UN INDEPENDENT INQUIRY SAYS ISRAEL COMMITTING WARCRIMES BY TARGETING GAZA’S MEDICAL INFRASTRUCTURE

UN Independent Inquiry - Gaza Medical Infrastructure

By Ml. Luqman Skink, INX Prime News and Current Affairs editor

Dr Navi Pillay
Dr Navi Pillay, Chair of The United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and in Israel

As the world reels from yet another attack by Israel on a Gaza health facility, four Palestinians have been incinerated by air strikes on central Gaza’s Al Aqsa Hospital compound.

Gaza’s Media Office said it was the seventh time this year that Israel has hit the grounds of Al-Aqsa Hospital and the third in the past couple of weeks, killing Palestinians who were sheltering there after fleeing their homes.

Last week, UN Investigators said Israel’s deliberate targeting of Gaza hospitals in its war on Gaza constituted war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The investigation was led by former ICC Judge Dr Navi Pillay, who said the relentless and deliberate attacks on medical personnel and facilities proved that Israel is trying to exterminate Gaza’s people, a crime against humanity.

Gaza Al-Shifa Hospital
The remains of Gaza's Al-Shifa hospital complex April 1, 2024

MULTI-GENERATIONAL TRAUMA

Speaking on Prime Live, HCW4P executive member Dr Feroza Amien said the systemic targeting of Gaza’s healthcare sector by Israel is yet another tool in its arsenal of genocide.

She explained that if a ceasefire is not reached immediately, the impact of Israel’s Gaza onslaught will be felt for generations.

“We will end up having a whole generation of people that because of ill-health may be subjected to unemployment and what will happen then is that generations of Palestinians will be living in poverty, unable to improve their economic situation.”

’ISRAEL IS SETTING DEADLY PRECEDENT IN WAR’

As war spreads in other parts of the region, Dr Amien pointed out that Israel is using the same modus operandi in Lebanon where it has targeted hospitals.

She mentioned how a kindergarten center in the Ukraine was also targeted by Russian missiles, an alarming indication that the targeting of innocent women and children is becoming common-place.

WCNSF-A HEARTBREAKING NEW MEDICAL ACRONYM

Dr Firoza says the total number ‘Wounded Children with No Surviving Family’ in Gaza hospitals has not been fully accounted for.

“There are no surviving relatives of an injured four-year-old child with no uncles, aunts and absolutely no surviving relatives. Who will take care of them, will they go from foster home to another?”

The Gaza health ministry has estimated that there are approximately 17,000 children who face the uncertain future and the prospect of growing up without the love and support of a family.

UNRWA Photo
AFP PHOTO / HO / UNRWA

’MEDICAL’APARTHIED-FREE’ ZONES’

In April last year, HCW4P teamed up with the organisation spearheading South Africa’s Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign against Israel, the SA BDS Coalition.

The aim of the campaign was to remove the products of Israeli pharmaceutical giant, TEVA, from South African shelves.

TEVA is the world’s largest producer of generic medicines and one of Israel’s biggest taxpayers.

“The boycott has been well received by general practitioners in their surgeries and pharmacies who proudly inform their patients through posters that their practices are apartheid-free zones.”

ISRAEL HAS ATTACKED HEALTHCARE SECTOR MORE THAN 1,000 TIMES

In June, the World Health Organization said more than 885 healthcare workers had been killed in Gaza and the West Bank since 7 October 2023.

The WHO has also documented 1,043 attacks by the Israeli Occupying Force on hospitals, clinics and healthcare centres in the Gaza Strip, West Bank, and East Jerusalem since 7 October 2023.

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