Press News… Launching the Third Phase of the Joint Mission for Documenting Testimonies of the Wounded Victims of the Israeli Aggression
Arish, February 17, 2025
Press News
Launching the Third Phase of the Joint Mission for Documenting Testimonies of the Wounded Victims of the Israeli Aggression
The team of investigators of the Joint Mission for Documenting Testimonies of the Wounded Victims of the Israeli Aggression in Gaza strip has arrived in the city of Arish, in North Sinai Governorate, where the mission resumes its activities in the third phase. This phase includes documenting the testimonies of the wounded victims of the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip who are receiving medical care in the hospitals of the Arab Republic of Egypt, alongside examining issues related to the Israeli occupation authorities’ obstruction of humanitarian aid flow to the victims in Gaza.
The third phase of the mission’s activities comes in conjunction with the continued arrival of the Palestinian wounded and patients from the Gaza Strip to Egyptian territory to receive appropriate medical care for their critically deteriorating health conditions, especially after the Israeli aggression deliberately health care infrastructure in the Strip. This phase follows what the mission has previously documented in its first and second phases concerning the Israeli occupation’s obstruction of aid access, including the rejection of many shipments classified as “life-saving aid,” which confirms the occupation’s intent to cause slow mass killing of the Gaza’s population as part of the ongoing crime of Genocide committed in the Strip.
The investigative team that arrived in North Sinai includes Alaa Shalaby, President of the AOHR,
Issam Younis, Director of Al Mezan Center,
Diaa Al-Shammari, Head of the Organization’s Central Europe Branch,
Yamen Al-Madhoun, Senior Researcher at Al Mezan Center,
Mohamed Radi, Executive Director of the Organization,
Omar Al-Masalmeh, Secretary-General of the Organization’s Northern Europe Branch,
Eslam Abu Al-Enien, Director of Programs at the AOHR, and
Ahmed Reda Talba, Director of the Legal Unit at the AOHR and the Rapporteur of the Investigative Team.
The mission is also expected to conduct further visits to tge Palestinian wounded and patients in hospitals where they are receiving treatment in several other Egyptian governorates. In the previous two phases, the mission conducted 24 hospital visits in 11 Egyptian governorates, out of 111 hospitals in 23 governorates.
The Joint Mission consists of field investigation experts from the Arab Organization for Human Rights (AOHR) and Al Mezan Center for Human Rights in Occupied Palestine. The mission began its activities in the first phase approximately a year ago, in February 2024, and announced its findings in a press conference in Cairo in early April 2024, in parallel with a submitting its documenation and findings to the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), which included a comprehensive victims’ testimonies and statements, as well as conclusions supporting multiple patterns of war crimes and crimes against humanity, also falling within the framework of the crime of Genocide through deliberate intent and systematic planning.
The mission’s activities were relatively affected after the Israeli occupation forces seized the Palestinian side of the border with Egypt on May 6, 2024. However, the mission proceeded with a second phase from late May 2024 until early July 2025, updating a comprehensive report on both phases and submitting a complete case file by hand to the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague in late September 2024. Additionally, the mission engaged in discussions with the ICC’s investigative team on Palestine, addressing certain complexities hindering the investigation process and identifying legal mechanisms to overcome such obstacles.
The Mission’s two partner institutions extends their gratitude to the Egyptian authorities for their approval and for the facilitation provided to enable the mission to carry out its mandate.
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