Geneva – Ma’an – The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor said that the Israeli army’s destruction of hospitals and health facilities in the northern Gaza Strip and completely putting the rest of them “which were already partially functioning” out of work means an Israeli decision to carry out a mass execution of the sick and injured, at a time when the violent military attack on Jabalia camp and its surroundings for 13 days, and horrific massacres continue to be committed against the civilian population there.
The Euro-Mediterranean Observatory highlighted in a statement today, Thursday, that Israeli army forces stormed, on the evening of Wednesday, May 22, Al-Awda Hospital in the Jabalia camp in the northern Gaza Strip, detained medical personnel, patients, and wounded, and began abusing them, several days after tightening a comprehensive siege on the hospital and targeting it in a manner Frequently and put him out of work.
Euro-Med confirmed that contact was cut off with members of the medical staff a
nd the sick and wounded who remained inside the hospital, while it is feared that murders, field executions, arbitrary arrests, and deprivation of water, food, and treatment will occur again, which happened previously in hospitals around the Gaza Strip, including Al-Awda Hospital itself, which It was subjected to a previous raid during the first invasion of Jabalia camp in December 2023, and its director, Dr. Ahmed Muhanna, was arrested along with other medical personnel.
In a statement to the Euro-Mediterranean Monitor team, Al-Hakim Fadi Al-Zaanin said at Al-Awda Hospital that the Israeli army imposed a siege on the hospital, which belongs to the civil society, six days ago and tightened the siege three days ago, while on Tuesday, it fired an artillery shell towards one of the hospital buildings in which he is located. 13 sick and injured people, and a medical staff numbering between 120-150 people.
‘Al-Zaanin’ added: On Wednesday afternoon, the Israeli army stormed the hospital courtyard and asked to int
erview everyone. He was asking for names and taking personal photos. They arrested one of the colleagues, called ‘Abdul-Jabbar al-Hanawi,’ who was elderly. The patients remained in the hospital, along with a doctor and six nurses. They took us out and determined an exit route for us towards western Gaza. The situation of patients is difficult, and there are two amputations and two caesarean sections.’
Doctor Talaat Abu Daghim told the Euro-Mediterranean team, ‘After four days of siege of Al Awda Hospital, today (Wednesday) the hospital was taken out of service. They took us all out, and the remaining patients, numbering about 15, were unable to be discharged due to the lack of ambulances. A doctor remained with them in the hospital. The reception department at the hospital: While we were leaving, they forced us to reveal our bodies, then subjected us to security examination and inspection, and then determined an exit route for us towards western Gaza.’
In another testimony given by ‘Muhammad Al-Darini’, who
was accompanying his wounded brother in Al-Awda Hospital, he said: ‘The army surrounded the hospital several days ago and bombed the fifth floor of the building. Today, they stormed the hospital and detained us for four hours. He asked me why I was there, and I said He told him that I was with my brother who was injured in the indiscriminate bombing of the Jabalia camp, and he was wounded in his legs, and then they released me and asked me to go to western Gaza during the days of the siege. We suffered from a lack of water and food and the lack of treatment.
The Euro-Med Monitor stated that the Kamal Adwan Hospital, located between the Jabalia camp and the Beit Lahia project in the northern Gaza Strip, was also subjected to siege, shooting, and repeated bombardment by Israeli aircraft and artillery, which caused it to be put out of operation, as many medical staff, patients, and wounded were forced to evacuate it, while the rest remained there. A number of medical teams with the wounded and patients unable t
o move, and communication with them was cut off as a result of the siege and the interruption of electricity and communications in the area.
The Euro-Mediterranean Observatory said that with these two hospitals out of service after they were partially restored to operation in recent weeks after being subjected to raids and vandalism by the Israeli army, all hospitals in the northern Gaza Strip have been out of service, and there is no longer any place to transfer the dead, wounded, or patients to to receive treatment. , including the cessation of all health care programs related to mothers and children.
He stressed that this means a deliberate Israeli decision to execute tens of thousands of people and cause their death, by depriving them of their right to health care.
According to United Nations estimates, there are more than 100,000 Palestinians displaced from the northern Gaza Strip as a result of the military attack and recent invasion that began on the evening of Saturday, May 10, while more than 100,
000 others are still inside their homes or in shelter centers in Jabalia, its camp, and Beit Lahia. And Beit Hanoun.
Euro-Med stated that hospitals in the northern Gaza Strip received more than 97 dead during the 11 days before they were out of service, and dozens of dead were also transferred to Al-Ahly (Al-Baptist) Hospital, which is the only hospital that is still partially operating in Gaza City, while Euro-Med received information There were dozens of dead, most of them civilians, including women and children, in the streets, under the rubble of destroyed homes, and inside and near shelter centers that were bombed and targeted by the Israeli army.
He also pointed out that the pictures he viewed and the preliminary information he received from his field team indicated that the Israeli army carried out an almost complete destruction of the Jabalia camp, which was considered one of the most densely populated places in the world and houses. The destruction affected more than 400 homes, which is a prelimina
ry statistic that is expected to rise, especially with the continuation of the Israeli attack and what pictures showed of surveying entire neighborhoods in the camp, while the percentage of destruction that has been inflicted on Jabalia and its camp since the start of the Israeli military attack last October Before the recent Israeli military operation there, it was about 75-85%.
Euro-Med stressed that the destruction of hospitals and medical facilities comes within the framework of the crime of genocide carried out by Israel against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip since October 7, 2023, and is at the forefront of the systematic, organized and wide-ranging plan that Israel is implementing to destroy the lives of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, and turn it into An uninhabitable place that lacks the most basic necessities of life and basic services, through a series of integrated crimes, the most dangerous of which is the systematic and widespread targeting of the health sector and putting it out of s
ervice through destruction and siege, bringing it to the point of no return, and depriving the Palestinians of opportunities for survival, life, hospitalization, and even shelter.
He stressed that the crimes committed by Israel against hospitals and protected persons in the Gaza Strip also constitute full-fledged war crimes, in addition to being crimes against humanity as they are being carried out within the framework of the systematic and widespread Israeli military attack against the civilian population in the Gaza Strip.
Euro-Med also confirmed that the Israeli army is carrying out its crimes against hospitals in the Gaza Strip without the slightest respect for the rules of international law, especially international humanitarian law, and in flagrant violation of the principles of distinction, proportionality and military necessity, and of the special protection enjoyed by civilian hospitals and medical teams, or the protection enjoyed by civilians whether in their capacity This is due to the fact that
they do not directly participate in hostilities, or the protection that the wounded and sick enjoy, and the prohibition of targeting them, even if they are military personnel.
Euro-Med renewed its call for urgent international intervention to establish field hospitals in northern Gaza, to put pressure on Israel to stop its repeated attacks on hospitals that have put them out of action, to ensure the peace of medical staff, the sick, the wounded, and the displaced inside them, to enable them to receive life-saving treatment, and to ensure that emergency cases are referred for treatment abroad.
Euro-Med called on the international community to intervene immediately and seriously to protect Palestinian civilians from the crime of genocide that Israel has been committing in the Gaza Strip for about eight months, to protect what remains of the health sector working, and to work on its immediate reconstruction as it is part of the necessary infrastructure to save the lives of Palestinians there, and to use means
Real pressure to force Israel to stop its serious and ongoing crimes, ensure its compliance with international law and the decisions of the International Court of Justice, implement arrest warrants once issued by the International Criminal Court against those responsible for committing these crimes, ensure their accountability and accountability, and compensate Palestinian victims.
Source: Maan News Agency