A Geneva-based human rights group has called Israel’s two weeks long military operation inside Gaza’s Al Shifa hospital, which has left hundreds killed including medical staff and aid workers as “one of the largest massacres in Palestinian history.”
The human rights group chaired by Richard Falk, former United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories, said that the assault on the hospital “is the most visible aspect yet of Israel’s systematic and carefully crafted plan to destroy and besiege the Gaza Strip’s health sector, bring it to the brink of collapse, and deny the Palestinian population any chance at survival or medical care, or shelter.”
“Euro-Med Monitor is able to confirm from its initial investigation and testimonies that hundreds of dead bodies, including some burned, and others with their heads and limbs severed, have been discovered both inside Al-Shifa Medical Complex and in the hospital’s surrounding area,” the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor said in a statement released on Monday.
“Though the exact number of casualties from the atrocity is still unknown, preliminary reports suggest that over 1,500 Palestinians have been killed, injured, or are reported missing as a result of the massacre at Al-Shifa, with women and children making up half of the casualties,” the rights group said.
It further said that at least 22 patients were killed in their hospital beds during Israel’s siege as the army “willfully deprived them of their access to food, medical care, and supplies.”
“Israel’s army also purposefully prevented relief teams and representatives of international organisations from entering Al-Shifa to carry out humanitarian missions or evacuations, plus purposefully cleared the Complex of all working personnel—particularly medical personnel—either by summary execution or forced displacement or arrest,” the rights group said in its statement adding that the whereabouts of some of these individuals who were taken into custody remain unknown.
The rights group also pointed out the violation of international laws by the Israeli army during its operation in the Al-Shifa hospital.
“The Israeli army committed the Al-Shifa Medical Complex massacre with the utmost disregard for international humanitarian law, particularly its rules pertaining to distinction, proportionality, and military necessity; respect for the unique protections enjoyed by civilian hospitals and medical teams; protection for civilians; protection for the sick and wounded; and the prohibition against targeting them even if they are military personnel,” it said.
Built on a 42,000-square-metre plot, the Al Shifa hospital is reportedly the largest medical complex in Gaza, with multiple buildings, some with multiple stories. ‘Shifa’ meaning heal, the hospital provided medical aid for the whole of Gaza. The hospital complex housed three specialised hospitals with a combined clinical capacity of 800 beds: the Surgery Hospital, the Internal Medicine Hospital, and the Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital.
As the Israeli army withdrew from the hospital in the early hours of Monday after a two-week-long siege, the entire building was seen burnt to the ground.
“Al-Shifa Medical Complex is currently out of service due to the Israeli army bombing and setting fire to every one of its buildings, including the mortuary and all internal and external courtyards and corridors,” the statement by Euro-Med Monitor read.
The rights group also alleged that the Israeli army forced more than 25,000 Palestinian civilians out of their homes in the vicinity of Al-Shifa Medical Complex.
“These forced evacuations occurred after Israel committed horrendous crimes against local families, including killing, direct targeting, besieging, and starving them, as well as arbitrary arrests and destroying and burning homes and civilian objects. According to initial estimates, the Israeli army demolished and set ablaze over 1,200 housing units in the vicinity of Al-Shifa Medical Complex,” it said.
Euro-Med Monitor also called on the international community to intervene and stop the atrocities happening in Gaza.
“The international community must act swiftly and forcefully to defend Palestinian civilians against the genocide that Israel has been committing in the Gaza Strip for the past six months. This action should include safeguarding the ill, injured, displaced, medical personnel, and journalists, as well as applying genuine pressure on Israel to cease its grave crimes in the region, including those committed against medical facilities, as well as its forced displacement and starvation of civilians,” it said.
More than 32000 Palestinians, most of them women and children have been killed by the Israeli army in Gaza since the beginning of the ongoing war.