VIDEO| New CCTV footage shows Israel’s raid on Palestinian human rights group

Ramallah (QNN)- Palestinian human rights group Al-Haq and Forensic Architecture published on Friday a new video footage showing the Israeli military raid on Al-Haq’s offices in August.

In a dawn raid on August 18, Israeli forces caused extensive damage to property and issued military orders imposing the closure of seven Palestinian human rights groups’ offices: Al-Haq, Addameer, the Bisan Center for Research & Development, Defence for Children International-Palestine, the Union of Agricultural Workers Committees (UAWC), the Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees (UPWC), and the Health Work Committees (HWC). These actions follow Israel’s earlier designations and declarations of these organisations as “terrorist” and “unlawful”.

The video – jointly released by Al-Haq and the British research institute Forensic Architecture – included content taken from four security cameras installed in the organization’s offices. After breaking down the doors, the video shows Israeli soldiers taking ‘selfies’ and rummaging through binders. About 40 minutes after the raid began, the Israeli forces cut off the power, which cut off the camera feed.

The footage, synchronized and analyzed by Al-Haq and Forensic Architecture, reveals that the raid began at three in the morning when 16 Israeli soldiers arrived in nine military vehicles. The soldiers, who spent more than an hour in Al-Haq’s offices and appeared to be led by Special Reconnaissance Forces, violently broke into the organization’s server room as well as the offices of the CEO and secretariat with guns pointed.

The IOF forcibly entered Al-Haq with guns pointed, broke into key offices, and searched documents and computers. pic.twitter.com/SFqjvRGYtc

— Forensic Architecture (@ForensicArchi) September 16, 2022

While some Israeli soldiers searched through Al-Haq’s organisational and administrative documents, others appeared to socialise—taking trophy photos and group selfies “as an act of domination and insult to the premises,” the Forensic Architecture said.

At various moments during the raid, IOF soldiers appeared to socialise, taking trophy photos and group selfies—an act of insult and domination of the premises. pic.twitter.com/KwghgAjjcG

— Forensic Architecture (@ForensicArchi) September 16, 2022

Al-Haq’s Director Shawan Jabarin said he fears that the soldiers installed surveillance software onto the organization’s computers. “We suspect manipulation on their part. We work transparently, but Israel uses malware to silence us,” he said, emphasizing that in November the Pegasus spyware was discovered on the phones of employees in six Palestinian NGOs, including a researcher for Al-Haq. “We have nothing to hide, we protect justice, and they commit crimes and try to hide them,” Jabarin said. The organizations said that the fact that the soldiers took selfies inside the offices was “an act of humiliation and domination.”