Arab Organisation for Human Rights in the UK (AOHR UK) stated that the genocidal war waged by the Israeli occupation left no safe place in Gaza, as it deliberately destroyed all means of life and civilian facilities, especially those legally protected by international law, including hospitals and medical centres.
Given the compliance of the international community with the crimes of the occupation and the inability of the Arab and Islamic countries to rein it in, the Israeli occupation targeted health facilities in the Gaza Strip directly with air strikes and bombardment. Meanwhile, 75 hospitals and medical centres are out of service, 283 were killed, and 56 medical personnel were kidnapped, including the director of Shifa Medical Complex, Mohamed Abu Salmiyah, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
Despite the heavy bombardment of the Gaza Strip, the Egyptian authorities adhered to the wishes of the occupation and the besieged Gaza Strip even more by closing the only lifeline it had. It only allowed 413 out of more than 40,000 injured to leave the Gaza Strip for treatment through the Rafah crossing. According to the Director of the Ministry of Health in Gaza, Mounir Al-Barsh, “The Ministry sends a list of the names of the injured that need to be treated outside the Gaza Strip, and most of them die before the Egyptian authorities approve their exit.”
The delay in approving the exit of the injured from the Gaza Strip following the collapse of its health system and obstructing all efforts to save their lives is new evidence of the Egyptian regime’s direct involvement in the genocide against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip. This comes in line with the occupation’s targeting of hospitals with bombing, sieging, preventing the entry of aid, kidnapping medical personnel, and other crimes, thus increasing the tragedy and suffering of the civilians in Gaza.
The targeting of hospitals and health centres in Gaza has become very frequent. The occupation forces bombed the gate of Kamal Adwan Hospital, leaving casualties, cutting off the power, and spreading fear among about 10,000 displaced people who are still taking refuge in the hospital due to the lack of any safe place in Gaza. The same tragedy happened in Al-Shifa and the Indonesian Hospitals, which were sieged and those who tried to escape were sniped and killed in a horrific massacre.
It is terrifying that decision makers in the world watch in silence and allow these horrific crimes to become commonplace. Not only they remain silent, but they also deny its occurrence, as did the Spokesman for the US government.
Since the first day of the extermination war, hospitals have been directly targeted, starting with the Baptist Hospital, however, the occupation denied committing this crime and the US supported their denial. Despite proving the occupation’s responsibility for the attack, nothing was done, rather, targeting hospitals, killing patients, arresting doctors and journalists, and starving civilians became the norm.
The organisations of the United Nations, including the World Health Organisation (WHO) and UNRWA, and other international organisations such as the International Red Cross, are required to refuse the Israeli orders and to play the role for which they were established; to protect civilians and health infrastructure, instead of using the pretext of being prevented by the Israeli occupation, otherwise they lose their purpose and become useless.
AOHR UK renews its call on the Egyptian institutions and civil society organisations to put pressure on the Egyptian regime to allow exit for the injured to get treatment outside the Gaza Strip, support the collapsed health system in Gaza, and open the Rafah crossing for humanitarian aid convoys in general, and medical aid convoys in particular.
It also holds the US administration of President Joe Biden responsible for committing massacres and crimes against humanity in Gaza, as the occupation would not have carried out these atrocities without the US approval. Furthermore, the US has been supporting the Israeli occupation in these massacres by sending lethal and destructive weapons shipments with the aim of killing as many civilians as possible.
It is no longer acceptable to remain silent about the killing, displacement and starvation that civilians are being subjected to in the Gaza Strip. Efforts of many countries denouncing the extermination watch must be united, and practical steps must be taken under the umbrella of the United Nations to impose a ceasefire and break the siege on Gaza by the occupation and the Egyptian regime.
