Israel’s clearance of rubble in Gaza could destroy evidence of war crimes, warns the United Nations. States and companies removing the rubble “could incur international criminal responsibility” for destroying evidence of crimes committed during Israel’s genocidal war on the enclave, said the UN’s Special Rapporteur on the occupied territories, Francesca Albanese, on Monday. It has been two years since the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to take effective measures to prevent the destruction of evidence relating to allegations under the Genocide Convention. “It is unacceptable that the reconstruction of Gaza is conditioned upon the erasure of its past and the evidence required to secure justice for its victims”, said Albanese, a harsh critic of Israel. The Israeli military carried out a massive operation in August to crush, mix and transport millions of tonnes of rubble from numerous sites, including cemeteries and other known locations of human remains.
A report by the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor issued last month said that the removal of debris from Gaza could be an attempt at demographic engineering and erasing evidence of the genocide. Palestinian authorities estimate that more than 8,000 people remain buried under the debris, with many in Gaza still searching for the remains of loved ones. Israel continues to block the heavy machinery and forensic supplies needed to recover bodies. On Sunday, Palestinians in northern Gaza held funeral ceremonies for about 100 people, including 60 children, whose remains were recovered from the rubble of destroyed buildings in Gaza City.
The head of Gaza’s civil defence service, Raed al-Dahshan, told Al Jazeera that with proper equipment, recovering remains from under the rubble could be completed in about 90 days, but it could take years without it.
