UN: Israeli Deadly Hospital Attacks Kills +500 Medical Professionals In Gaza

(MENAFN- Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) GENEVA, Dec 31 (KUNA) -- The UN Human Rights Office on Tuesday found that Israeli occupation's pattern of deadly attacks on and near hospitals in Gaza and associated combat pushed the healthcare system to the brink of total collapse with catastrophic effect on Palestinians' access to health and medical care.
According to the Palestinian MoH, by the end of June 2024, more than 500 medical professionals had been killed in Gaza since October 7.
According to a report published from Geneva, the OHCHR said "The appalling destruction wrought by the Israeli military's attacks on the Kamal Adwan hospital last Friday reflects the pattern of attacks documented in the report. Staff and patients were forced to flee or were taken into custody with many reports of torture and ill-treatment. The director of the hospital was taken into custody and his fate and whereabouts are unknown."
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said "As if the relentless bombing and the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza were not enough, the one sanctuary where Palestinians should have felt safe in fact became a "death trap. The protection of hospitals during warfare is paramount and must be respected by all sides at all times," raising concern about Israeli occupation's compliance with international law.
"This report graphically details the destruction of the healthcare system in Gaza and the extent of killing of patients staff and other civilians in these attacks in blatant disregard for international humanitarian and human rights law." he added.
During the period covered by the report between October 7, 2023 and June 30, 2024, there were at least 136 strikes on at least 27 hospitals and 12 other medical facilities, claiming significant casualties among doctors, nurses, medics and other civilians, and causing significant damage, if not complete destruction of civilian infrastructure, noted the report.
"Intentionally directing attacks against hospitals and places where the sick and wounded are treated, provided they are not military objectives.. intentionally directing attacks against the civilian population as such, or against individual civilians, not taking direct part in hostilities including the launching of an indiscriminate attack resulting in death or injury to civilians, and intentionally launching disproportionate attacks are also war crimes," the report added.
It warned that deliberate destruction of healthcare facilities may amount to a form of collective punishment, which would also constitute a war crime.
The report also responded to the Israeli allegations that the hospitals were being improperly used for military purposes by Palestinian armed groups, confirming that insufficient information has so far been made available to substantiate these allegations, which have remained vague and broad and in some cases appear contradicted by publicly available information.
The report also noted that several of these acts, if committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against a civilian population further to a State policy, may also amount to crimes against humanity.
The report found that the impacts of the Israeli military's operations in and around hospitals and associated combat extend far beyond the physical structures.
"Women, especially pregnant women, have suffered gravely. Many women have given birth with no or minimal pre-and post-natal care, increasing the risk of preventable maternal and child mortality."
The UN Human Rights Office received reports that newborns had died because their mothers were unable to attend postnatal check-ups or reach medical facilities to give birth.
The increasingly limited healthcare system prevented many of those who had sustained trauma injuries from receiving timely and possibly life-saving treatment. By the end of April 2024, according to the Ministry of Health of the State of Palestine (Palestinian MOH), 77,704 Palestinians were injured. Many injured reportedly died while waiting to be hospitalized or treated.
According to the report, the Israeli occupation military's first major operation against a hospital involved Al Shifa Medical Complex in November 2023. It raided the facility a second time in March 2024, leaving it in complete ruin by April 1. Subsequent to the withdrawal by the Israeli military, three mass graves were reportedly found at the hospital with at least 80 corpses retrieved, raising serious concerns that crimes under international law may have been committed. Some of these bodies were reportedly found with catheters and cannulas still attached suggesting they had been patients.
The report also said that in some of the attacks, Israeli military likely used both heavy weapons and air-dropped munitions with wide area effects, adding that an MK 83 munition was used in the January 10 airstrike in front of Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al Balah Middle Gaza.
Reportedly at least 12 people were killed including a journalist and several Internally displaced people (IDPs) and 35 people were injured, raising serious concern about the an indiscriminate attack by the use of explosive weapons with wide-area effects in a densely-populated area.
The report also found that another feature of such attacks has been the apparent targeting of people inside hospitals and verified multiple cases of people being shot dead at Al Awda Hospital in Jabalya, including a volunteer nurse who was fatally shot in the chest while looking out of a window on December 7, 2023.
Turk called for independent, thorough and transparent investigations of all of these incidents and full accountability for all violations of international humanitarian and human rights law, which have taken place, saying "All medical workers arbitrarily detained must be immediately released."
He stressed "It must also be a priority for Israel as the occupying power to ensure and facilitate access to adequate healthcare for the Palestinian population and for future recovery and reconstruction efforts to prioritise the restoration of the medical capacity, which has been destroyed over the last 14 months of intense conflict". (end)
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