Israeli invasion of Al-Shifa Hospital condemned
ISRAEL’S continued invasion of Gaza and attacks on civilians and medical facilities has seen the attack on Al-Shifa Hospital and other hospitals in Palestine.
Palestinian Ambassador to Zimbabwe Dr Tamer Almassri has condemned the assaults, contrary to international humanitarian law, and said Palestine demands urgent international intervention to protect civilians in Gaza.
He said Al-Shifa Hospital was attacked by Israel under the propaganda that it houses Palestinian resistance groups, despite lack of evidence.
In a statement, Ambassador Almassri said the attack on Al-Shifa Hospital was a war crime and Israel had to be stopped and held accountable for the violations.
“Israel has prevented over 180 dead bodies scattered across the hospital from being buried, which is a health catastrophe in the making,” he said.
“Forty patients have so far died of the continued siege of the Israeli occupation forces at Al-Shifa Medical Complex and there are 1 500 members of the medical staff and about 25 000 displaced civilians in the complex.
“Israel has also attacked the intensive care unit and the paediatric departments, leaving patients in dire circumstances.”
Ambassador Almassri criticised Israel for targeting hospitals, where thousands of displaced Palestinians are taking refuge, cutting off fuel, water and electricity and bombing parts of the hospitals’ buildings.
He said Israeli snipers were opening fire at Palestinians who tried to exit through a corridor that the army claimed to be a safe exit from Al-Shifa Hospital.
Added Ambassador Almassri: “America had used the same tactic in the invasion of Iraq where it claimed the Iraq regime housed Al-Qaeda groups, which later turned out to be fake news.
“To date, close to 12 000 Palestinians have been killed in the ongoing Israeli genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, with women and children accounting for 70 percent of the victims.
“Over 32 000 Palestinians are injured while 1,5 million are displaced. The State of Palestine demands the UN Security Council to form a special international criminal tribunal, in conformity with international law to prosecute colonial Israeli war criminals who carried out or are behind the savage slaughters which were perpetrated by settler regime Israel in Gaza and in the occupied Palestinian land.”
Ambassador Almassri said the United States and its allies have lost their credibility following their deliberate killing of Palestinians, and it will take at least two generations to convince the Arab, Islamic and free world including Africa that the US and European countries really care about democracy, human rights and the rule of law, as they use as a pretext to destabilise the other sovereign countries.
Palestinians will not leave their land, said Ambassador Almassri, and will continue to resist the Israeli occupation by all means to achieve their independent State of Palestine with Jerusalem as its capital.