Interview
War in Gaza: “What we know about the atrocities, crimes and carnage is very limited”
While on the ground, the humanitarian catastrophe feared for several months is unfolding, NGOs continue to denounce the gap between the positions of the international community and the reality on the ground.
Interview with Ayed Abu Eqtaish, advocacy director of the Palestinian organization Defense for Children International-Palestine, visiting Paris to try to testify about what is happening there.
Palestinian girl Jamila Khelah, who survived an airstrike that injured her and killed three of her siblings, looks at the school where she is sheltering in Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip, on July 7 March 2024. © Mahmoud Issa / Reuters
By: Oriane Verdier Follow
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RFI: Your NGO specializes in defending the human rights of children. How has your work changed since October 7?
Ayed Abu Eqtaish:
Since October 7, violations of the rights of Palestinian children have increased.
So far, approximately 13,000 Palestinian children have been killed as part of the ongoing Israeli assault on the Palestinian people and the
Gaza
Strip .
Children are the first victims of this aggression.
The situation is even more serious today, as children who survived airstrikes and tank fire are now suffering from starvation.
Israel, the occupying power, is preventing
the flow of humanitarian aid
into the Gaza Strip, and this is genocide.
The situation therefore existed before October 7.
The Gaza Strip has been completely blockaded by Israel for more than 17 years, which has prevented Palestinian children from enjoying their rights, whether their right to life or their right to education, health, basic living conditions... Between 2000 and October 2023, we have documented the assassination of more than 2,300 Palestinian children in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
The majority of these children were killed in Gaza, following Israel's repeated military attacks.
This is an integral part of the Israeli military strategy aimed at exerting pressure on civilian populations.
But this time, Israel has intensified the pressure on civilians by starving them, preventing the flow of food, water and medicine, targeting medical institutions and medical personnel, as well as defense teams. civil.
Human rights are being seriously violated as a result of this continued aggression against Gaza.
You work to document the abuse and torture of children. Is it possible to have evidence of what has been happening in Gaza since the beginning of the year?
Usually, we document the mistreatment and torture of Palestinian children in the West Bank.
Every year, Israel arrests and prosecutes around 700 Palestinian children, under the Israeli military justice system.
But during this military assault, many children from Gaza were arrested by Israeli authorities.
And today, no one knows where they are, how they are treated, where they are incarcerated.
The only information we have concerns ten Palestinian children, incarcerated in prisons under the responsibility of the Israeli prison administration.
But the number of children arrested by Israel could be much higher.
They could be placed in prisons under the authority of the Israeli army.
And in this case, we have no information.
Every time we ask for information, the Israeli authorities refuse to reveal anything to us.
An Israeli organization filed requests with the Israeli Supreme Court to learn about the situation of Palestinians arrested in the Gaza Strip, but received no information.
We classify these detentions of children from Gaza as enforced disappearances, because no information has been revealed about their situation.
Also readDiscussions on a truce in Gaza: the Hamas delegation leaves Cairo
International observers do not have access to Gaza, as a Palestinian organization, are you able to extract more information from the enclave?
Even for Palestinian organizations, it is very difficult to obtain information about what is happening in Gaza.
Israel prevents people from entering, but it also prevents people from moving freely within Gaza.
Even our staff in Gaza are not able to obtain information because moving around is too dangerous.
Even
aid workers
risk being caught under Israeli fire.
Some were killed.
What we know about the atrocities, crimes and carnage taking place in Gaza is therefore very limited compared to the current situation.
Your organization is considered terrorist by the Israeli authorities. Do you know why
?
What are the consequences for your work
?
Israel wants to silence all
human rights organizations
and all organizations that denounce their crimes against the Palestinian people.
Our organization, the DCI-P, for example, was attacked by the Israeli authorities before being designated as a terrorist organization.
The main goal is to discredit us.
But also to reduce the organization's funding sources in order to prevent us from doing our job, which is to show the world how Israel is committing crimes against the Palestinian people, including children.
By designating the organization as a terrorist organization, they affected our ability to work, because we did not have the means to do so.
We don't know what the future holds.
Israel can confiscate our property.
Israeli authorities can also arrest colleagues.
Part of our efforts are therefore devoted to protecting ourselves, as an organization, at the expense of highlighting Israeli crimes against Palestinian children.
Many Western countries, including France, refute this characterization. Does this protect you
?
I think that the support of the international community for human rights organizations and civil society organizations is very important.
Many countries considered this decision to be arbitrary.
But after October 7, some countries began to consider continuing their financial support to Palestinian organizations.
Human rights organizations in Palestine consider what is happening
a genocide
.
While many countries consider that Israel has the right to defend itself.
There is therefore a very big gap between the position of Palestinian organizations and that of many countries which used to provide them with financial support.
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