1,358 Palestinian human rights defenders may have been killed over the last 10 months
Photo: Journalists holding placards protest the killing of journalist Mohamed Abu Saadeh in an Israeli attack on August 7, 2024. Photo by Doaa Albaz/Anadolu Agency.
Front Line Defenders has noted: “People considered to be human rights defenders in the OPT [Occupied Palestinian Territory] include journalists, lawyers, medical workers, fieldworkers, international volunteers who act as independent observers and carry out human rights work and defenders working for economic, social and cultural rights.”
The Guardian now reports that the civilians who have been killed over the past ten months include 168 journalists, 855 medical staff and 79 paramedics.
The European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights has previously noted that two lawyers – Dana Yaghi and Nour Naser Abu Al-Nour – from the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights were killed in Israeli airstrikes in February.
The New Republic has also reported: “On April 1, the Israeli military repeatedly struck a humanitarian relief convoy from World Central Kitchen … killing seven foreign aid workers [including Canadian Jacob Flickinger].”
And Human Rights Watch has noted: “As of April 30, the UN reported that 254 aid workers had been killed in Gaza since October 7, 2023, with UNRWA personnel accounting for 188 of these fatalities. On May 13, a UN vehicle was hit on the way to a hospital in Gaza, killing at least one UN staff member and injuring at least one more.”
Using the Front Line Defenders definition of a human rights defender, this would suggest that 1,358 human rights defenders have been killed (168 journalists, 855 medical staff, 79 paramedics, 2 lawyers, 254 aid workers).
Front Line Defenders has commented: “The impact on HRDs, as on the population at large, has been devastating. Those defending the right to health and the right to life as doctors, nurses, or ambulance workers, those exposing and documenting war crimes as journalists, and those providing humanitarian support as volunteers or employees of aid agencies were all specifically targeted by Israeli bombs or guns.”
Administrative detention of human rights defenders
The United Nations Special Rapporteur for human rights defenders Mary Lawlor has also recently highlighted the concern about the arbitrary detention of Palestinian human rights authorities by Israeli authorities.
Lawlor says: “I call on the Israeli authorities to respect fair trial conditions, or immediately release the remaining two human rights defenders, as well as the dozens of other human rights defenders detained on account of their peaceful activities.”
40,000+ Palestinians killed
This week, The Guardian also reported: “Ten months into Israel’s war on Gaza, the death toll has passed 40,000, according to health authorities there. …’This number, 40,000, includes only bodies that were received and buried,’ said Dr Marwan al-Hams, the director of field hospitals at the Palestinian ministry of health. …About 10,000 airstrike victims were thought to remain entombed in collapsed buildings, Hams said, because there was little heavy equipment or fuel to dig through steel and concrete ruins looking for them.”
That article adds: “Most are considered civilians because of their age or gender, with 10,627 children, 5,956 women and 2,770 elderly people.”
92,000 Palestinians wounded
On August 16, Reuters also reported: “Seven-year-old Sila Houso’s mother will not let the girl see her own shrapnel wounds after an Israeli strike that disfigured her head, fractured her forehead and detached a retina. When Sila asks her mother about her health, Um Sila tells the child she is beautiful. She is one of more than 92,000 Palestinians whom Gaza health authorities say have been wounded in the more than 10-month Israeli offensive.”
Image of Sila Housa.
186,000 Palestinians could die
On July 5, The Lancet highlighted: “Even if the conflict ends immediately, there will continue to be many indirect deaths in the coming months and years from causes such as reproductive, communicable, and non-communicable diseases. …It is not implausible to estimate that up to 186 000 or even more deaths could be attributable to the current conflict in Gaza.”
Peace Brigades International
Numerous organizations, defenders and communities accompanied by Peace Brigades International – including Credhos, Copinh, dhColombia, Nomadesc, Maya Q’eqchi’ journalist Carlos Ernesto Choc and the Cerezo Committee – have expressed their concern about the situation in Palestine.
Photo: PBI-Colombia accompanied Credhos president Ivan Madero Vergel.
The PBI statement on Gaza can be read here.
PBI-Canada continues to call for a ceasefire, supports the demand for an arms embargo on Israel, and highlights the recent news report by The Maple that Quebec-based General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems Inc. has been approved by the US government to be the principal contractor in the “possible” sale of CAD $83 million in high explosive mortar cartridges and related equipment to Israel.
We are also working with the Canadian Friends Service Committee on a webinar that will take place on September 18, the six-month anniversary of the House of Commons resolution to “cease the further authorization and transfer of arms exports to Israel”. More details on this webinar coming soon.
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