Since the start of the war in the Gaza Strip, in October 2023, and until June 30, Israel carried out at least 136 attacks against 27 hospitals and 12 other medical facilities in which 500 health workers died, committing possible crimes of war and against humanity, warns the UN Office for Human Rights. “The deadly attacks on hospitals in and around Gaza, and the associated fighting, have placed the health system on the brink of total collapse, with a catastrophic effect on Palestinian access to health,” summarizes the report published this Tuesday.
Israel has justified many of these attacks by claiming that hospitals are used for military purposes by Palestinian armed groups, but, according to the United Nations Office, it has not presented sufficient evidence to prove these allegations, or used sometimes contradictory arguments. The attacks against the Palestinian health system “raise questions about Israel’s compliance with international law, which specifically protects medical personnel and hospitals as long as they do not commit acts harmful to the enemy outside of their humanitarian function,” the document states.
“The only refuge where Palestinians should have felt safe has become a death trap,” concluded the UN high commissioner for human rights, Volker Türk, when the report was published.
Israel began this type of practices already in November 2023 with the first major attack against a Gazan hospital, Al Shifa (until then the main one in the Strip and located in the capital of the territory), which after a new offensive last March “It was left in complete ruin,” the report highlights. After the withdrawal of the Israeli army from that facility, mass graves were found on the hospital grounds with at least 80 bodies.
In some of the attacks on the Gazan health system, the Israeli army has used heavy weapons and aerial bombs, such as the one carried out on January 10 of this year against the Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al Balah (central Gaza). ), which caused the death of 12 people, including a journalist. Another frequent pattern in this type of attacks has been the apparent search for targets inside these medical facilities, with cases such as that of the Al Awda Hospital in Jabalia in December 2023, including that of a nurse who was shot dead when she He looked out of a window.
“It is essential that there be an independent, thorough and transparent investigation into all these incidents, and full accountability for all violations of international law and human rights,” Türk said. The Austrian high commissioner also called for the release of all health workers still detained.
The report highlights that, even if health workers and their facilities can be considered military objectives in exceptional circumstances, any attack against them must respect the principles of distinction, proportionality and precaution.
