UN investigation: Destruction of Gaza health system amounts to war crimes and genocide

A United Nations investigation said Thursday it had concluded that Israel had pursued a coordinated policy of destroying Gaza's health care system during the war, acts that amount to war crimes and the crime of genocide.

A statement issued by former High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay ahead of the release of a full report said that Israel had launched sustained and deliberate attacks on medical workers and facilities during the war.

“Children in particular bear the brunt of these attacks as they suffer directly or indirectly from the collapse of the health care system,” added Pillay, whose report will be presented to the UN General Assembly on October 30.

The UN investigation statement accused Israeli forces of deliberately killing and torturing medical workers, targeting medical vehicles and blocking permits allowing patients to leave the besieged Gaza Strip.

For example, the investigation noted the death in February of a Palestinian girl named Hind Rajab, along with her family members and two paramedics who came to rescue her amid Israeli shelling.

The World Health Organization says more than 10,000 patients in need of urgent medical evacuation have been prevented from leaving Gaza since the Rafah crossing on the border with Egypt was closed in May.

The Palestinian Health Ministry says about 1,000 doctors were killed in Gaza last year in what the World Health Organization has described as "an irreparable loss and a severe blow to the health care system."

With American support, Israel continues to wage a war of genocide in the Gaza Strip, resulting in the deaths of more than 139,000 Palestinian martyrs and wounded, most of them children and women, and more than 10,000 missing, amidst massive destruction and famine that killed dozens of children and elderly people, in one of the worst humanitarian disasters in the world.

In contempt of the international community, Israel continues its massacres in Gaza, ignoring the UN Security Council resolution to stop them immediately, and the International Court of Justice’s orders to take measures to prevent acts of genocide.

Source: Agencies