Call for an investigation into Gaza’s recent events

Press statement on the Special Rapporteur’s call for an investigation into Gaza’s recent events

Geneva- Mr. Michael Lynk’s call for an international investigation into Israel's killing of Palestinian demonstrators in the Gaza Strip is a first step to achieve justice for the dead, says the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, stressing the importance of this call by the UN’s Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territories occupied since 1967.

In a brief press statement, Euro-Med stressed the need to work on implementing the demands included in its most recent joint statement, which was signed by 30 international organizations.

The joint statement urged the international community to launch an urgent international investigation into the Palestinian deaths resulting from the use of excessive force by Israeli soldiers stationed at the border fence.

The joint statement also called for ensuring Israel’s guarantee of Palestinians’ right to peaceful protest, ending the collective punishment of Gaza’s population of two million, and, ultimately, ending its 50-year-long occupation of the Palestinian Territories.

The statement noted that the United Nations must play a more active role in ending Israel’s impunity in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, providing urgent protection to Palestinian demonstrators and ensuring the implementation of their right of return, which Israel has been impeding for 70 years now.

Mr. Lynk condemned Israel's excessive use of force against unarmed demonstrators along the Gaza fence, and its disregard for the right to freedom of expression and of assembly, calling on the Israeli government to stop the killing of protesters, expressing “grave fears this figure could rise sharply in coming days unless Israeli authorities uphold their obligations under International Human Rights Law and International Humanitarian Law.”

“Shocking killing of dozens, injury of hundreds by Israeli live fire in Gaza must stop now,” said the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid bin Ra’ad Zeid al-Hussein, in response to the latest wave of deliberate killing and maiming of Palestinian protesters. He also added that “the right to life must be respected. Those responsible for outrageous human rights violations must be held to account. The international community needs to ensure justice for victims.”

The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor held a press conference today at the Al-Shifa Medical Compound in the Gaza Strip, announcing a joint statement signed by 30 international and Arab organizations demanding respect for the rights of protesters and calling for an immediate investigation into Israel’s mass murder of Palestinians.

The undersigned organizations also called on the international community to effectively pressure Israel to end its blockade of the Gaza Strip, to end the ongoing occupation of the Palestinian Territories as they are the main reason for fueling the conflict and violence in the region, and further exacerbating the crisis.

They also urged Israel to allow the return of Palestinian refugees to their homes and to compensate those who do not wish to return, as stipulated in the General Assembly Resolution 194.

The undersigned organizations include the International Bar Association, the Geneva International Centre for Justice, the United Towns Agency for North-South Cooperation, Fundación Latinoaméricana por los Derechos Humanos y el Desarrollo (FUNDALATIN), Journalists for Human Rights, De-Colonizer in Israel, The Center for International Humanitarian Law - Libya, the Sam for Rights and Liberties - Geneva, the Iraqi War Crimes Documentation Center, and Sisterhood is Global Institute, Jordan.

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