A report Posted by Office Document attacks between October 12, 2023 and June 30, 2024, raises serious concerns about Israel respect for international law. Medical staff and hospitals are specifically protected by international humanitarian law, provided they do not commit – or are not used to engage, apart from their humanitarian function – act harmful to the enemy.
“As if the implacable bombardment and the disastrous humanitarian situation in Gaza was not enough, The only sanctuary where the Palestinians should have felt safe that has in fact become a death trap“said United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk. “Protection of hospitals during the war is essential and must be respected by all sides, at any time”. ».
The study was published only a few days after the last major health establishment operating in northern Gaza, the Kama Adwan hospital, was put out of service after a raid by the Israeli military forces, leaving the population of North Gaza without No access to adequate health care.
Staff and patients were forced to flee or were placed in police custody, with many torture and ill -treatment reports. The hospital director was placed in police custody and his fate and where they are located.
Air strikes cause destruction in the region surrounding the Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza on October 25, 2024.
Possible war crimes, crimes against humanity
During the period covered by the report, there were at least 136 strikes on at least 27 hospitals and 12 other medical establishments, claiming important victims among doctors, nurses, doctors and other civilians, and causing Significant damage, if not a complete destruction of the civil infrastructure.
The report explains that, in the exceptional circumstances where medical staff, ambulances and hospitals lose their special protection because they meet strict criteria to be considered as military objectives, any attack on them must always comply with principles fundamentals of distinction, proportionality and attack in attack. The fact of not respecting one of these principles constitutes a violation of international humanitarian law.
Intentionally directing attacks against hospitals and places where patients and wounded are treated, provided they are not military objectives; intentionally directing attacks against the civilian population as such, or against individual civilians who do not participate directly in hostilities, including the launch of a blind attack leading to death or injuries of civilians; And the intentionally launch of disproportionate attacks are also war crimes, adds the report.
In certain circumstances, the deliberate destruction of health establishments can constitute a form of collective sanction, which would also constitute a war crime.
The report also notes that several of these acts, if they are committed within the framework of a widespread or systematic attack directed against a civilian population, more in a state or, in the event of a non -state actor, of organizational policy, can also equip crimes against humanity.
Were hospitals used for military purposes?
In most cases, Israel alleges that hospitals were poorly used for military purposes by Palestinian armed groups, the report said. However, insufficient information has so far been made available to support these allegations, which have remained vague and wide, and, in some cases, seem contradicted by information accessible to the public.
If these allegations were verified, this would arouse serious concerns that the Palestinian armed groups used the presence of civilians to intentionally protect themselves from the attack, which would be equivalent to a war crime.
500 health professionals reported killed, mass pits found
The impacts of Israeli army operations in and around hospitals and associated fights extend far beyond physical structures, according to the report.
Women, especially pregnant women, have suffered seriously. Many women have given birth with non -or minimum pre and postnatal care, increasing the risk of avoidable maternal and infant mortality. The United Nations Human Rights Office received information that newborns died because their mothers could not attend postnatal exams or reach medical facilities to give birth.
The increasingly limited health system prevented many of those who had undergone trauma injuries from receiving a timely and possibly vital treatment. At the end of April 2024, according to the Palestine’s State Ministry of Health (Palestinian Moh), 77,704 Palestinians were injured. Many injured would be died while waiting to be hospitalized or treated. According to the Palestinian Moh, at the end of June 2024, more than 500 health professionals have been killed in Gaza since October 7.
The first major Israeli army operation against a hospital involved the Al Shifa medical complex in November 2023. He made a descent into the establishment a second time in March 2024, leaving it in ruins completed on April 1. After the withdrawal by the Israeli army, three carts were found in the hospital, with at least 80 recovered corpses, raising serious concerns that crimes in international law were committed. Some of these bodies were allegedly found with catheters and cannulas still attached, which suggests that these were patients.
A woman carries the body of a newborn baby killed during an attack on the Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, Gaza.
Possible targeting medical personnel and patients
In some of the attacks, the Israeli army has probably used both heavy weapons and air ammunition with wide effects, according to the report. It seems that an MK 83 ammunition was used in the air strike on January 10 in front of the Al Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al-Balah, Middle Gaza. According to testimonies, at least 12 people were killed, including a journalist and several people displaced internally (PDI), and 35 people were injured. The use of explosive weapons with wide effects in a densely populated area raises serious concerns of a blind attack.
The report finds that another characteristic of these attacks was the apparent targeting of people in hospitals, but that in most of these cases it was difficult to determine the allocation. The United Nations Human Rights Bureau has checked several cases of people who died at Al Awda Hospital in Jabalya, including a volunteer nurse who was shot in the chest while looking out of a window on December 7 2023.
“It is essential that there are independent, in -depth and transparent surveys on all these incidents, and full responsibility for all violations of international humanitarian and human rights that have taken place,” said Mr. Türk. “All medical workers arbitrarily owned must be immediately released.”
“It must also be a priority for Israel, as a power of occupation, to ensure and facilitate access to adequate health care for the Palestinian population, and for the efforts of recovery and future reconstruction to prioritize restoration of the medical capacity which has been destroyed in the last 14 months of intense conflicts. »»
