UK Government wants ‘investigation’ into claims
A FULL investigation must be carried out into reports that Gazan medical staff were beaten and humiliated by Israeli troops, Andrew Mitchell has said.
The BBC reported that staff at Nasser Hospital, in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, were blindfolded, forced to strip and were repeatedly beaten by soldiers from the Israel Defence Forces (IDF).
The IDF has not responded directly to accounts the BBC has put to it, but denies medical staff were harmed in its operation.
Foreign Office minister Mitchell said the UK Government would be pressing for a full explanation and an investigation into the reports, after being asked about them in the Commons.
Mitchell, who acts as a deputy for Foreign Secretary Lord David Cameron in the Commons, told MPs: “We have seen these reports. I think that a full explanation and investigation is required and that is what the British government is pressing for.”
Responding to a question from Labour MP Beth Winter, the minister added: “I would point out to her that when it comes to targeting operations there are lawyers embedded in the Israeli and the IDF command, just as there are in Britain, and that should ensure that the acceptance and honouring of international humanitarian law is kept, but I agree with her a full explanation is required.”
The Cynon Valley MP had earlier asked that the minister address the “shocking reports regarding Palestinian medical staff in Gaza”.
She added: “Does the UK Government believe that the Israeli government is responsible for the more than 160 others have been detained, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health.
The least their bravery deserves is the medication and equipment they need to do their job.
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l£25 could buy around 25 antibiotic injections used to treat respiratory conduct of its forces and that this clearly appears to be torture and is in breach of international law, including universal declaration of human rights and the Geneva Convention article 18?
“What is the UK Government going to do about this?”
Elsewhere, Mitchell was pressed to restore funding to UNRWA (the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees), the main United Nations aid agency in the Palestinian territories.
The UK is among a group of countries which have halted funding to the agency amid allegations from