The Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor called for an independent international investigation committee into the deaths of five newborn Palestinian children being left for their own after medical staff were forcibly evacuated by the Israeli army from Al-Nasr Hospital for Children in Gaza.
According to the Euro-Med documentation, the five infants were abandoned for three weeks before being found dead and in a decomposing state in the Al-Nasr Hospital nursery, in what may amount to a horrifying execution and a crime against humanity.
The hospital’s director, Dr. Mustafa Al-Kahlot, told the Euro-Med Monitor that he tried to save the lives of the five children before it was too late by sending out a request for help to international organizations, such as the Red Cross, but he never got a response.
Al-Kahlot said that he told an Israeli army officer about the five children’s need for respirators and that they could not be moved, and the army responded by saying that it was aware of the situation and would take appropriate action.
In an earlier testimony, the doctor Mona Yousef told the Euro-Med Monitor regarding her forced evacuation of the remaining patients and staff, some of whom were critically ill, towards the southern Gaza Valley displacement area on November 10. She also stated that the hospital had been repeatedly targeted by gunfire and artillery attacks, as well as being surrounded by Israeli military vehicles.
According to the testimony of the doctor and other hospital officials, they were forced to leave two children in the care unit, two in foster care, and a fifth case of “Edwards Syndrome” for an orphan girl whose entire family was killed. The Israeli officer affirmed in the phone conversation with the hospital director that the infants were transferred and rescued.
However, the children were left behind because there was nothing that could have been done to save their lives during the evacuation, such as transferring them to another accredited medical facility, which never happened. Instead, they were abandoned on the same machines to die in silence.
The Euro-Med Monitor demanded that the Israeli army be held accountable for the incident, and that the Red Cross should also be held responsible for suspicions of negligence in responding to calls to save the lives of children and patients in Gaza.
The Geneva-based organization also emphasized the importance of ending the Israeli evasion of its obligations to protect civilians, ending the siege or targeting of medical facilities, and directly causing mass killings, including newborn children.
