ISTANBUL: A delegation of lawyers from Istanbul’s second Bar Association has flown to The Hague, carrying photographs, videos and sworn statements they say document crimes against humanity in Gaza. Before boarding their flight on Sept. 1, the group held a brief news conference outside the VIP terminal at Istanbul Airport, framing their trip as a mission to deliver not just files, but the demands of grieving families.
Yasin Şamlı, president of the Istanbul second Bar Association, told reporters the lawyers were taking “the rights of women and children killed in Gaza and the demand for justice of Palestinians” directly to international courts. He accused Israel of continuing genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza despite cease-fire deals, United Nations appeals, and orders from the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the International Court of Justice, as reported by Hurriyet Daily News.
“Gaza is not only about people being killed,” Şamlı said. “Hospitals, schools, places of worship, refugee camps, aid queues, agricultural land and the future of an entire people are being targeted.” He warned that impunity only encourages those who carry out such attacks.
The material handed to the ICC includes 119 time-ordered photographs showing starving infants, civilians shot while waiting for aid, women and children killed in strikes, and families forced from their homes. Nine evidence books accompany the images, covering starvation, attacks on women and children, banned weapons, the collapse of Gaza’s health system, killings of journalists and medics, occupation, ethnic cleansing, torture and inhumane treatment.
The lawyers also submitted notarized statements from a victim and a victim’s relative, plus 25 video recordings that they say capture alleged crimes, their aftermath and the suffering of survivors. In the quiet hum of the airport, the stack of files looked small against the scale of the war, but for the lawyers, each page was a voice that had not yet been heard in court.
