#Israel #Palestine #Gaza #HumanRights #WarCrimes #PressFreedom #InternetBlackouts: "Disrupting internet access and deliberately targeting critical civilian infrastructure, including telecommunications, as a collective punishment or retaliation is a human rights violation forbidden by customary international humanitarian law and international humanitarian law regulating military occupation. This now-total communications blackout leaves Palestinians, in Gaza and beyond, in the dark, unable to access life-saving information or stay in touch with loved ones. It also exacerbates other human rights and international humanitarian law violations, including the intentional targeting of civilians. It restricts the documentation of serious human rights abuses and war crimes, which is protected under international human rights law. This enables perpetrators to commit abuses with impunity and suppresses the evidence of journalists, human rights defenders, and ordinary citizens that is essential for ongoing or future international investigations.
According to International Criminal Court jurisprudence, widespread, intentional disruptions and the targeting of journalists may constitute reasonable grounds to believe that there is a State policy designed at the highest level of authority aimed at achieving its objectives at any cost and covering up eventual abuses by its forces. This would qualify any attempted or concrete serious breach of humanitarian law during the disruptions as a crime against humanity and thus subject to universal jurisdiction, giving any nation the authority to hold the perpetrators accountable.
Given the staggering civilian death toll and the unfolding humanitarian crisis, we call for the immediate restoration of internet connectivity in Gaza and an end to the targeting of civilian telecommunications infrastructure."
https://www.accessnow.org/press-release/reverse-total-communications-blackout-gaza/