- Palestinians recount loss of loved ones, attacks on unborn, and destruction of cemeteries during Israeli strikes
ISTANBUL
Palestinian journalists, medical workers, and witnesses delivered harrowing testimonies Saturday at the Gaza Tribunal’s final session in Istanbul on complicity, international systems, resistance, and solidarity, detailing what they described as deliberate Israeli attacks on media workers, the deceased, and pregnant women in the Gaza Strip.
The four-day public tribunal, held in Istanbul from Thursday to Sunday, heard from survivors and advocates who argue that Israeli authorities have targeted those documenting the war and those trying to preserve life under siege.
Mohammad Qraiqea, a Palestinian journalist later killed in Gaza just days after giving recorded testimony to Witness Eye, described an environment where “all the journalists, without exception, are under the threat of the Israeli attack.”
“The most dangerous thing for us as journalists today is the Israeli threat that killed all our colleagues, without exception,” he said.
“Social responsibility, professional ethics, the images that we see and the killing that we usually see in the streets, in the markets, in schools, and in homes, force us to continue to transmit these images.”
Qraiqea also recounted the trauma of burying his mother after she was killed near Al-Shifa Hospital: “I found her sleeping, and she was killed and executed with the bullets of Israeli soldiers and shelling… I took her body, and I buried her.”
- 'Every image had a price'
Ghazi Al-Majdalawi, a representative of the Palestinian Center for the Missing and Forcibly Disappeared, said information has been withheld about two journalists detained after Oct. 7. “The occupation refuses to provide any information about Nidal and Haitham,” he said.
“They refused to give any information, whether they were inside the prisons, whether they were killed or executed.”
Journalist Hossam Shabat, who was also killed three weeks after his testimony, said press markings became a direct target, adding: “As soon as we wore the press uniform, this was the biggest accusation… We are slaughtered, and we have no voice. We are killed, and no one hears us, and no one sees us.”
He added that “every image had a price,” saying journalists “paid for our bodies and our souls… in return for this image to reach the whole world.”
- 'I don't know what occupation did to them'
Other testimonies focused on attacks on cemeteries and unborn children.
Journalist Mahmoud Haniyeh said the bodies of his wife and young son, killed in earlier Israeli strikes, were among those disturbed when cemeteries were destroyed. “I don't know… my wife's body, my son's body, and I don't know what the occupation did to them,” he said.
“Did they go to the occupation’s cemeteries? Did they bury them somewhere?”
Dr. Fadya Mahlis, who served at Al-Shifa Hospital, described emergency procedures on pregnant women who died as a result of bombings and oxygen deprivation under rubble.
She recalled rescuing a newborn whose mother died at the hospital gates: “We resuscitated the baby for about half an hour. The baby's color improved, he became a baby, and he started crying… Unfortunately, the baby had internal bleeding.”
Student volunteer Laith Arafat spoke about the collapse of prenatal care.
He recalled a mother in her ninth month of pregnancy who reported no fetal movement: “There was no health system… no healthy food, no vitamins, no medicine. There was a lot of fear… I did the ultrasound, but I couldn't find the baby's movements.”
- Gaza Tribunal
The four-day public session at Istanbul University marks the culmination of a year-long effort by international jurists, scholars and civil society figures to document Israeli crimes committed against Palestinians.
Presided over by Richard Falk, former UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, the tribunal aims to produce a comprehensive “people’s record” of what participants describe as genocide, apartheid and systemic violations of international law in Gaza.
The tribunal’s jury of conscience includes Kenize Mourad, Christine Chinkin, Chandra Muzaffar, Ghada Karmi, Sami Al-Arian and Biljana Vankovska.
The tribunal’s panel of jurists and observers is expected to issue a final opinion on Sunday summarizing findings on genocide, apartheid, and systemic violations in Gaza.