LThe Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights announced:horrified” by destroying the largest hospital in Gaza, al-Chifa, and the second largest hospital facility in the Palestinian Territory, the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younes.
In a statement, High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk called for “independent, efficient and transparent investigations are carried out“.
A war crime
“Given the prevailing climate of impunity, international investigators should be involved in this process“, he assessed. “Hospitals are entitled to very special protection under international humanitarian law“, he indicated. “And the deliberate killing of civilians, detainees and others considered ‘hors de combat’ is a war crime.“, he added.
On Monday, the Gaza Civil Defense claimed that in three days it had exhumed around 200 bodies of people killed by Israeli forces and buried in mass graves inside Nasser Hospital in Khan Younes.
As for al-Chifa Hospital, the World Health Organization (WHO) indicated in early April that the latest Israeli operation against it had reduced it to an “empty shell” full of human remains.
Hospitals in the Gaza Strip have been heavily targeted during a military operation carried out by the Israeli army in the Palestinian territory since a deadly attack by Hamas fighters from Gaza on October 7 in Israel.
According to Israel, the Palestinian Islamic Movement used the hospitals to carry out attacks, hide tunnels and hide weapons. Hamas has denied these accusations.
Dead people “found with hands tied and without clothes”
According to Gaza officials, 283 bodies were found at Nasser Hospital, a figure the UN High Commission is trying to verify.
“The victims were allegedly buried deep in the ground and covered with garbage“, spokeswoman of the High Commission Ravina Shamdasani said at a press briefing, adding that among the dead were elderly people, women and the injured. Others would be “found with their hands tied and without clothes“.
She also indicated that the number given by the Israeli military of around 200 people killed during the latest attack on al-Chifa Hospital, between March 18 and early April, could be “underrated“.
To this day she said: “we cannot confirm the exact figures” people killed in two hospitals: “that is why we insist on the need for international investigations“.
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