UN body issues damning report on Israeli attacks on Gaza hospitals

ZURICH – Israeli attacks on hospitals in Gaza have devastated the Palestinian enclave’s health system and raised serious concerns about Israel’s compliance with international law, the UN Human Rights Office said in a report on Dec 31.

The 23-page report, documenting various attacks between Oct 12, 2023, and June 30, 2024, concluded that since the

Hamas attacks against Israel on Oct 7,

2023, the conduct of hostilities in Gaza had had severe consequences on Palestinians’ access to medical attention.

It said that during this time, there were at least 136 strikes on 27 hospitals and 12 other medical facilities.

“The destruction of the healthcare system in Gaza, and the extent of killing of patients, staff and other civilians in these attacks, is a direct consequence of the disregard of international humanitarian and human rights law,” it said.

It found Israel’s repeated claims that Gaza hospitals were being improperly used for military purposes by Palestinian groups “vague”.

“Insufficient information has so far been made publicly available to substantiate these allegations, which have remained vague and broad, and in some cases, appear contradicted by publicly available information,” the report said.

Israel’s permanent representative to the UN in Geneva, Mr Daniel Meron, described the report’s data as fabricated.

He said on X that Israel operates in accordance with international law, would never target innocent civilians, and accused Hamas of using Gaza hospitals for what he called “terror activity”.

The Israeli military has accused Hamas of using hospitals as command centres for military operations and said people Israel has detained at the facilities were suspected militants.

In the past few days, Israel has conducted operations against hospitals in Gaza that drew criticism from the head of the World Health Organisation (WHO), among others.

The UN rights office said Israel’s raid on the Kamal Adwan hospital in north Gaza on Dec 27 and 28 wrought “appalling destruction” and reflected the pattern of attacks documented in the report.

The report said attacks on hospitals typically involved missile strikes on hospital buildings, the destruction of facilities, shooting of civilians, and sieges, as well as the temporary takeover of hospital buildings.

Israeli military raids on the Al-Shifa medical complex had left it in “complete ruin”, it added.

Three mass graves were later found at the hospital.

Some of the corpses retrieved still had catheters and cannulas attached, suggesting that they were patients, the report said.

It said that at Al Awda Hospital in December 2023, “a volunteer nurse in the hospital was fatally shot in the chest while looking out of a window”.

The report said deliberately directing attacks at hospitals and places where the sick and wounded are, provided they are not military objectives, would be war crimes.

It also warned that a systemic pattern of rights abuses against civilians could constitute crimes against humanity.

Israel has consistently rejected such suggestions.

The UN said that responding to its report, the Israeli government said its military had taken extensive measures to mitigate civilian harm and minimise disruption, including providing aid and evacuation routes, and setting up field hospitals.

Still, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mr Volker Turk, said the report’s findings pointed to “blatant disregard for international humanitarian and human rights law”.

"As if the relentless bombing and the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza were not enough, the one sanctuary where Palestinians should have felt safe in fact became a death trap," Mr Turk said in a statement.

Israel's campaign against Hamas in Gaza has killed more than 45,500 Palestinians, according to Palestinian health officials, and turned the enclave into a wasteland.

The war was triggered by a Hamas attack on southern Israel on Oct 7, 2023, in which 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken to Gaza as hostages, according to Israeli tallies. REUTERS, AFP