"Mwatana" Calls for an End to Israeli Crimes in Gaza and International Accountability
In a statement issued today, Mwatana for Human Rights said that the Israeli attacks on Palestinian displacement camps at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, Central Gaza Strip, early on Monday, October 14, 2024, are nothing but a new crime added to Israel's ongoing series of violations and its repeated attempts to deepen the suffering in the Gaza Strip.
According to the Gaza Government Media Office, the Israeli attacks resulted in the deaths of three people, including a child, and left 40 others injured. The office stated in its report: "This is the seventh such attack targeting displacement tents inside the walls of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital since the beginning of Israel's genocidal war on Gaza over a year ago."
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said, "There is no safe place for children in Gaza, and this shameful violence against children must stop now." It added, "Our screens are once again filled with images of children being killed and burned, and families fleeing from bombed tents."
An Israeli army spokesperson, Avichay Adraee, claimed that Hamas operatives were using the hospital as a planning center. In a post on his X (formerly Twitter) account, he stated: "A short while ago, the Israeli Air Force carried out precise airstrikes, under intelligence guidance from military intelligence, the Shin Bet, and the Southern Command, targeting terrorists operating in a command and control facility located in an area previously known as Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah. Hamas operatives used the hospital complex to plan and carry out terrorist attacks against the IDF and the State of Israel."
The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, in its latest report on the targeting of the health sector and hospitals, revealed that approximately 34 hospitals in Gaza have been rendered inoperable, 25 hospitals have been damaged by Israeli airstrikes, and 131 ambulances have been destroyed.
This latest attack comes after a two-week-long Israeli siege in northern Gaza, which has blocked the delivery of food and water supplies to the displaced, while intensifying airstrikes on the Jabalia, Beit Lahiya, and Beit Hanoun camps.
The UNRWA Commissioner-General, Philippe Lazzarini, said, "Two weeks of intensive airstrikes and ground operations by Israeli forces have resulted in the deaths of hundreds of Palestinians, including children. The United Nations has been prevented from delivering any aid, including food, since September 30. Israeli authorities continue to use such attacks, destroy civilian infrastructure, and deliberately deny vital aid as a tactic to force people to flee."
These attacks underscore the Israeli government's intentions, as well as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's role, in systematically targeting Palestinian civilians and failing to take adequate measures to protect them. Violence against children, women, and displaced people sheltering in hospitals, schools, and shelters continues under false pretenses, with Israel continuing to commit war crimes and crimes against humanity that have spanned an entire year, targeting Palestinian civilians.
Abdul-Rasheed Al-Faqih, Vice Chairperson of Mwatana for Human Rights, said, "The direct targeting of displaced civilians, especially children and women, is part of a series of violations and crimes committed by the Israeli army over the past year. Just days before the first anniversary of the October 7 events and the beginning of the brutal aggression against Gaza’s civilians, all of this leaves Israel facing an inevitable reckoning with justice and accountability systems."
Al-Faqih added, "The continuation of the war and the opening of new fronts in southern Lebanon, along with the Israeli army's incursion and targeting of civilians, is deeply distressing. While we call for the cessation of crimes in Gaza, new fronts are being opened in Lebanon."
Mwatana calls on the international community, including the United Nations, to take urgent and responsible action to halt the crimes being committed by Israeli forces, end the bloodshed and destruction in Gaza and other regions, and support accountability efforts led by both the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court. These efforts should aim to end the policy of impunity, push for the formation of an independent international investigative mechanism to probe the violations and international crimes committed by Israel, and ensure accountability for the perpetrators, compensation for the victims, and justice for those affected.
Mwatana urges the immediate cessation of attacks on hospitals, schools, civilian facilities, and displacement camps, emphasizing that Israel’s violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law place the international community and the global human rights movement in a difficult and challenging position, particularly given that the death toll has reached 42,289 people so far.
Furthermore, Mwatana stresses the need to put an end to the escalating lawlessness of Israeli forces in the region, warning that this madness will lead to a full-scale war with catastrophic consequences for millions of people, threatening global peace and security.
