[JURIST] Human Rights Watch (HRW) [official website] on Sunday urged [press release] the UN and donating countries to press Israel to lift restrictions on the movement of people and goods in and out of the Gaza Strip. HRW claims that the restrictions are “disproportionate to security considerations” and “unnecessarily harm people’s access to food, water, education, and other fundamental rights in Gaza.” The restrictions date back as far as 2000 when Israel blocked Palestinians in Gaza from traveling to the West Bank. When Hamas took over in 2007, many more restrictions were implemented, including items deemed “dual-use goods” which could potentially be used to aid the military. HRW executive director Sarah Leah Whitson [HRW profile] stated, “Donors who keep footing the bill to rebuild Gaza should insist that Israel lift unjustified restrictions that are worsening a grim humanitarian situation and needlessly punishing civilians.”

2014 proved to be one of the most intense periods of violence for the Israel-Palestine conflict [HRW backgrounder, JURIST news archive]. Last month a jury for the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York found [JURIST report] the Jordan-based Arab Bank liable for providing material support to Hamas. Also last month HRW accused [JURIST report] the Israeli military of committing war crimes over the summer by attacking schools where hundreds of displaced Palestinians sought shelter. In the same month the Shurat HaDin of the Israel Law Center announced [JURIST report] that they have asked the International Criminal Court Office of the Prosecutor to open an investigation into alleged war crimes committed by Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal. In June United Nations Secretary General Ban Kim Moon urged [JURIST report] Israel to release Palestinian administrative detainees over fears of failing health in a hunger strike.