IRISH AID AGENCY Trócaire has called for “justice” after two Palestinian lawyers who worked for partner agencies were killed in Israeli strikes in Gaza.
Nour Naser Abu al-Nour and Dana Yaghi both worked within the Women’s Right Unit of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR).
Nour was killed by an Israeli airstrike on her family home in Rafah on Tuesday night.
Seven members of her family, including her two-year-old daughter Kenzi Jumaa, were also killed in the air strike.
The PCHR said Israeli war planes targeted Nour’s family home without providing any warning, resulting in the killing of three generations of the family.
Two days later, Dana Yaghi was killed, along with members of her family, by an Israeli airstrike on her family home in Deir Al- Balah, Gaza.
Speaking to The Journal, Trócaire’s CEO said their deaths are “absolutely devastating”.
Caoimhe de Barra said the work of both women were essential in helping other women in the region.
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“Nour and Dana’s work documenting human rights violations committed by the Israeli occupying authorities against women and children, and providing legal and self-care advice to women was characterised by selflessness, dedication and commitment to the very…
The Trócaire CEO explained: “The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights monitors information and data on human rights violations.
“Nour and Dana worked specifically on women’s rights.”
Their work was based around supporting women who are survivors of, or still going through, gender-based violence.
“This work was absolutely essential in supporting those women to come through crises, whether they were individual crises of suffering violence in the home or supporting women to come through the current conflict.
“The fact that we have lost in a matter of days, two women who were supporting other women who are under unimaginable psychological pressure, as well as physical pressure, is just a tremendous loss.
“To lose people like Nour and Dana who are providing such an essential service to people who are so vulnerable, it cuts really deeply for our partners and for the local communities.”
De Barra added that their deaths underscore the dangers facing people who work for agencies in the region.
“There is almost no access from the outside to Gaza, so almost everybody who is providing support within Gaza, is from Gaza.
“They’re going out every day in spite of the fact that they’re suffering the same conditions as everybody else in their surroundings.
“They are putting their lives on the line for other people in Gaza and doing it because they have skills they can offer people in distress, even though they’re in distress themselves.
“For this to cost them their lives is just absolutely devastating.”
De Barra said their deaths are also a huge loss to vital work that the PCHR undertakes.
“The PCHR documents all types of human rights violations,” said de Barra.
“That could be violations that the Hamas administration was responsible for, such as not following through on domestic violence issues.
“But we now have massive violations of human rights as a result of the current conflict in Gaza.
“Day after day, we’re hearing more and more stories of violations by Israeli Defence Forces.
“That needs to be documented by agencies like the PCHR so that the people of Gaza can ultimately get justice for what is happening to them right now.
“The International Court of Justice has called for a cessation of violence against civilians, and this has not happened.
“The loss of people who work for PCHR is so damaging, not just to the women that Nour and Dana supported, but long term to the people of Gaza so that there can be justice.”
De Barra told The Journal that the PCHR’s “role in documenting and gathering the evidence, and then ultimately bringing that to the most relevant Court of Justice, is really important”.
“Nothing can bring back people like Nour and Dana,” said de Barra, “but ultimately the people of Gaza need to get justice, and they need to get that through due process.”
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