The Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) has warned this Monday that Israel would be trying to "erase the evidence of the brutal crimes committed" against the Palestinian population of the Gaza Strip through debris removal operations, "given the presence of the bodies of thousands of missing persons and the material evidence of the genocide crimes" that the organization attributes to Israel over the last two years.
In the statement released by Hamas and reported by the newspaper 'Filastín', close to the group, the Islamist formation "denounces the attempts of the occupying government (Israel) and its Army to destroy the evidence of the brutal crimes committed against our people in the Gaza Strip, through the removal, crushing, and transfer of debris, given the presence of the bodies of thousands of missing persons and the material evidence of the genocide crimes committed by the occupation over two years".
The organization insists that "the manipulation" of these devastated areas and the bodies and evidence they contain "constitutes a violation of International Law and of the resolution of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that demands the preservation of evidence".
In parallel, the militia has expressed its gratitude to the UN Special Rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese, for the warning issued hours earlier, in which she emphasized that the removal of debris in the Gaza Strip by Israel "must not destroy the evidence of international crimes" in the context of the Israeli offensive on the enclave following the attacks of October 7, 2023.
In light of this situation, Hamas has urged the United Nations and the International Criminal Court (ICC) "to take urgent measures in order to protect these sites and to send international investigation teams and forensic experts to oversee the recovery of the bodies, as well as the documentation and preservation of the evidence".
The group also emphasizes that "accelerating the removal of rubble and the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip is an urgent humanitarian and national necessity, as well as an inherent right of our people," but stresses that these tasks "must be carried out in a way that ensures the recovery of the bodies of the missing and the preservation of evidence, and prevents the occupation from taking advantage of these operations to erase the traces of its crimes and evade its responsibility."