APF Community Contact us
News : Article

Palestine: ICHR monitoring civilian casualties in Gaza

Graphic: Doctor treating young boy

Palestine’s Independent Commission for Human Right regularly reports on civilian casualties since the start of the conflict in the Gaza Strip.


As part of its responsibilities as a national human rights institution to monitor human rights violations in times of conflict, Palestine's Independent Commission for Human Rights has published regular reports of civilian casualties following the start of the conflict in the Gaza Strip on 8 July 2014.

The reports, available on the ICHR's website, monitor the number and type of military strikes on the Gaza Strip, and attempt to document civilian casualties, the displacement of civilians and the destruction or partial destruction of civilian infrastructure, such as hospitals.

The ICHR reports that the humanitarian situation in Gaza has worsened since the start of the ground-based military operations, with an estimated 135,000 people leaving their homes to seek shelter in UNRWA facilities or with relatives.

It is the largest internal displacement since 1967, the ICHR stated in its report of 19 July 2014

In an earlier statement, the ICHR condemned the violence and noted that the principles of international humanitarian law "do not justify the use of excessive force against civilians under any circumstances even under the pretext of targeting armed resistance".

It has also called for the protection of Palestinian journalists in the Gaza Strip.

On 20 July 2014, the ICHR reported that Israeli military forces entered the Shuja'iya Neighbourhood in the Gaza Strip and "indiscriminately and disproportionately opened fire, resulting in hundreds of casualties".

It stated that these attacks on civilians were in clear violation of international humanitarian and human rights law and constituted war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Date: 21 July 2014


Image credits

  1. Doctor treating young boy - Oxfam International, Flickr Creative Commons