Islamic Resistance Movement “Hamas”:We warn, in the Islamic Resistance Movement – Hamas, against attempts by the occupation government and its army to obliterate evidence of the barbaric crimes committed against our people in the Gaza Strip, through the removal, crushing, and transport of rubble, amid the presence of the bodies of thousands of missing persons and material evidence of the genocide crimes committed by the occupation over the course of two years.
Tampering with these sites and what they contain of bodies and evidence constitutes a violation of international law and of the International Court of Justice’s ruling calling for the preservation of evidence, as well as an assault on the dignity of the martyrs and on their families’ right to recover and bury the bodies of their children.
We commend the warning issued by the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese, that the occupation’s removal, crushing, and transport of the rubble could erase the traces of serious crimes committed in the Gaza Strip.
We call on the United Nations, the International Criminal Court, and the competent bodies to take urgent action to protect these sites, and to bring in investigation teams and international forensic experts to oversee the recovery of bodies and the documentation and preservation of evidence.
We affirm that expediting the removal of rubble and the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip is an urgent humanitarian and national necessity and an inherent right of our people, and that this must be carried out in a manner that ensures the recovery of the bodies of the missing and the preservation of evidence, and that prevents the occupation from exploiting these operations to obliterate the features of its crimes and evade accountability.
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