OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — Israel is blocking rights activists’ access to and from the Gaza Strip, hampering their work in the Palestinian enclave run by Islamist movement Hamas, Human Rights Watch said on Monday.

A new report from the rights group “documents how Israel systematically bars human rights workers from travelling into and out of Gaza, even where the Israeli security services make no security claims against them as individuals”, it said in a statement.

Human Rights Watch said it had only once since 2008 received permission from Israel for foreign staff to enter Gaza.

Israel has launched three wars against the coastal enclave since 2008 and Gaza has been under an Israeli blockade for 10 years.

The Gaza Strip’s sole crossing with Egypt has also remained largely closed in recent years.

“Neither Human Rights Watch nor Amnesty International has been able to get staff into Gaza via Egypt since 2012,” HRW said.

The New York-based rights watchdog said access to the strip was important to look into allegations of abuses during the devastating 2014 war.

The International Criminal Court’s (ICC) chief prosecutor has opened an initial probe into alleged war crimes by both sides during the July-August 2014 conflict.

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