Well being amenities and ambulances have protected standing below worldwide humanitarian legislation, Human Rights Watch affirms.
Israel’s repeated assaults on medical amenities, well being personnel and ambulances in Gaza needs to be “investigated as war crimes”, worldwide NGO Human Rights Watch has mentioned.
The Israeli army’s “apparently unlawful attacks” are additional destroying Gaza’s healthcare system at a time when medics have unprecedented numbers of severely injured sufferers, and hospitals have run out of medication and fundamental tools, the group mentioned on Tuesday.
“Despite the Israeli military’s claims on November 5, 2023, of ‘Hamas’s cynical use of hospitals’, no evidence put forward would justify depriving hospitals and ambulances of their protected status under international humanitarian law,” HRW added.
A warfare crime is a critical violation of worldwide humanitarian legislation, dedicated with legal intent. HRW urged the Unbiased Worldwide Fee of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory and the Worldwide Felony Court docket (ICC) to research Israel’s actions.
Healthcare system ‘devastated’
As of November 10, two-thirds of major healthcare amenities and half of all hospitals in Gaza aren’t functioning, in keeping with the United Nations. And as of November 12, at the very least 521 individuals, together with 16 medical staff, have been killed in 137 “attacks on health care” in Gaza, the World Well being Group mentioned.
“Israel’s repeated attacks damaging hospitals and harming healthcare workers, already hard hit by an unlawful blockade, have devastated Gaza’s healthcare infrastructure,” mentioned A Kayum Ahmed, particular adviser on the appropriate to well being at HRW. “The strikes on hospitals have killed hundreds of people and put many patients at grave risk because they’re unable to receive proper medical care.”
Between October 7 and November 7, HRW mentioned it investigated assaults on or close to 5 healthcare amenities in Gaza.
It discovered that Israeli forces struck the Indonesian Hospital a number of instances between October 7 and 28, killing at the very least two civilians; the Worldwide Eye Hospital was struck repeatedly and utterly destroyed on October 10 or 11; the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital was pressured to shut on November 1, days after air raids on or close to the power; a person and a toddler have been injured after repeated assaults on the al-Quds Hospital; and Israeli forces struck well-marked ambulances on a number of events – at the very least a dozen individuals have been killed or wounded in a single incident outdoors al-Shifa Hospital on November 3.
“These ongoing attacks are not isolated. Israeli forces have also carried out scores of strikes damaging several other hospitals across Gaza,” HRW mentioned.
‘Special protections’
“Intentionally directing attacks against … medical units and transport” is prohibited as a warfare crime below the ICC’s Rome Statute, HRW famous.
“Hospitals and other medical facilities are civilian objects that have special protections under international humanitarian law, or the laws of war. Hospitals only lose their protection from attack if they are being used to commit ‘acts harmful to the enemy’, and after a required warning,” it mentioned.
Israel claims that Hamas fighters have arrange command centres beneath hospitals like al-Shifa and the Indonesian Hospital – claims Hamas and the hospital workers deny.
“These claims are contested,” HRW mentioned. “Human Rights Watch has not been able to corroborate them, nor seen any information that would justify attacks on Gaza hospitals.”
HRW additionally criticised the “sweeping nature” of Israel’s evacuation orders, which didn’t have in mind particular necessities for hospitals and sufferers. The group mentioned there was no approach to make sure secure compliance as “there is no reliably secure way to flee or safe place to go in Gaza”, which raised issues that “the purpose was not to protect civilians, but to terrify them into leaving”.
“The Israeli government should immediately end unlawful attacks on hospitals, ambulances, and other civilian objects, as well as its total blockade of the Gaza Strip, which amounts to the war crime of collective punishment,” HRW mentioned.
It added that Hamas and different Palestinian armed teams must also take possible precautions to guard civilians below their management.