“Yesterday I talked to a mother of a child who was born and died in the war.”

“Every day I look at my child, who instead of going to school is going to fetch water, and instead of playing football is hanging around in areas where corpses are lying.”

“We are all on death row in Gaza now.”

These are some of the painful statements I hear during an online meeting with 10 Palestinian human rights defenders (HRDs) in Gaza.

The work they do is vital: their evidence forms the basis of appeals to the UN; their documentation supports the reporting of international media outlets; their efforts inform the work of humanitarian agencies.

If there is to be accountability for the atrocities Israel has committed in Gaza over the last 22 months, it will stem from the work these human rights defenders are doing, despite the slaughter and catastrophic famine created by Israel and its allies, most prominently the US.

They work and live in tents, like most people in Gaza. One defender and mother tells me she has been displaced five times, starting from zero each time.

Many have already been

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