Dear friends,

I hope you and your family are safe. I know that so many of us are grieving for family and friends who have been killed, injured or are missing, and worried for those under airstrikes or rocket fire. And we are all fearful of what is yet to come.

I do not have the words to express the horror unfolding around us, the scale and the brutality of the Hamas-led assault in southern Israel; and the devastation wrought by Israel’s bombardments in Gaza.

HaMoked has joined with the broader Israeli human rights community in condemning these atrocities and insisting on the protection of innocent civilians, both Palestinian and Israeli.

The universality at the heart of human rights necessitates unequivocal support for Israelis' right to be safe, and the demand for accountability for the atrocities committed by Hamas on October 7, and unequivocal support for these same rights – security and accountability – for the Palestinian civilians of Gaza.

HaMoked staff continues its work in these impossible circumstances. Every day we receive hundreds of phone calls from Palestinians seeking our help. Many are from people looking for loved ones, both from the West Bank and from Gaza, who have been arrested or are missing. Israel rounded up thousands of Gaza Palestinians who were working in Israel prior to October 7, and yesterday we petitioned the court to demand information on their whereabouts and legal status.

We are also working to ensure the basic rights of all of our beneficiaries in this difficult reality: Israeli citizens and residents who entered Gaza to visit family prior to the fighting are desperate to come home; farmers who have waited all year for the olive harvest cannot reach their lands on the other side of the Separation Wall as the closure imposed on the West Bank also includes a ban on farmers’ access to lands in the Seam Zone; Jerusalem Palestinians are trapped in neighborhoods beyond the wall, and not allowed through the checkpoints into the city.

We have asked the international community to prioritize protection of civilians on both sides: to work for the release of the Israelis held hostage in Gaza, for an immediate halt to bombardments of civilians, both in Gaza and in Israel, and for humanitarian assistance and restoration of fuel, water and electricity to Gaza civilians. There is no contradiction in working for all of this, exactly the opposite: it is in all of our interests to insist on universal humanity precisely at this time.

Sincerely,

Jessica Montell
Executive Director of HaMoked