user: Q: The war in Gaza: photographing the conflict

During this last Israeli offensive inside the Gaza Strip we were working 18 hours every day, non stop. We usually started at 5am taking pictures of the Israeli air strikes and rockets launched by Palestinian militants. At first light we would cover the direct consequences of these air strikes: destroyed buildings, bodies in the hospital morgues and funerals. In situations like this, there is no fixed agenda; reality changes every minute. It is the experience you have as a photographer and a certain level of improvisation that leads you to tell the story as well as you can and as fast as possible. Our working day finished late at night and then we would attempt to do normal things: eat, take a shower and try to sleep in between the air strikes.

You don't decide what to photograph, you decide where not to photograph, which is always based on a hypothetical average of risk. There were certain areas that were constantly affected by bombs, which I avoided. My main priority was to show the life of the people in Gaza; I followed them in their houses, on the streets, to the morgues.

The way the people of Gaza face their reality is very different to my life. I guess I tried to transmit some of this through the pictures. In my job, I work with a team of journalists, photojournalists and TV crews. Everyone tells the same story in a different format. But specifically on the street I work with my colleague Majeed Hadman, known as a "fixer". He helps me in everything; he's half of my vision and my hearing and most importantly: he's my friend.

This air strike (pictured above) was at around 6 in the morning. It's just in front of our office building, which is why I had this close view. But due to the proximity of the explosion, it was complicated to shoot: we strongly felt the air-expansion caused by the blast, the extremely loud sound and obviously your heart accelerates a little.

This was the last picture I took that day. I spent most of the day taking photographs of Palestinian rescue workers recovering people under the rubble of homes – some of them alive, some of them dead. That day 11 members of the al-Dallu family were killed when an Israeli missile struck the two-storey home of the family in a residential area of Gaza City. Some bodies were recovered and brought to the morgue, so I went there to take some pictures. While I was there, another family came to check if it was true that one of their relatives had been killed. They cried, held his body and one of them kissed his hand while saying goodbye. It was a rare tender moment there.

It was early in the morning and we heard an explosion nearby. We arrived at the scene (pictured above) and saw a woman injured by shrapnel. She was being helped to safety.

Most of the population in Gaza are Muslim, but there is also a Christian community. A member of the family pictured above died of shrapnel wounds after an air strike. The photograph shows the family members leaving their house to attend the funeral mass.

This building (pictured above) was destroyed during the night. It was a Hamas government complex known as Abu Khadra. It is less than 100m from our office, so we literally jumped from our beds during the air strike due to the loud noise and the shaking of our building. I arrived at the scene at first light and started to take pictures. Donkeys are used a lot as transport in Gaza, and I guess this man was probably on his way to work.

This picture shows Osama Abdel Aal moments after being rescued. His family house collapsed during an Israeli forces strike in the Tufah neighbourhood. The first thing he did was point and tell the rescue team that there were other family members buried beneath the rubble.
What are the most important parts of this text?

A: Associated Press photographer Bernat Armangué tells the story behind some of his images that have featured on front pages around the world in the last week


Q: U.N. Votes to Investigate Possible War Crimes in Syria

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. General Assembly voted Wednesday to establish an investigative body that will assist in documenting and prosecuting the most serious violations of international law in Syria, including possible war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The 193-member world body adopted a resolution by a vote of 105 to 15 with 52 abstentions over strenuous objections from Syria and close ally Russia who accused the assembly of interfering in the work of the Security Council, which is responsible for issues of international peace and security.

Liechtenstein’s U.N. Ambassador Christian Wenaweser, who sponsored the resolution, said vetoes in the Security Council, by Russia, “have led to inaction at the expense of the people of Syria.”

“Our inaction tends to signal that war crimes and crimes against humanity are condoned and have no consequences,” he said.

Wenaweser said this was why the General Assembly, where there are no vetoes, had to address the issue of accountability for violations of international humanitarian and human rights laws since March 2011, when the Syrian conflict began.

The resolution takes “one meaningful step,” he said, in establishing a new body “to closely coordinate” with the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria, which was established by the Geneva-based U.N. Human Rights Council. It said earlier this year that war crimes are “rampant” in Syria.

Syria’s U.N. Ambassador Bashar Ja’afari called the resolution illegal, “a flagrant interference in the affairs of a U.N. member state,” and “a direct threat to a solution” of the 5 1/2-year conflict which has killed more than 250,000 people.

The resolution establishes an “International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism” under U.N. auspices to closely cooperate with the Commission of Inquiry on Syria “to collect, consolidate, preserve and analyze evidence of violations of international humanitarian law and human rights violations and abuses and prepare files in order to facilitate and expedite fair and independent criminal proceedings” in the future.

It asks the secretary-general to arrange for the speedy establishment of the independent body, which will initially be funded by voluntary contributions, and urges all U.N. member states, especially parties to the conflict, to cooperate with it.

“The General Assembly today demonstrated that it can take the reins on questions of justice in the face of Security Council deadlock,” said Balkees Jarrah, senior international justice counsel at Human Rights Watch.

She said countries that voted for the “unprecedented” resolution “took a critically important stand for victims of massive grave crimes.”

The General Assembly will now help “pave the road to accountability after years of unchecked atrocities,” Jarrah said, and “perpetrators now know that evidence of their misdeeds will be collected to hasten the day when they find themselves in the dock.”
What are the most important parts of this text?

A:

assistant: Syria's U.N. ambassador said the resolution was 'flagrant interference'