Evidence to sue Israel for war crimes being gathered

Dubai: Evidence to sue Israel for war crimes during its latest war on the Gaza Strip is being gathered said a member of the Crisis Cell for Gaza at the Palestinian President's office.

Sabri Saydam, speaking at a seminar on the Reconstruction of Gaza exploring the humanitarian aspects in Dubai recently, said 300 legal suits against Israel have been made and this number could go up to 500 claims.

“This is the biggest holocaust after Rwanda and World War two,'' he said. Saydam added that Israel has to be pressed into paying compensation for crimes going back to 1948. Around 700 photographs have also been gathered and another 300 are to be added to a collection created as evidence to sue Israel in the future, he said.

Reconstruction could take three to four years but a mechanism of reconstruction has not yet been outlined, he said. At the moment a single fibreglass cable remains as the sole link for Palestinians to the outside world. “Eighty per cent of the communications works is completely destroyed,'' he said.

Saydam added the Gaza Strip has been under severe psychological warfare. “The general feeling is that they [Israel] are not targeting a specific organisation but the overall dream to have a state,'' he said.

Gaza has sustained economic losses of USD1.9 billion, it was reported by Unicef.

The speakers at the session stressed the need for unity among the different factions within the Palestinian leadership, particularly Hamas and Fatah for any meaningful reconstruction effort to be viable and effective.

“We have to start with reconciliation, reconstruction and an effort to be unified… the state of dispute has dwarfed us,'' he said.

According to the BBC, Israel's land, air and sea assault over the last three weeks has killed about 1,300 Palestinians, including 400 children. Thirteen Israelis died.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) states that at the peak of the crisis it provided refuge for 50,896 people in 50 shelters. Amnesty International earlier said one of the worst-affected places by white phosphorus was the UNRWA compound in Gaza City.

As speaker of the panel, Sami Mushaashi, media and communications director for UNRWA highlighted that this was not the first time UNRWA has been targeted by Israel.

“Words and pictures cannot describe what is happening… there was a clear message to the UN – distribute flour and food but don't establish any infrastructure,'' he said.

Mushaashi said 1.2 million people of the 1.5 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip were receiving humanitarian aid.

“We are obsessed with differing (arguing?) amongst ourselves… Security for Palestinians should be made available, with or without unity, but security is a must,'' said Mushasshi. He added that a budget of USD 345 million to provide humanitarian aid to 1.2 million people was available. “With the schools destroyed, this budget could create jobs if Israel allows materials to come inside,'' he said.

Dr Ayman Abu Laban, Unicef representative for the Gulf Countries said children had to be made aware not to touch bombs that were used but did not go off. A lot of the children will need psychological help.

In school thousands of children have failed their subjects and the daily humiliation and seeing Palestinians fight with each other will have a heavy impact on them, he said. “Relief and reconstruction are challenges ahead, but some kids are in dire need of treatment for psychological abuse.''