explains through written messages.
Normally, the civilian population does not report the presence of armed individuals in the areas where Hamas attacks, according to Donatella Rovera’s experience. “They always tell you that nothing is happening, that there was nothing there,” she says. But even if there were elements of Hamas, international humanitarian law requires acting under the principles of distinction, proportionality and precaution. In essence, attacks where civilians and militiamen cannot be distinguished are illegal; where the proportion of civilians is greater, and, furthermore, they must be carried out at a time when the least damage can be caused to the population.
In many cases, the members of these NGOs themselves are victims of the conflict and try to survive and support their families by obtaining water, food or firewood while carrying out their tasks, adds Al Madhoun. They also face enormous difficulties in traveling without hardly any vehicles or facing the forced movement of the population by Israeli order. To cope with the expulsion by Israeli forces of its field employees to the southern part of the Strip, Al Mezan has collecting data on the ground in the Gaza City area, for example, from the head of a library or one of the positions of the organization.
Yamen El Madhoun will never forget the two occasions, in Rafah and Khan Younis, in which Israeli attacks caught him working on the ground, although he clarifies: “That is something that has happened to all of us in this war.” “Victims of serious human rights abuses have a recognized right to truth and reparation, which could be closed if no one is able to reach those people, investigate and help represent what happened,” fears Bill Van Esveld, of HRW.
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