Israelite occupations and the prohibition of medical supply contributed directly to the death of about 84 patients, concludes inspection body
Israeli forces committed war crimes against patients while occupying hospitals in the Gaza Strip, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Thursday.
The Human Rights Defense Organization said the army “caused unnecessary deaths and suffering” of about 84 Palestinian patients while occupying medical facilities, denying supply of electricity, water, food and medicines.
Witnesses in three hospitals also reported that gunfire shots shot, mistreated and forcibly moved health professionals and patients. They also said that the soldiers deliberately targeted facilities and medical equipment – acts that HRW concluded that they were equivalent to war crimes.
The report is based on interviews with nine patients and two health professionals who witnessed the Israeli attacks and occupations of the Al-Shifa Medical Complex in the city of Gaza in November 2023 and March 2024, Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia in January 2024 and the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Youis in February 2024.
The medical team reported that the blockade of hospitals by Israeli forces, which prevented access to ambulances and medical supplies, made treatment difficult and directly contributed to the deaths of injured and chronic diseases, including children in dialysis.
Dr. Khalif Abu Samra, an Al-Shifa healthcare professional, told HRW that he witnessed employees disconnecting a patient from a fan due to lack of electricity.
The Israeli forces also evacuated hospitals, rarely facilitating transfer to other facilities, without providing assistance to those in stretchers and wheelchairs, and shot patients and escape ambulances.
No safe route
On October 13, 2023, the Israeli army issued an expulsion order to northern Gaza, which included Al-Shifa, Palestine’s largest medical center, where 50,000 displaced people were housed.
The order was issued although there is no safe and reliable route to leave the complex.
When the hospital tried to evacuations, Israeli air strikes aimed at ambulances that took patients away from the complex. An attack left at least 21 people killed or injured, including five children.
Ridana Zukhra, 23, reported that she was shot by an Israeli tank while trying to escape the complex with her children, brother and cousin. His five -year -old daughter was so seriously injured in the attack that her leg had to be amputated.
On November 12, Israeli forces blocked the hospital, which housed about 600 patients at the time, including premature babies and dialysis patients. Israel cut access and power supply to the installation, resulting in the deaths of about 40 patients between November 11 and 17, 2023.
On November 15, troops invaded the installation. Shahad Al-Qtaiiti was receiving treatment at the time for injuries suffered in an attack on his apartment building in the city of Gaza on October 11, which killed her husband and her mother-in-law. Qutaiti had given birth to a stillborn girl days before the attack.
She recalled that the Israeli forces fired “a sound grenade [flash-bang] and a grenade of smoke through the windows to force people to go down. ”
Israeli soldiers ordered patients and employees to evacuate on November 17. According to Dr. Abu Samra, about 150 patients could not move, including those in a coma, double amputates and premature babies.
According to UN media and agencies reports, five premature babies died in the hospital from November 11 to 19. Abu Samra reported that at least 10 patients on dialysis machines “refused to leave”, and that he “had no idea” what happened to them.
Another doctor reported that a maternity patient died after being transferred to another unit that had no proper intensive treatment.
When Israeli forces retired from Al-Shifa in early April 2024, after a second deadly siege of two weeks to the hospital, the buildings were reduced to rubble, with piles of corpses scattered throughout the complex.
With limited access to cemeteries and necroteriums crowded with the dead, families were forced to dig temporary pits in the hospital courtyards. Some victims were buried in common ditches by Israeli troops during their attack.
Earlier this month, amid the now extinguished ceasefire, Gaza Civil Defense teams began to relocate the hospital’s courtyards for the city’s cemeteries.
‘Centers of Death and Maus-Tratos’
The Israeli military has repeatedly justified their attacks on the medical facilities of Gaza with allegations that hospitals are used by Palestinian armed groups such as “Military Command Centers,” but failed to provide any verifiable evidence for these allegations.
HRW emphasized that attacking hospitals and medical teams is a violation of humanitarian international law.
Although the inspection agency has recognized that medical facilities may be subject to attacks if they “are used to commit harmful acts to the enemy,” he said that “the presence of injured or sick combatants and their small weapons do not make hospitals subject to attacks.”
“Although the Israeli forces had effective control over hospitals, they were also required by International Human Rights Law to respect, protect and fulfill the right to the highest possible health standard,” the report says.
Bill Van Esved, HRW’s associate director of Child Rights, said: “The Israeli military occupation of Gaza hospitals turned healing and recovery places into death centers and abuse.”
“Those responsible for these horrible abuses, including high employees, must be held responsible,” he added.
Originally published by Mee on 03/20/2025
Source: https://www.ocafezinho.com/2025/03/20/israel-cometeu-crimes-de-guerra-durante-ocupacoes-de-hospitais-em-gaza/
