Ref: 30/2021

Date: 27 May 2021

On Wednesday, 26 May 2021, lawyer Raji Sourani, Director of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), met with Andrea De Domenico, Deputy Head of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt); Noel Tsekouras, Head of OCHA Gaza sub-office; and Mr. Hamada al-Bayari, Humanitarian Affairs Analyst at OCHA – Gaza office..  The meeting was held at PCHR’s head office in Gaza City.

The meeting reviewed the human rights situation following the latest aggression conducted by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) on the Gaza Strip for 11 days that killed 253 Palestinians; mainly civilians and particularly children and women, and destroyed houses and residential buildings that housed hundreds of housing units as well as destroying the infrastructure.

The meeting also discussed the human rights in general and the catastrophic humanitarian conditions in the Gaza Strip due to the Israeli illegal closure ongoing for 14 years and the 3 destructive wars that killed thousands of civilians and destroyed their houses and properties in addition to the public facilities and infrastructure, resulting in utterly devastating impact on the economic conditions of the population. On top of all this, the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic has increased the economic burdens and worsened the humanitarian situation due to the shortage of medical supplies and capabilities and the closure. All of this combined with IOF’s latest destructive war has added fuel to the fire and aggravated the economic situation.

The meeting also addressed PCHR’s unremitting work in this period in terms of building legal files of the war crimes committed by the IOF in the latest offensive on the Gaza Strip and prosecuting the Israeli leaders in order to bring them before the International Criminal Court (ICC.)  PCHR document dozens of IOF’s crimes, including targeting civilians, in particular, killing entire families and destroying their homes over their heads without any prior warning, bombing residential high rise buildings, which housed hundreds of residential apartments, destroying commercial facilities to ruin the Palestinian economy, and destroying the infrastructure, including water, electricity and sanitation networks. 

The meeting also discussed PCHR’s use of UN mechanisms to expose the Israeli occupation’s crimes against the Palestinian civilians and their property in the oPt and pressurize Israel to comply with the International Covenants in order to cease these crimes.

The meeting also talked about the aspects of joint cooperation between PCHR and OCHA in the future by sustaining communication and holding meetings.