GENEVA: A United Nations inquiry mentioned it discovered that Israel carried out a concerted coverage of destroying Gaza’s healthcare system within the Gaza war, actions amounting to each battle crimes and the crime in opposition to humanity of extermination.
A press release on Thursday (Oct 10) by former UN Excessive Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay that accompanied the report accused Israel of “relentless and deliberate assaults on medical personnel and amenities” within the battle, triggered by Hamas militants’ lethal cross-border assault on southern Israel on Oct 7, 2023.
“Kids specifically have borne the brunt of those assaults, struggling each immediately and not directly from the collapse of the well being system,” mentioned Pillay, whose 24-page report masking the primary 10 months of the battle shall be offered to the UN Basic Meeting on Oct 30.
Israel’s diplomatic mission in Geneva rejected the report’s findings, calling them outrageous.
“(The report) is one other blatant try by the CoI to delegitimise the very existence of the State of Israel and hinder its proper to guard its inhabitants,” it mentioned, referring to the Fee of Inquiry.
Israel says Gaza’s militants function from the quilt of built-up populated areas together with faculties and hospitals and that it’s going to strike them wherever they emerge, whereas additionally attempting to keep away from harming civilians. Hamas denies hiding militants, weapons and command posts amongst civilians.
The UN inquiry’s assertion additionally accused Israeli forces of intentionally killing and torturing medical personnel, focusing on medical automobiles and proscribing permits for sufferers to go away the besieged Gaza Strip.
It cited the loss of life of a Palestinian woman, Hind Rajab, in February together with relations and two medics who got here to rescue her from below Israeli hearth as they evacuated. The report mentioned the ambulance was hit by a tank shell whereas inside 50m of the household regardless of its route having been coordinated prematurely with Israeli safety forces.
