"Yesterday I talked to a mother of a child who was born and died in the war. Every day I look at my child, who instead of going to school is going to fetch water, and instead of playing football is hanging around in areas where corpses are lying. We are all on death row in Gaza now. These are some of the painful statements I hear during an online meeting with 10 Palestinian human rights defenders (HRDs) in Gaza."
"If there is to be accountability for the atrocities Israel has committed in Gaza over the last 22 months, it will stem from the work these human rights defenders are doing, despite the slaughter and catastrophic famine created by Israel and its allies, most prominently the US. They work and live in tents, like most people in Gaza. One defender and mother tells me she has been displaced five times, starting from zero each time."
"Interviews put a target on their backs. As one defender said: I appear regularly on TV, although it could be life-threatening. Even if I am not the target, the journalist or cameraman could be. At least 247 Palestinian journalists have been killed in Gaza since 7 October 2023, according to the UN's Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights."
Human rights defenders in Gaza collect testimonies and document atrocities while living amid displacement, deprivation and widespread death. Children are forced into survival tasks like fetching water and are exposed to corpses instead of attending school or playing. Defenders often live in tents, have been displaced repeatedly, and face constant risk of death. Their documentation supports UN appeals, international media reporting, and humanitarian agency work and underpins potential accountability for atrocities and famine. Interviews and visible documentation place defenders and journalists at elevated risk, and many journalists have been killed while reporting since October 2023.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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