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Killing of Palestinian human rights worker and family was ‘cold blooded murder’: FIDH

The killing of a Palestinian human rights worker and his family in an air strike was an act of “cold blooded murder” by Israel’s military, the head of the International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH) says.

Ihab Marwan Kamal Faisal, 33, his wife, Hanin Jamal Al-Dahdouh, 29, and their two children, Reem, 6, and Najma, 3, were killed while taking shelter in a house in the Remal neighbourhood of Gaza in the early hours of Thursday morning.

FIDH’s President Alice Mogwe said the organisation mourned the death of Faisal and his family, and extended condolences to all staff at the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), where he had worked.

“The cold blooded murder of Ihab, his wife Hanin and their little girls is a tragedy beyond words, we are all in mourning,” Mogwe said.

“Even with the ceasefire looming, this genocide is ongoing,” she said.

“Israeli forces feel entitled to commit such atrocities openly because they believe there will be no serious consequences,” she added.

“Like millions of Gazans … Ihab and Hanin were powerless, at the mercy of an army equipped by Western powers which denied them and their daughters even the right to life.”



Rights group calls on global community to ensure accountability for Gaza genocide

The Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor has called on the international community to take effective measures to ensure “accountability and justice for the crime of genocide in the Gaza Strip”.

In a press release, the rights group stressed the need for all countries to establish “clear and binding mechanisms to hold accountable those responsible for the crimes and serious violations” in Gaza.

Euro-Med also slammed the international community’s “appalling failure” to protect the people of Gaza for “more than 15 months of genocide”. It added that the ceasefire deal “cannot be the end of the road” and must begin an international path to “ensure that these crimes are not repeated”.


Hind Rajab Foundation head says pursue for justice does not end with ceasefire

We have spoken to Dyab Abou Jahjah, co-founder and president of the Hind Rajab Foundation (HRF), an organisation seeking to launch legal action against Israeli soldiers around the world over alleged war crimes in Gaza.

The interview below has slightly been edited for clarity and brevity.

Al Jazeera: Does the pursuit of justice change with a ceasefire deal for you?

Dyab Abou Jahjah
: Absolutely not, because crimes have been committed. Obviously, we are relieved that there is a ceasefire for the people in Gaza, that there will be a cessation of killing – however, the crimes have been committed and justice must be served.

So for us, nothing changes except that we will maybe have more possibilities to gather evidence now that there hopefully will be some form of end to the ongoing genocide in Gaza.

Al Jazeera: You’ve pursued legal action in Thailand, Italy, Argentina, Brazil – how much progress have those cases actually made?

Abou Jahjah:
We are at the very beginning of our legal action. The task is huge and the challenges are big.

However, we have already built a network of lawyers worldwide and also gathered and archived the evidence. Now it’s just a matter of proceeding against a huge amount of soldiers that we have in our database who committed war crimes in Gaza.

The cases that we have already filed in these countries have shown that there is a serious and methodical approach to try to achieve justice.
The reaction of the Israeli side has been to smuggle soldiers out of these countries.

I think the last case in Brazil especially showed that we are not trying to create some, let’s say, symbolic form of legal action but that we are proceeding with vigour and that we really think these cases will eventually lead to some form of justice in a court of law.

Al Jazeera: On a more personal level, the Israeli minister for diaspora affairs and combatting antisemitism wrote on his X page what’s been seen as a threat to kill you, saying “Watch your pager.” How is that affecting you personally and how your foundation operates?

Abou Jahjah
: When it comes to the impact on myself, obviously it has a lot of impact because we are taking these threats seriously – they are coming from a minister.

They are unfortunate, of course, because I think the best answer to legal action would be to hire good lawyers. Obviously, this is not the MO of this current Israeli government but, of course, it impacts my life, my family, as I’m living under draconian security measures.

But this is irrelevant for our work as a foundation. The HRF is bigger than any person, it is not dependent on me or anybody else.

The work continues, this does not affect our work in any way … Threats, intimidation will not change anything. If anything, they will give us even more motivation to continue.