HRW: «Israel» Blocking Rights Workers’ Access to Gaza

Local Editor

Human Rights Watch [HRW] said Monday that the apartheid "Israeli" entity is blocking rights activists' access to and from the Gaza Strip, hampering their work in the Palestinian enclave.

A new report from the rights group "documents how ‘Israel' systematically bars human rights workers from traveling into and out of Gaza, even where the ‘Israeli' security services make no security claims against them as individuals," it said in a statement.

HRW said it had only once since 2008 received permission from the "Israeli" entity for foreign staff to enter Gaza.

Gaza had been under an "Israeli" blockade for 10 years.

The Gaza Strip's sole crossing with Egypt had also remained largely closed in recent years.

"Neither Human Rights Watch nor Amnesty International has been able to get staff into Gaza via Egypt since 2012," HRW said.

The New York-based rights watchdog said access to the strip was important to look into allegations of abuses during the devastating 2014 war.

The International Criminal Court's [ICC] chief prosecutor has opened an initial probe into war crimes during the July-August 2014 conflict.

"If ‘Israel' wants the ICC prosecutor to take seriously its argument that its criminal investigations are adequate, a good first step would be to allow human rights researchers to bring relevant information to light," said HRW's Sari Bashi.

"Impeding the work of human rights groups raises questions not just about the willingness of ‘Israel's' military authorities to conduct genuine investigations, but also their ability to do so."

A spokeswoman for the "Israeli" war ministry unit that oversees permission to travel to Gaza said that "all requests were carefully studied".

"We coordinate regularly crossings of numerous human rights organizations," she added, naming such groups as Doctors without Borders.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team