Lee Mordechai

Lee Mordechai is the founder of the Bearing Witness: Gaza initiative and a senior lecturer in the Department of History at the Hebrew University.

Recent Articles

Israel Prison Service officers prepare Palestinian prisoners for release as part of a hostage deal between Israel and Hamas, at Ketziot Prison in southern Israel, February 26, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

‘I cannot help my clients’: The impossible task of representing Palestinian detainees

With Israel running its prisons as ‘torture facilities,’ lawyers point to the absence of state and judicial oversight allowing them to operate with impunity.

By Lee Mordechai and Liat Kozma January 27, 2026

Palestinians line up to receive meals from a World Central Kitchen distribution point in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, March 16, 2025. (Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90)

Collaborate or leave: Israel’s cruel ultimatum to humanitarian groups in Gaza

Under the guise of re-registration, Israel seeks to force all international NGOs to comply with the GHF model, turning aid into a vehicle for ethnic cleansing.

By Lee Mordechai and Liat Kozma September 24, 2025

Palestinians line up to receive meals from the World Central Kitchen in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, March 16, 2025. (Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90)

Weaponizing starvation, Israel seeks full control over Gaza aid distribution

The acute hunger crisis in the Strip is part of a deliberate Israeli strategy to cripple Hamas’ governance capabilities and banish humanitarian groups.

By Lee Mordechai and Liat Kozma March 26, 2025

Palestinians injured in an Israeli airstrike brought to Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah, in the Gaza Strip, August 26, 2024. (Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90)

A war on hospitals is a war on civilians: Israel’s fatal blow to health in Gaza

Two documents outline the scale of destruction upon Gaza’s health system and medical workers, threatening the very possibility of sustaining life in the Strip.

By Liat Kozma and Lee Mordechai November 1, 2024