Calls for inquiry into ‘credible reports’ of Israeli abuses
▶ World Health Organisation ambulances carry dozens of severely injured Gazans to medical centres in south
UN human rights experts have called for an investigation into “credible reports” of women and children being killed and subjected to sexual assault and other degrading treatment by Israeli soldiers in Gaza.
The experts said they were “shocked by reports of the deliberate targeting and extrajudicial killing of Palestinian women and children in places where they sought refuge, or while fleeing”. Some were “reportedly holding pieces of white cloth when they were killed by the Israeli army or affiliated forces”, they said.
During their “arbitrary detention”, the women and girls were reportedly denied sanitary products, food and medicine and were severely beaten, the experts said.
On at least one occasion, women were kept in a cage “in the rain and cold, without food”. Some were “stripped naked and searched by male Israeli army officers”, the experts said.
They said they received at least two reports of rape and threats of sexual violence.
“Photos of female detainees in degrading circumstances were also reportedly taken by the Israeli army and uploaded online,” the experts said.
Hamas said the UN statement serves as evidence that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, and should be taken into account during hearings at the
International Court of Justice, in The Hague, which began on Monday.
The hearings are not directly related to the war in Gaza. They are the result of a 2022 UN General Assembly vote to seek an advisory opinion from the ICJ on what states should do about the occupation of Palestine.
“The statement issued by a group of UN experts, which documented the blatant human rights violations to which Palestinian women and girls are specifically subjected in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, is confirmation and additional evidence of the crime of genocide and ethnic cleansing committed by the occupation,” Hamas said yesterday.
In December, the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem said a mother and daughter were shot “in cold blood” by Israeli forces at the Church of the Holy Family compound in Gaza city.
Medics moved 32 patients from Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis on Sunday and Monday, after Gaza’s Health Ministry said the complex had been put out of service by power cuts and food and water shortages.
The World Health Organisation said its ambulances had carried the patients from the hospital while “active conflict” raged around them.
Damaged roads hindered the ambulances’ movement, “placing the health of patients at further risk”, the WHO said.
Among the patients were three suffering from paralysis, two with tracheostomies and several others with severely broken bones.
Two of the paralysed patients required manual ventilation because no portable ventilators were available.
WHO trauma surgeon Dr Athanasios Gargavanis said eight of the patients who were moved were unable to walk.
Conditions inside Nasser Hospital were dire, the WHO said, with no running water or electricity, while “medical waste and garbage are creating a breeding ground for disease”.
The hospital’s main building had been turned into a military barracks by Israeli troops, who had stormed the complex on Saturday.
The Health Ministry said troops had detained 70 staff and volunteers, including the hospital’s director Dr Nahed Abu Taeema. Israel has denied this claim.
In a post on social media, WHO director general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said more than 180 patients and 15 medics remained inside Nasser Hospital.
“The hospital is still experiencing an acute shortage of food, basic medical supplies, and oxygen,” he said, urging Israel to allow safe and sustained access to the complex to continue life-saving efforts.
“There is no tap water and no electricity, except a backup generator maintaining some life-saving machines.”
A video published by Dr Tedros showed WHO teams inside the complex, moving patients on to stretchers.
The footage showed departments of the hospital empty and abandoned, and damage to roads and buildings surrounding the complex.
The WHO said critical patients were moved to the European Hospital, International Medical Corps, Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital and field hospitals operated by the UAE and Indonesia, all in southern Gaza.
The breakdown in services at Nasser Hospital has had a trickle-down effect on the other medical centres.
Dr Soad Ali, a doctor at the European Hospital, said medics
The situation here is so difficult. There are no medications – not only for the wounded, but for simple things like the flu MOHAMMED ABU GHALWA Patient at European Hospital
were unable to keep up with the number of incoming patients, including those moved from Nasser.
“There are wounded individuals we receive, but we can’t treat them because the resources in Nasser Hospital are better than ours,” she said.
Dr Ali warned that hospitals would be unable to cope if Israel goes ahead with its planned incursion into Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city, where about 1.4 million people have taken refuge from the war.
“Sometimes, I feel paralysed when I can’t provide the patients with the medicine they need because we don’t have it,” she told The National.
With space running out at the European Hospital, civilians are having to sleep on the floor in corridors and rooms.
Mohammed Abu Ghalwa is a patient at the complex, seeking treatment for chest injuries. However, he said, his wounds are too complex to treat given the lack of resources.
“The situation here is so difficult. There are no medications – not only for the wounded, but for simple things like the flu,” he said.
The war in Gaza has claimed more than 29,100 lives, mostly women and children, the enclave’s Health Ministry says.
The Israeli military operation began on October 7, when Hamas, the militant group that governs Gaza, killed about 1,200 people and took 240 hostages during attacks on southern Israeli communities.
On Monday, the Palestinian Authority’s Health Minister Dr Mai Al Kaila estimated that 8,000 bodies are buried beneath rubble in the enclave.