A UN Human Rights Council-appointed committee of experts has accused Israel of deliberately destroying Gaza’s health sector amid its war against Palestinian extremist organization Hamas.
In a report published Thursday, independent human rights experts accused Israel of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity during its campaign in the disputed coastal region.
“The Commission notes that Israel has pursued a coordinated policy to destroy Gaza’s healthcare system. Israeli security forces have deliberately killed, injured, arrested, detained, abused and tortured medical personnel and attacked medical vehicles, committing the war crimes of intentional murder and assault and
the crime against humanity of extermination,” the report said.
The Independent International Commission of Inquiry was convened by the UN to investigate the situation in the occupied Palestinian territories and Israel.
In its latest report, the panel also assessed the treatment of the hostages kidnapped by Palestinian militants into Gaza on October 7 last year, as well as the treatment of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prison.
The experts accuse both Israel and armed Palestinian groups of subjecting prisoners to torture and sexual violence.
Israel arrested and tortured medical workers, deliberately targeted ambulances and caused immense suffering with attacks mainly on children’s hospitals and neonatal units, the report said.
The commission holds a specific Israeli military unit responsible for the killing of a five-year-old girl named Hind Rajab in Gaza City, along with six family members and two rescuers who tried to save her.
When asked about such attacks, the Israeli military consistently replies that Hamas has used hospitals as command centers and that its paramedics include terrorists.
The expert committee called for the immediate release of hostages kidnapped from Israel by Islamist extremists and an end to attacks on health workers in the Gaza Strip.
To address the root causes of the conflict, Israel must end its occupation of the Palestinian territories, withdraw settlers and pay reparations to victims, experts said.
The United Nations considers not only the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, but also the Gaza Strip to be occupied by Israel, in part because Israel continues to control all access to those areas.
Israel claims that the occupation of the Gaza Strip ended with the withdrawal of soldiers and settlers in 2005.
