The Report Assessment Group (RAG) is a cross-divisional assembly of TIPH personnel, consisting of members from the Report, Analysis & Information (RAI) and Operational (OP) divisions as well as the Liaison Officers (LO) to both the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) and the Palestinian Police Force (PPF). The RAG’s main function is to process the information contained in the reports complied by the observers to make it available to the parties with the aim to find remedies to identified areas of concern. The RAG meets at least twice a week. In emergency situations, however, extraordinary RAGs can be called by any member of the group to address circumstances that require immediate attention.

Information gathering through observation in the city of Hebron is the starting point for the reports which will be processed through the RAG and represents at the same time an essential cornerstone of TIPH’s mandate. Damages to private property caused by IDF or settlers, prolonged ID checks or verbal and physical harassments by IDF personnel are just a few violations of international human rights standards that are being recorded by TIPH’s observers during their daily patrols. Furthermore, the observers report on breaches of the rules applicable in Hebron such as the Interim Agreement or the Hebron Protocol. TIPH’s observers report on such incidents within TIPH’s area of operation (AOR) which have either directly been witnessed or that have been communicated to the observers by inhabitants of the city. Pictures are added to those reports where additional evidence is needed to substantiate the information. All the information is combined into a specific form, the TIPH incident report.

At least twice a week those incident reports –which are confidential and not for public use- are analysed by the RAG. During those assessment sessions, the RAG attempts to identify specific pattern of violations. If there are trends identified, related incident reports are being bundled and comments or questions added. The LOs transmit those inquiries and the respective reports to the party in question. The LOs meet the parties on a regular basis in order to obtain the official responses to the queries submitted by the RAG. Once the RAG is in possession of an official response, it does assess those answers and will -where necessary- demand further clarification from the parties.