GAZA, (PIC)
The Hamas Movement has strongly denounced the international community over its deafening silence on the genocide and the humanitarian catastrophe that are taking place at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City and in the neighborhoods around it at the hands of the Israeli occupation forces.
In a statement on Sunday, Hamas accused the Israeli army of committing “heinous war crimes” at Al-Shifa Hospital and the areas around it, including executions, abuse, arson attacks on inhabited homes, besieging civilians inside the hospital and homes, and displacing many citizens amid gunfire and bombardment.
Hamas said that the Israeli army’s “Nazi practices” at Al-Shifa Hospital and its vicinity found no reactions from the international community, the UN and their institutions.
Hamas urged the Arab and Muslim peoples, the world’s free people and the Palestinian masses in the West Bank, Jerusalem and 1948 occupied Palestine to take immediate action to put pressure on the interests of the Israeli occupation and its supporters.
For the seventh day running, Israeli forces continue to commit appalling atrocities at Al-Shifa Hospital and in surrounding neighborhoods.
Media reports say Israeli soldiers have executed over 200 civilians, kidnaped over 800 others, and have been besieging hundreds of citizens inside the hospital and nearby homes since the Israeli army started its renewed operation against the hospital a few days ago.
A Palestinian survivor told Al Jazeera satellite channel that many citizens had been killed by Israeli sniper fire after they were kidnaped from Al-Shifa Hospital and detained for several hours.
A female eyewitness also told Al Jazeera that the Israeli army forced 65 families to leave an area near the hospital after set the building they were in aflame, adding that the besieged people in and around the hospital had been appealing to the Red Cross for six days to provide water for children and patients and intervene to evacuate them from the area.
She affirmed that Israeli soldiers burned entire families alive and also raped and killed women in the area.
In a related context, the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor has accused the Israeli army of persisting in using “Palestinian civilians as human shields in its military operation inside the Shifa Medical Complex and its vicinity in Gaza City.”
Euro-Med said it “documented several consistent testimonies regarding the Israeli army’s deliberate use of Palestinian civilians as human shields against their will, and forcing them into dangerous situations to secure and protect its forces and military operations inside the Shifa Medical Complex, adding that “this has been ongoing since early Monday morning.”
“Testimonies reveal that Israeli forces used civilians, including patients and displaced individuals inside the Shifa Medical Complex, as human shields, exploiting them to protect their military operations within the hospital, form barriers behind their forces and military vehicles, or send them under threat to residential homes and buildings surrounding the medical complex to evacuate them before the Israeli army raids, arrests some of the residents, and subsequently destroys many of these buildings.”
“Furthermore, several families residing near the Shifa Medical Complex reported that Israeli forces used young men, who were arrested from inside the complex, to enter their homes and demand immediate evacuation to central and southern Gaza Strip,” according to Euro-Med.
“A woman from the “Arafat” family informed the Euro-Med Monitor team that they were surprised by the entry of a man in his late thirties, stripped of his clothes except for his underwear. He informed them that the Israeli army sent him to evacuate their home within 30 minutes, threatening to bomb it over their heads. Upon their evacuation, as ordered, they witnessed several other Palestinian youths in similar conditions, as the army forced them to enter neighboring homes to warn their residents.”
Last Monday morning, the Israeli army raided Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City amid heavy gunfire and drone overflights, resulting in hundreds of deaths and injuries, and the detention of hundreds more. Additionally, dozens of residential homes surrounding the medical facility were destroyed and set ablaze after being raided.
Euro-Med has expressed its “deep concern about the current situation in the Shifa Medical Complex and the risks facing civilians, including patients, healthcare workers, and displaced individuals inside it, who are protected under international humanitarian law. Medical facilities and civilians must be protected and attacks against them must be halted immediately.”
Euro-Med called on the international community to shoulder its responsibilities and work immediately on stopping Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
