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palestinian center for human rights
'Shameful Assault on Human Rights': Trump Sanctions Palestinian Orgs That Called for UN to Investigate Israeli War Crimes
The former executive director of Human Rights Watch said Trump's "answer to Israeli atrocities is to censor reporting on them rather than to stop them."
Sep 05, 2025
Human rights groups around the world are reacting with horror after the Trump administration sanctioned three leading Palestinian human rights monitors who sought to bring evidence of Israeli war crimes before the International Criminal Court (ICC).
The three groups—Al-Haq in the West Bank and the Gaza-based Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) and Al Mezan Center for Human Rights—are considered among the leading human rights monitors in the region.
In an announcement on Thursday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the sanctions were imposed on these groups because they "directly engaged in efforts by the international criminal court to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute Israeli nationals, without Israel's consent."
In November 2023, the three groups petitioned the ICC to issue arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other top Israeli officials—including President Isaac Herzog and then-Defense Minister Yoav Gallant—for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide.
They cited Israel's widely documented use of indiscriminate airstrikes against densely populated civilian areas and its near-total blockade of humanitarian aid entering the Gaza Strip—acts that, over the next nearly two years, have made Gaza virtually uninhabitable and brought it to the point of mass starvation.
The ICC would eventually issue warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant in November 2024, which was met with threats of sanctions by the administration of then-President Joe Biden, who called the warrants "outrageous." Despite Netanyahu and his officials having visited multiple ICC member countries, which are obliged to carry out the court's warrants, no arrests have been made.
Since retaking office, US President Donald Trump has followed through on threats against the ICC, placing sanctions on the court as a body and threatening to sanction anyone who assisted in its prosecution or investigation into Israel or other US allies.
In August, as much of the world had begun to isolate Israel as it moved forward with an explicit ethnic cleansing campaign, the administration also sanctioned four of the ICC's judges, including the one who authorized the warrants against Israel's leaders.
Now, just days after the world's leading group of genocide scholars voted overwhelmingly for a resolution stating that Israel's actions meet the legal definition for the crime, the Trump administration is attempting to cripple the groups that are documenting those actions.
Former BBC radio journalist Sangita Myska noted that "this type of action is normally reserved for terrorists and drug traffickers," adding that it will "severely damage the organizations' ability to advocate for Palestinians."
It is not the first time the Trump administration has sanctioned a Palestinian human rights group. In June, it sanctioned Adameer, a Ramallah-based group focused on the rights of prisoners in Israel's brutal detention system.
At the time, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said the sanctions "would make day-to-day operations harder and harder, including for their employees, assisted communities, and service suppliers. This will also negatively affect their engagement with their partner organizations, locally and internationally, including US-based groups."
Kenneth Roth, the former executive director of Human Rights Watch, said that the administration was acting "as if the answer to Israeli atrocities is to censor reporting on them rather than to stop them."
In a joint statement issued Thursday, Al Haq, Al Mezan, and the PCHR described it as "a coward[ly], immoral, illegal, and undemocratic act."
"As the world moves to impose sanctions and arms embargoes on Israel," the groups said, "its ally, the US, is working to destroy Palestinian institutions working tirelessly for accountability for the victims of Israel's mass atrocity crimes."
(Video: Al Jazeera)
"They want to silence Palestinian voices," said PCHR's Basel Al-Sourani in an interview with Al Jazeera. "They want to silence anyone who stands up to Israeli crimes, anyone who tries to advocate for Palestinian rights, anyone who tries to bring perpetrators to justice."
Other human rights groups around the world have joined them in condemning the decision.
Erika Guevara-Rosas, a director at Amnesty International, described the sanctions against these groups as a "shameful assault on human rights and the global pursuit of justice."
"These organizations carry out vital and courageous work, meticulously documenting human rights violations under the most horrifying conditions," Guevara-Rosas continued. "They have steadfastly continued to do so in the face of war, genocide, and the oppressive reality of Israel's apartheid regime, as well as malicious attempts to discredit their findings and cripple their funding with spurious terrorism accusations. They are the voice of Palestinian victims, amplifying stories of human suffering and injustice that would otherwise remain unheard."
The Israeli human rights group B'Tselem, which in July joined the growing international consensus that Israel is perpetrating a genocide, said it stands "in full solidarity with our colleagues and partners working for human rights between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea."
The group described the US sanctions as "yet another move aimed at erasing fundamental norms of protecting human beings designed to enable Israel to continue harming Palestinians without restraint."
Al-Sourani said that the sanctions were "not a surprise, given the US administration being a partner in Israel's genocide."
Trump has endorsed Israel's stated goal to permanently displace most Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, with reporting earlier this week detailing plans to replace the destroyed enclave with a sprawling real-estate development.
Some of the developers of the plan are Israelis involved in the administration of the US-Israeli-run Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), where over a thousand Palestinian aid seekers have been killed, often in deliberate massacres by Israeli troops, in recent months.
Despite the new dangers they will impose, Al-Sourani said, "these sanctions, they will not deter us."
"We will continue documenting the Israeli crimes that are happening on the ground," Al-Sourani said. "We will continue our engagement with the ICC. We will continue advocating for justice, for the rule of law, and for the protection of the ICC judges and the prosecutors."
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'I Am Not a Terrorist': Letters From Gaza Children Decry Daily Horrors of Israeli Assault
"We live in a constant state of fear and anxiety, with shells accompanying us around the clock, reaping lives, sparing only those fortunate enough to survive," one Palestinian girl wrote to U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
Jul 16, 2024
A U.K.-based humanitarian group on Tuesday delivered "heartbreaking" letters from two Palestinian girls—including one who lost her arm in an Israeli attack—imploring new Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer to "intervene and help bring about a permanent cease-fire" in Gaza.
"We write to you with hearts full of sorrow and spirits crushed by the daily suffering inflicted upon us by the brutal war," wrote 15-year-old Mais Abdel Hadi, president of the youth-led Palestinian Children's Council, in a letter presented to Starmer's office in London by the charity Christian Aid. Palestinian Children's Council is a partner of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights.
"We live in a constant state of fear and anxiety, with shells accompanying us around the clock, reaping lives, sparing only those fortunate enough to survive," said Hadi, whose family is forcibly displaced due to the destruction of their home. "Destruction and devastation surround us on all sides. Our question is: Why must we children pay such a horrendous price?"
"Our question is: Why must we children pay such a horrendous price?"
According to the Gaza Health Ministry, an average of 58 children have been killed each day—approximately 16,000 in total—since Israel launched its retaliatory assault and siege of Gaza after the Hamas-led attacks last October 7.
The ministry—whose figures have been deemed reliable by Israeli intelligence—says that Israeli bombs and bullets have wounded more than 34,000 other Palestinian children, and that thousands more are missing and presumed dead and buried beneath the rubble of bombed-out homes and other buildings. Over 17,000 other Gazan children are orphaned.
"We wake up every day to the sound of bombs and rockets, with no safe place to seek refuge," Hadi stated. "This violent war has taken our homes, schools, families, relatives, friends, and classmates. It has forced us to sleep in poor tents and in the open air, our bodies scorched by the sun during the day and deprived of sleep at night due to constant airstrikes and random shelling."
"We need your support and urgent intervention to end this tragedy," she stressed to the newly-elected prime minister.
Hadi continued:
We demand an immediate cease-fire and the establishment of peace because we, the children of Palestine, deserve to live in safety and peace. We also urge you to work on rebuilding our schools and hospitals that have been destroyed and to provide the necessary psychological and educational support so we can regain our lives and futures.
Stop the death by starvation, the killing by denying medicine, and the destruction of health centers. Bring back life through songs, poems, and music. We are children who hope for a dignified life and do not wish for anyone to suffer.
Save our lives, dreams, and rights, and preserve our childhood. We are not just numbers or news in media reports; we are living souls, carrying hope in our hearts, awaiting your swift and effective action.
Sixteen-year-old Hala Abu Saleem, one of the thousands of child amputees in Gaza, asked: "Will my hand grow back? Or am I condemned to live without an arm?"
"I am not a terrorist to be exterminated," asserted Saleem, whose family is also forcibly displaced after their home was bombed. "I am not a terrorist for my house to be destroyed and my family killed. I am not a terrorist to live in a tent that is scorching during the day and freezing at night, unfit even for animals!"
"It's time for you to bear the consequences of your mistakes from over a century ago," Saleem added. The British Empire ruled Palestine in the early 20th century and facilitated Zionist colonization before reversing the policy amid resistance from the existing Arab population.
"End the occupation," she begged. "Stop the genocide!"
Starmer, who became prime minister on July 5, has given no indication that his administration will depart from the previous Conservative government's nearly unconditional support for Israel. As opposition leader, he sparked widespread outrage in Britain—a country that has seen massive pro-Palestine demonstrations over the past nine months—and beyond by initially supporting Israel's "right" to cut off water and electricity in Gaza, acts cited as evidence of genocide. He later retracted his statement.
The United Nations Children's Fund has described Gaza as "the most dangerous place in the world to be a child." More children were killed in the first four months of Israel's Gaza onslaught than in all the world's wars over the past four years, according to the U.N.'s Palestine relief agency. Israeli forces have allegedly deliberately targeted and executed children. Israeli warplanes are dropping shrapnel-packed fragmentation bombs that doctors say are eviscerating children's bodies and causing a "constant flow of amputations."
Israel also stands accused of using starvation as a weapon of war, killing dozens of children by malnutrition, dehydration, and lack of medical care.
In addition to killing, maiming, starving, and orphaning children, Israel's war has wrought what one Gaza mother described as "the complete psychological destruction" of youth living in the enclave.
Last month, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres added Israel to the so-called "List of Shame" of countries that kill and injure children during wars and other armed conflicts.
Israel's conduct in the 283-day war—which has left more than 137,500 Palestinians in Gaza dead, maimed, or missing—is under investigation by the International Court of Justice in a South Africa-led genocide case.
International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan is also seeking to arrest Israeli Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for alleged crimes including extermination and forced starvation. Khan also applied for warrants to arrest three senior leaders of Hamas, which has governed the Gaza Strip since 2006.
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Palestinian Groups Warn of Catastrophe as Israeli Forces Close in on Rafah
"Such an attack could result in an unprecedented loss of Palestinian lives," the organizations said.
Feb 05, 2024
A coalition of Palestinian human rights groups issued a joint statement Monday warning of impending catastrophe as Israel's military signaled plans to expand its ground assault to Rafah, the small city near Gaza's border with Egypt where hundreds of thousands of people have sought refuge from Israeli bombs.
Roughly half of Gaza's population of 2.2 million is currently in Rafah, with many living in makeshift tents and struggling to survive without adequate food, medicine, and clean water. The city is so crowded that humanitarian relief officials have said there is just one toilet for every 500 people, conditions that are accelerating the spread of infectious diseases.
The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR), Al Mezan, and Al-Haq appealed to the international community to intervene and prevent an attack on Rafah, warning that an Israeli incursion "would significantly exacerbate the ongoing genocidal acts perpetrated by the Israeli military and authorities against the Palestinian population in Gaza and blatantly violates the provisional measures order issued by the International Court of Justice on 26 January 2024."
"Recent statements from top Israeli military officials and the observed pattern on the ground strongly suggest an imminent assault on Rafah, reminiscent of the destructive actions witnessed in Khan Younis and throughout northern Gaza in the past four months," the groups said. "Such an attack could result in an unprecedented loss of Palestinian lives."
"The Israeli military has consistently shelled and bombed Rafah from air, sea, and land, with a recent attack killing 17 Palestinians, including children and women," they continued. "Notwithstanding this, a comprehensive ground invasion has not yet transpired. Nevertheless, statements from the Israeli defense minister, which include an expressed intention for Israel to control the border between Gaza and Egypt, coupled with the ongoing bombardments, heighten concerns about the imminent possibility of a ground invasion."
"Everywhere you go, people are desperate, hungry, and terrified."
Late last week, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant declared on social media that the "Khan Younis Brigade" of Hamas has been "dismantled" and that "we complete the mission and will continue to Rafah."
During a recent visit to Israeli troops in Khan Younis, Gallant said that "we are completing the mission in Khan Younis and we will reach Rafah, as well, and eliminate every terrorist there who threatens to harm us."
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA)—whose Gaza operations are at risk of total collapse after the U.S. and more than a dozen other countries cut off aid—said Monday that intense fighting in and around Khan Younis over the past two weeks has forced many Palestinians to "flee further south towards Rafah, which is severely overcrowded." U.N. experts last week described the city as a "pressure cooker of despair."
After visiting Rafah last month, UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said that "everywhere you look is congested with makeshift shelters."
"Everywhere you go, people are desperate, hungry, and terrified," said Lazzarini. "People—and this is also something completely new—people are stopping aid trucks, taking the food, and eating it right away. This is how desperate and hungry they are. I witnessed this firsthand."
Israeli officials have said they will attempt to ensure that civilians evacuate from Rafah before any invasion of the city, but it's unclear to where hundreds of thousands of people will be able to safely flee. Israel's military has repeatedly instructed Gazans to evacuate to a certain area—including Rafah—shortly before attacking it.
In their joint statement on Monday, PCHR, Al Mezan, and Al-Haq called on the U.N. Security Council, the head of the U.N., the International Criminal Court, and other global institutions to "utilize all available means to prevent a new Nakba and bring an end to the ongoing Israeli genocide in Gaza."
They also emphasized the "potential complicity" of Israel's allies "in the crime of genocide through unwavering military and political support or failure to prevent genocide."
"We urge them to fulfill their legal obligations, act promptly to protect Palestinians, halt mass killings, and bring an end to the genocidal acts that have persisted for the past four months," the groups said.
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