Osama Bin Javed is back with us from the Al Jazeera forum
Osama, the Gaza issue, as you told us moments ago, remains a priority issue for the region
the priority issue at this summit that you are at. You're working the room there, I know
Who are you hearing from now? Well, we've been speaking to a number of people, and the issue about Gaza remains crucial here
not just the issue of Palestine, but what happens to the legality of this entire process
What happens to the prisoners? What happens to the bodies? There's a lot that you've been hearing from the Israeli side
but the Palestinian side usually does not get a voice in the room
And to say that and discuss that further, we have Hassan Jabirin, who is the Director General of Adalah Rights Organization
Thank you very much for taking the time. We were just discussing about the situation that is in Gaza right now
From a legal perspective, how many Palestinians are still missing or are believed to be under the custody of Israel
even after all of the captives have been released? Yeah, you have thousands that are missing
and we don't know until now whether they are in the hand of Israel inside
or they are buried, and there is no way also to know them
And Israel doesn't give information about that. In fact, Israel also took administrative detention persons, thousands
We are speaking about 3 and they have also another category which called illegal combatant persons and also there you have thousands and they don release information about them
And today even there is no serious and deep access to the lawyers in order to meet them
Israel limits even the right of lawyers to access and to meet those persons
Now, regarding the other group that they want to enter Gaza from Rafah also, here the international law is very, very clear
There is every person is entitled to return to his country. And in fact, the Universal Declaration of 1948 and the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights emphasize this right
Every person has the right to leave and to return to his country
In fact, we can see those people that they are not allowed to enter as internally displaced persons
And the international law said regarding war, immediately after the ceasefire, they have to be allowed
But Israel prohibited this group to come back. You're operating in Palestine
You're operating within the confines of the law and using Israeli law to make that point
Tell me, what is the real situation on the ground? Are you able to go to Israeli courts
Are you able to challenge these decisions? And is there any international umbrella or cover that helps you in the issues that you highlighting This is a very good question because during the war also we really filed petition to
Israeli Supreme Court with Israeli human rights organizations and the Israeli Supreme Court
wasn't ready and willing to give remedy, effective remedy to us, to the victims
and we filed petitions about the right of prisoners to eat, not to be starving
And we filed petitions about the injured people to enter East Jerusalem
You're talking about bodies. Bodies are running. And now we are dealing about the right of families to get their bodies
Now, during the war, many Israel took many bodies, not just from Gaza
bodies from the West Bank, people that they were killed by Israeli forces from the West Bank
from Jerusalem and Palestinian citizens of Israel. We asked to return the bodies to the family
This is the right, human rights of the family to bury their dears. And the Israeli Supreme Court
say, well, Israel is entitled to keep those bodies and to use them for negotiation with Hamas
as long as Hamas keep Israeli hostages. So this was the reason
Now, all the Israeli hostages were freed. All of them came back including the Israeli bodies came back Now we opened this track again and we are now heading to the Supreme Court
Next week, we are going, within two weeks, we are going to file petition to the Israeli Supreme Court and to say
okay, the war ended, there is no hostages to negotiate, and thus, the bodies should be returned back to the families
Here it's important to say this is the only country in the world that keeps bodies as cards for negotiation
And there is no country in the modern history that keeps bodies of its citizens
Now we are speaking about bodies also of Palestinian citizens of Israel
that their bodies were kept by Israelis for negotiating with them. meaning Israel refer to Palestinian citizens as enemy
Thank you very much for those insights. And these are the kind of conversations that you're hearing over and over again
from various actors, whether they are government representatives or representatives of the civil society
about how the situation is unbearable for the Palestinians. And obviously those representing Palestinians say that they are standing in fortitude
making sure that they stay in their country and those who've been evicted or want to go back
have the right to return. Osama bin Javed reporting from the Al Jazeera forum here in Doha. Thank you
very much, Osama