A report from the United Nations Human Rights Office on Tuesday condemned Israeli attacks on hospitals in Gaza and claimed that they had devastated the Palestinian enclave’s health system and raised serious questions about Israel’s compliance with international law.
In the report, which documents several attacks between October 12, 2023 and June 30, 2024, this United Nations agency states that have had serious consequences on Palestinians’ access to medical care.
The 23-page report concludes that since the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023 against Israel, the succession of hostilities in Gaza had “destroyed” local healthcare.
“The destruction of the health system in Gaza and the magnitude of the deaths of patients, staff and other civilians in these attacks are a direct consequence of the failure to comply with international humanitarian and human rights law,” the report states.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the report.
In recent days, Israel has carried out operations against Gaza hospitals that drew criticism from the head of the World Health Organization (WHO), among others.
The Israeli army has accused Hamas of using hospitals as command centers for military operations and has stated that the people detained by Israel at the facilities were suspected militants.
The United Nations report alludes to such arguments, but asserts that not enough information had been made public to corroborate them.
The report says that deliberately directing attacks against hospitals and places where the sick and wounded are, as long as they are not military targets, would constitute war crimes.
It also warns that a systemic pattern of abuses against the rights of civilians could constitute crimes against humanity.
Israel has consistently rejected such suggestions.
The United Nations noted that, in response to its report, The Israeli government stated that its military had taken extensive measures to mitigate harm to civilians and minimize disruptionincluding providing aid and evacuation routes and establishing field hospitals.
Still, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said the report’s conclusions pointed to a “blatant indifference to international humanitarian law and human rights.”
“As if the incessant shelling and the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza were not enough, the only refuge where Palestinians should have felt safe actually became a death trap,” Türk said in a statement.
Israel’s military campaign against Hamas in Gaza has killed more than 45,500 Palestinians, according to Palestinian health authorities, and turned the enclave into a wasteland.
The war was triggered by a Hamas attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, in which 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage to Gaza, according to Israeli counts.
