GENEVA, (PIC)
At the start of the fifth month of its genocidal war against the Gaza Strip, Israel has not stopped targeting what is left of the health system and sabotaging any chance it may have to save Palestinian lives by firing and bombarding hospitals, ambulances, and medical teams, the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor said in a statement issued Friday.
Euro-Med documented several serious Israeli military attacks in the last few days, which have disrupted the partial return of hospital services, particularly in Gaza City and its northern regions. These attacks are part of a larger Israeli attack that has been affecting the health sector since October 7.
In this regard, Euro-Med teams have documented the killing of Muhammad Al-Omari, a paramedic at the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS), and the wounding of two other paramedics—one with shrapnel in his eye, the other in his chest—after an Israeli sniper opened fire at their vehicle in Gaza City on Wednesday evening, February 7, while evacuating wounded people from Gaza City hospitals to the southern region despite their prior coordination with the Israeli army.
The Israeli army targeted the Medical Development Foundation in the Al-Shifa Medical Complex on the same day, according to the Euro-Med Monitor, resulting in five displaced people being killed. The report also stressed that the Israeli air raids and bombings, which included dropping leaflets urging residents to evacuate, will result in putting this hospital out of service and disrupting any attempt to resume its work, especially that the hospital has been subjected to massive Israeli military attacks in November, including bombing, storming, and purposeful destruction of its departments, buildings, and equipment.
Artillery shelling and gunfire targeted the Al-Awda Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip twice this month, according to Euro-Med, which emphasized that Israel is still preventing the delivery of fuel and medical supplies necessary for the hospital to be able to reopen.
The human rights organization further demanded that an independent international investigation be launched immediately into the war crimes and grave violations that Israel has committed against hospitals, medical personnel, and medical transports in the Gaza Strip. These violations included turning numerous hospitals into combat zones, the extrajudicial killing of Palestinians, and denying health care to all Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip, which puts their lives in danger.
The Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor further demanded that efforts be made to bring those responsible for these crimes and violations—as well as those who gave the orders—to justice at all levels of the legal system, including the International Criminal Court.
