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UN Expert Urges Medical World to Cut Ties With Israel Amid Attacks on Gaza Hospitals
Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese condemned Israel's destruction of Gaza's healthcare system as "a critical tool of its ongoing genocide."
Dec 30, 2024
As Israeli forces stand accused of war crimes during attacks on multiple Gaza hospitals in recent days, Francesca Albanese—the United Nations special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories—on Monday implored the global medical community to respond by cutting ties with Israel.
"I urge medical professionals worldwide to pursue the severance of all ties with Israel as a concrete way to forcefully denounce Israel's full destruction of the Palestinian healthcare system in Gaza, a critical tool of its ongoing genocide," Albanese wrote on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
Albanese amplified a post by Dr. Rupa Marya—one of the most vocal defenders of Palestinian human rights in the U.S. medical community—calling on Israeli forces to release Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia.
Abu Safiya, who documented Israel's siege and attack on Kamal Adwan and who reported last week that nearly 50 people including five hospital staff members were killed by an Israel Defense Forces airstrike on a nearby apartment tower, was among dozens of other medical staffers abducted by IDF troops on Saturday.
After besieging and attacking the hospital for weeks, Israeli forces raided the facility and rounded up 240 people, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Israel claimed without evidence that Kamal Adwan was being used as a Hamas command center. With the facility shut down and badly damaged, critical patients and their caregivers were forced to evacuate to the nearby Indonesian Hospital.
The Geneva-based Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor on Saturday published accounts from witnesses to alleged IDF war crimes during the Kamal Adwan raid, including "deliberate killings, field executions, as well as sexual and physical assaults on women and girls from medical teams and displaced women in the area."
CNNreported Monday that Abu Safiya is believed to be held at Sde Teiman, the notorious prison in Israel's Negev Desert where dozens of detainees have died and former inmates say many others have been tortured and raped. The IDF dubiously claimed that Abu Safiya is "suspected of being a Hamas terrorist operative."
On Sunday, Israeli forces also attacked al-Wafa Hospital in Gaza City, killing seven people, according to Gaza Civil Defense officials. Israel said the strike targeted Hamas militants, without providing further information. Anadolu also reported an IDF artillery attack on the Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza City on Sunday.
The World Health Organization (WHO) on Monday said it was "appalled" by the Kamal Adwan raid and called out the "systematic dismantling of the health system" in Gaza by Israeli forces.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus—who on Thursday survived a deadly Israeli airstrike on Sanaa International Airport in Yemen—on Sunday condemned and demanded an end to IDF attacks on Gaza hospitals.
"Hospitals in Gaza have once again become battlegrounds and the health system is under severe threat," Tedros said on X. "We repeat: Stop attacks on hospitals. People in Gaza need access to healthcare. Humanitarians need access to provide health aid. Cease-fire!"
On Monday, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said in a statement that "repeated hostilities in and around hospitals have obliterated the healthcare system in northern Gaza, putting civilians at an unacceptably grave risk of going without lifesaving care."
"The influx of patients, caregivers, and displaced civilians seeking shelter creates a situation that medical personnel cannot solve," ICRC continued. "The increasingly dangerous situation comes in addition to more than a year of insufficient provision of medical equipment and supplies, fuel, food, and specialized healthcare capacities."
"ICRC reiterates its urgent call for the respect and protection of medical facilities in line with international humanitarian law," the organization added. "This protection is a legal obligation and a moral imperative to preserve human life."
Since October 7, 2023, when Hamas led a massive attack on Israel, at least 45,484 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, with nearly 120,000 others wounded or missing, according to local health officials. Israel's "complete siege" of Gaza has also forcibly displaced, starved, or sickened most of the enclave's population. Gaza officials reported five infants, a child, and a nurse have died due to cold temperatures and exposure in recent days.
The International Court of Justice is currently weighing a genocide case against Israel brought by South Africa and supported by numerous other countries and rights groups.
Palestine defenders in the international medical community are planning a "call in sick from genocide" global day of action on January 6. Organizers are calling on members of healthcare worker unions to push for a strike, and for doctors and others to organize free clinics that day.
Marya, a professor of medicine at University of California, San Francisco who is currently on paid suspension after questioning whether an incoming student from Israel—where IDF service is near-universal—took part in war crimes in Gaza, posted Monday in support of the day of action.
"It is absolutely essential that when we see any entity, any group, destroying healthcare, and using the destruction of healthcare as a way to accelerate the annihilation of a people, as Israel is doing, it is absolutely urgent that the global medical community calls to stop this," Marya told Common Dreams on Monday.
"And we stop it through demanding an arms embargo, demanding unrestricted humanitarian aid into Gaza, and demanding the end to all institutional relationships between our medical institutions and Israeli institutions," she continued. "What we need to do right now is to stop the normalization of genocide, enablement, and perpetration in our spaces of healthcare."
"What we're seeing is genocide... accelerated through targeting the people who are supposed to heal," Marya added. "The healthcare system in Gaza has been targeted in order to accelerate the annihilation of the Palestinian people. And if the global healthcare community does not stand up right now, this will be the future of all wars."
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Israeli Evacuation Orders in South Spark Fears of Wider Gaza Bombing
"Nowhere in Gaza is safe," lamented one Red Cross official.
Nov 16, 2023
After already displacing nearly 70% of Gaza's population, mostly from the northern part of the strip, Israeli forces on Wednesday ordered residents of the southern Gazan city of Khan Younis to evacuate, fueling fears of further escalation of a war in which nearly 40,000 Palestinians have been killed or injured.
Israel Defense Forces (IDF) personnel dropped leaflets reading, "To the residents of the eastern neighborhoods of Khan Younis, Al Qarara, Khuzaa, Bani Suheila, and Abasan, for your safety, you must evacuate your homes immediately and head to the known shelters."
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant explained Wednesday that the IDF invasion will "include both the north and south" of Gaza, while vowing to "strike Hamas wherever it is."
Jessica Moussan, spokeswoman for the International Committee of the Red Cross, toldThe National that the new evacuation orders "further endanger the lives of over a million people."
"These orders lack adequate provisions for basic necessities such as shelter, food, water, and medical care," she continued. "This significantly increases the risk to civilians."
"Today, civilians in Gaza face the stark reality of being trapped in a conflict zone with very limited humanitarian aid and safe spaces," Moussan added. "Nowhere in Gaza is safe."
Ahmed Bayram, a spokesperson for the humanitarian group Norwegian Refugee Council, told The National that the IDF order is "simply unrealistic, let alone unlawful."
"Our teams on the ground, many of them displaced in Khan Younis, tell us they and their extended families have nowhere to go," he said. "Israel, even after its original orders to move northern residents to the south, has persistently bombed areas it claimed to be safe."
"These are all places where people thought they would be safe. It turns out they were just as dangerous," Bayram added. "The tragedy is repeating itself here."
It is feared that Israel's new evacuation order will exacerbate the humanitarian crisis in Gaza—which some Israeli officials deny exists—with the World Health Organization in recent days warning of the swift spread of infectious diseases due to weakened people in overcrowded conditions characterized by a lack of basic health and sanitation supplies.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) said Wednesday that "nearly 813,000 internally displaced persons are now sheltering in 154 UNRWA installations across all five governorates of the Gaza Strip, including in the north."
The Gaza Health Ministry says that more than 11,200 Palestinians—two-thirds of them women and children—have been killed since October 7, when Hamas-led attacks on Israel killed around 1,200 Israeli and international civilians and soldiers and left another 240 as hostages. Gaza officials said more than 28,000 Palestinians have been injured and 2,700 others are missing.
As many as 1.7 million Gazans have been forcibly displaced, while half the homes in the besieged strip have been damaged or destroyed.
"In the north, hundreds of thousands of people who are unwilling or unable to move to the south remain amid intense hostilities," the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said Thursday. "They are struggling to secure the minimum amount of water and food for survival."
On Thursday, the U.N. Inter-Agency Standing Committee, the world body's top humanitarian coordination forum, rejected an Israeli proposal to push displaced Gazans into so-called "safe zones" in the south of the strip.
"We will not participate in the establishment of any 'safe zone' in Gaza that is set up without the agreement of all the parties, and unless fundamental conditions are in place to ensure safety and other essential needs are met and a mechanism is in place to supervise its implementation," IASC said in a statement.
"Under the prevalent conditions, proposals to unilaterally create 'safe zones' in Gaza risk creating harm for civilians, including large-scale loss of life, and must be rejected," the group continued. "Without the right conditions, concentrating civilians in such zones in the context of active hostilities can raise the risk of attack and additional harm."
"No 'safe zone' is truly safe when it is declared unilaterally or enforced by the presence of armed forces," IASC added.
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'Outrageous Targeting' as Doctors Without Borders Supported Hospital in Syria Bombed
'Where is the outrage among those with the power and obligation to stop this carnage?'
Apr 28, 2016
Doctors Without Borders said Thursday that a hospital it supported in the Syrian city of Aleppo was bombed, destroying the key pediatric facility and killing at least 14 people.
The medical humanitarian aid group, also known by its French acronym, MSF, said in a statement that two doctors were among the casualties, including one of the last pediatricians in Aleppo, and that other medical structures in the city had also been attacked this week.
Witnesses said the Al Quds hospital was hit by a missile from a fighter jet Wednesday, according to CNN.
"MSF categorically condemns this outrageous targeting of yet another medical facility in Syria," said Muskilda Zancada, MSF head of mission for Syria. "This devastating attack has destroyed a vital hospital in Aleppo and the main referral center for pediatric care in the area. Where is the outrage among those with the power and obligation to stop this carnage?"
MSF, along with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which also supported the Al Quds hospital, took to Twitter to express outrage over what appeared to be a deliberate targeting of the life-saving facility.
\u201cDestroyed #MSF-supported hospital in Aleppo was well known locally & hit by direct airstrike on Wednesday. Hospitals are #notatarget #Syria\u201d— MSF International (@MSF International) 1461831653
\u201cWe are outraged at the destruction of Al Quds hospital in #Aleppo, #Syria. Hospitals are #notatarget\u201d— MSF International (@MSF International) 1461838030
\u201cWe condemn the destruction of the Al Quds hospital in #Aleppo, depriving people of essential healthcare. Hospitals are #notatarget, #Syria\u201d— MSF International (@MSF International) 1461831719
\u201cWe stand with our @MSF colleagues. Civilians must be protected. Hospitals are not a target. #Syria https://t.co/sSZzy6OnkN\u201d— ICRC (@ICRC) 1461841870
"The recent attack on the ICRC-supported Quds hospital is unacceptable and sadly this is not the first time the lifesaving medical services have been hit," said Marianne Gasser, head of the ICRC mission in Syria, in a press statement. "We urge all the parties to spare the civilians. Don't attack hospitals, don't use weapons that cause widespread damage. Otherwise, Aleppo will be pushed further to the brink of humanitarian disaster."
The organizations didn't lay blame on any particular party, the Guardiannotes, "but the Syrian and Russian air forces have carried out almost all the aerial strikes on the opposition-controlled east of the city."
Speaking at a press conference Wednesday, UN special envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura described the "worrisome deterioration of the cessation of hostilities" as the country's five-year civil war continues and referenced the Aleppo hospital strike. He added, "In the last 48 hours, we have had an average of one Syrian killed every 25 minutes. One Syrian wounded every 13 minutes."
He said that for those inside of Syria, "The perception is that [the cessation of hostilities] could collapse at any time," adding that Russia and the U.S. are key, as they were in February, to make the truce "urgently revitalized."
Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) similarly described the nearly two-month truce as having "nearly disintegrated" while peace talks in Geneva have stalled. As Reutersexplains,
The Geneva talks aim to end a war that has killed more than 250,000 people, created the world's worst refugee crisis, allowed for the rise of Islamic State and drawn in regional and major powers but the negotiations have all but failed and a truce to allow them to take place has collapsed."
"If Syria's leaders and the international community cannot reach a peace accord, there's no doubt attacks on health care will continue, and the consequences will be deadly for everyday Syrians. How many more doctors and patients have to die before the international community musters the will to end this bloodshed?" asked PHR Syria researcher Elise Baker.
And there's been no sign of an end to bloodshed over the past few days as fighting has intensified, with fresh airstrikes Thursday on the city killing dozens. According to reporting by the Associated Press, "About 200 civilians have been killed in the past week, nearly half of them around Aleppo."
"With the civilian death toll rising and hundreds of thousands of people fleeing the country, key powers need to be focused on protecting civilians in all parts of Syria," said Nadim Houry, Human Rights Watch's deputy Middle East director. "There are decisive measures that key powers, particularly those on the Security Council, can take to deter abusive parties and improve protection for civilians," he said.
Meanwhile, military officials told NBC News that the U.S. would release on Friday a redacted version of its investigation into U.S. airstrikes on MSF's trauma hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan, that killed at least 30 people.
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