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'Crime Against Humanity': UN Inquiry Details Israeli 'Extermination' of Gaza Healthcare
"Israel must immediately stop its unprecedented wanton destruction of healthcare facilities in Gaza," the head of the inquiry stressed.
Oct 10, 2024
For the second time this year, a United Nations commission tasked with investigating Israel's conduct during its yearlong invasion and blockade of Gaza has found that the U.S.-armed Israeli military is committing crimes against humanity against Palestinians.
The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory released a report Thursday detailing how "Israel has perpetrated a concerted policy to destroy Gaza's healthcare system as part of a broader assault on Gaza, committing war crimes and the crime against humanity of extermination with relentless and deliberate attacks on medical personnel and facilities."
"The commission also investigated the treatment of Palestinian detainees in Israel and of Israeli and foreign hostages in Gaza since October 7, 2023 and concluded that Israel and Palestinian armed groups are responsible for torture and sexual and gender-based violence," the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said in a summary of the report.
The report cites the U.N. World Health Organization's findings that Israel carried out 498 attacks on healthcare facilities in the Gaza Strip between October 7, 2023—when Hamas launched the deadliest-ever attack on Israel—and July 30, 2024.
"A total of 747 persons were killed directly in those attacks, and 969 others were injured, and 110 facilities were affected," the publication states. The report calls the attacks "widespread and systematic."
The commission continued:
Israeli security forces carried out air strikes against hospitals, causing considerable damage to buildings and surroundings, as well as multiple casualties; surrounded and besieged hospital premises; prevented the entry of goods and medical equipment and exit/entry of civilians; issued evacuation orders but prevented safe evacuations; and raided hospitals, arresting hospital staff and patients. Israeli security forces also obstructed access by humanitarian agencies.
"Israel must immediately stop its unprecedented wanton destruction of healthcare facilities in Gaza," said commission chair Navi Pillay. "By targeting healthcare facilities, Israel is targeting the right to health itself with significant long-term detrimental effects on the civilian population. Children in particular have borne the brunt of these attacks, suffering both directly and indirectly from the collapse of the health system."
OHCHR said that "attacks on medical facilities in Gaza, particularly those devoted to pediatric and neonatal care, have led to incalculable suffering of child patients, including newborns."
"In continuing these attacks, Israel has violated children's right to life, denied children access to basic healthcare, and deliberately inflicted conditions of life resulting in the destruction of generations of Palestinian children and, potentially, the Palestinian people as a group," the agency added.
The commission's inquiry found that as of July 15, "113 ambulances had been attacked and at least 61 had been damaged," including vehicles used by the U.N., International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS), and other organizations.
"Access was also reduced owing to closure of areas by Israeli security forces, [and] delays in coordination of safe routes, checkpoints, searches, or destruction of roads," the report notes.
The commission investigated the January 29 attack that killed 6-year-old Hind Rajab and six of her relatives, as well as two paramedics who had Israeli permission to attempt to rescue them.
"They were attacked while trying to evacuate in their car," the report said of the family. "The ambulance, carrying two paramedics, Yousef Zeino and Ahmed al-Madhoun, was dispatched after its route had been coordinated with Israeli security forces. It was hit by a tank shell at a distance of some 50 meters from the family's car."
"Hind was still alive at the time that the ambulance was dispatched," the publication noted. "The presence of Israeli security forces in the area prevented access. As a result, the family members' bodies could not be retrieved from their bullet-ridden car until 12 days after the incident."
Israel Defense Forces officials have repeatedly claimed that no IDF troops were in the area at the time of the attack. Multiple journalistic investigations, including one published Tuesday by Sky News, showed that Israeli tank and machine gun fire killed the family and paramedics.
The new report's authors also noted that "hundreds of medical personnel, including three hospital directors and the head of an orthopedic department, as well as patients and journalists were arrested by Israeli security forces" during raids on Gaza medical facilities.
"Reportedly, 128 health workers remain detained by Israeli authorities as of July 15, including four PRCS staff members," the publication states.
"The institutionalized mistreatment of Palestinian detainees, a longstanding characteristic of the occupation, took place under direct orders from the Israeli minister in charge of the prison system, Itamar Ben-Gvir, and was fueled by Israeli government statements inciting violence and retribution," said OHCHR.
The commission report also detailed crimes committed by Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups against Israelis on and after October 7, 2023, when more than 1,100 Israelis and others were killed—at least some by so-called "friendly fire" and under the fratricidal Hannibal Directive—and over 240 people abducted.
Hostages "were mistreated to inflict physical pain and severe mental suffering, including physical violence, abuse, sexual violence, forced isolation, limited access to hygiene facilities, water and food, threats and humiliation," OHCHR said. "Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups committed the war crimes of torture, inhuman or cruel treatment, and the crimes against humanity of enforced disappearance and other inhumane acts causing great suffering or serious injury."
In June, the same U.N. commission found Israel's far-right government responsible for a range of war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip, including "extermination, torture, forcible transfer, and the use of starvation as a weapon of warfare."
Over the course of its 370-day assault on Gaza, Israeli forces have killed at least 42,010 Palestinians in the coastal enclave—most of them women and children—and wounded more than 97,700 others, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health and international agencies.
At least 10,000 Palestinians are missing and believed to be dead and buried beneath the rubble of hundreds of thousands of bombed buildings. Israel's "complete siege" of Gaza has forcibly displaced more than 90% of Gaza's 2.3 million people, and has contributed to the starvation and sickening of hundreds of thousands of Gazans.
Israel is on trial for genocide at the U.N. International Court of Justice. Meanwhile, International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan is seeking arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and three Hamas leaders—at least one of whom, political chief Ismail Haniyeh, has been assassinated—for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity, including extermination.
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'Where Can People Go?': Israel Kills 28 in Latest Attack on Gaza School-Turned-Shelter
"By striking these supposed shelters, Israel is intensifying the already catastrophic situation for civilians, many of whom have nowhere left to escape," a human rights group said.
Oct 10, 2024
An Israeli airstrike on a school in central Gaza killed at least 28 people on Thursday, including civilian men, women, and children.
The victims were among the million displaced Palestinians seeking shelter in the city of Deir Al-Balah in Gaza more than one year into Israel's assault on the enclave. The attack came after Israel issued new evacuation orders for northern Gaza on Monday as it escalated its bombardment and invasion of the area, in particular the Jabalia refugee camp.
"By striking these supposed shelters, Israel is intensifying the already catastrophic situation for civilians, many of whom have nowhere left to escape," Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor said on social media in response to the airstrike.
"This is not just another attack—it's a systematic assault aimed at wiping out entire Palestinian family lines."
Or, as Iftekhar Hammouda, a woman sheltering at the school askedCNN, "Where can people go? Where do they flee? They hit us at our homes, at our tents, on the streets, and at the schools."
The Palestine Red Crescent Society wrote on social media that it had responded to an attack on the Rafida School that killed 28 people and wounded 54.
The death toll was later verified by local hospitals, according to CNN. A rescue worker told the news agency that relatives were searching for their loved ones "in pieces."
Unverified video footage posted online included graphic images of wounded survivors as well as rescue workers handling body parts of those ripped apart by the bombing described as a "horrific massacre."
One of the survivors searching for family, Ayman Abou Khousa, told CNN, "We are dying every day," adding, "The world has sold us out."
Al Jazeera described the scene at Al-Aqsa Hospital, where the wounded were taken for treatment:
The situations continue to be very difficult inside the emergency department where medical staff are pretty much unable to provide any necessary medical intervention to save lives.
The bomb that was dropped by the F-16 packed with nails, packed with pieces of metals and shrapnel that cut through the flesh and caused severe bleeding.
Many of the victims arriving at the hospital, their blood filled up the courtyard of the hospital the moment the door of the ambulance vehicle opened.
In a statement reported by Reuters, the Israeli military said Thursday's bombardment was a "precise strike on terrorists" who had established a command center in the school. The Israel Defense Forces have long justified their attacks on civilian infrastructure by claiming Hamas uses schools and hospitals as staging grounds for attacks, a charge Hamas denies.
Hammouda told CNN that there was no Hamas presence at the school. Gaza's Government Media Office said the majority of those wounded or killed in the attack were women and children.
"The occupation army was aware that this school included thousands of displaced children and women who were displaced from their homes and whose civilian neighborhoods were bombed," the media office said in a statement reported by Al Jazeera. "It chose the time of the bombing at the peak time when these children and women were moving to get their daily food."
The office continued: "We condemn the Israeli occupation's commission of this new massacre and the ongoing massacres against civilians, children, and women, and we call on all countries of the world to condemn these ongoing crimes against the displaced, against civilians, against children and women."
Israel has bombed almost 85% of the schools in Gaza since it launched its offensive on the strip following Hamas' attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023. Recent attacks include two airstrikes last month on a United Nations school in central Gaza that killed at least 18 and a bombing of a school in Gaza City in August that killed at least 12.
"Since Israel began committing genocide in Gaza, it has bombed at least 190 shelters. Places meant to be safe havens have become death traps for families forcibly driven from their homes," The Institute for Middle East Understanding (IMEU) wrote on social media.
"In the past year, Israel has deliberately targeted areas where families have taken refuge, knowing they include children and the elderly," the nonprofit continued. "This is not just another attack—it's a systematic assault aimed at wiping out entire Palestinian family lines."
IMEU added that the U.S. government was currently complicit in these attacks: "The U.S. continues to supply Israel with weapons, giving it the means to carry out these war crimes which are made possible by American support. The president must act to end Israel's genocidal campaign now."
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Israel-Palestine History Didn't Begin—or End—on October 7, 2023
We must understand what happened leading up to that nightmarish day and certainly we cannot be blind to has happened since.
Oct 07, 2024
On October 7th, the continuing genocide in Gaza and the massive bombings in Lebanon will likely be ignored by U.S. officials and media outlets as they solemnly commemorate the anniversary of Hamas’ attack on Israel. What they’ll ignore is that the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict didn’t begin on October 7th, nor did the suffering end on that day.
October 7th was a horrific day, to be sure, of condemnable acts committed by Hamas against innocents. It is important that the stories of those who were murdered and those taken as hostages be told and that we hear their cries and mourn their loss. And it’s right that Hamas be condemned for the crimes they committed. But history didn’t start on that nightmarish day, and it certainly didn’t end there either.
Since then, from what we know for certain, more than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed, 97,000 wounded, with upwards of 20,000 missing. Entire Palestinian families have been wiped out, neighborhoods leveled, most housing in Gaza has been destroyed along with its schools, hospitals, and infrastructure. Aid has been restricted, resulting in deaths from disease, starvation, and malnutrition. And all kinds of psychological disorders have taken hold resulting from prolonged trauma. What Israel has done we are told by respected international agencies is genocide—the destruction of a society, its culture, and well-being. And now the devastation and trauma are being extended to Lebanon.
When America’s political leaders and media commemorate the horror of October 7th, what happened after that day will not be considered. What began on October 8th and continues until now will be ignored. Worse still, those who dare to speak of the tragedy that followed will be denounced for their insensitivity to Jewish suffering. It will be as if the cries of the Israeli victims will drown out those of the Palestinians. One people’s pain will be prioritized over another’s. It’s something that Arabs have come to expect: They are not seen as equal human beings.
When America’s political leaders and media commemorate the horror of October 7th, what happened after that day will not be considered.
To be crude, this is not making a case for Palestinians winning the Victimhood Olympics. Rather it is merely a reminder that Palestinian lives matter as much as Israeli lives and that history didn’t begin or end on October 7th. But this is not the story that will be told on that day, in the U.S. media or in Congress or by the White House. And it’s not the way this story will enter our history books.
It’s often noted that history, as it’s taught in a society, is written by the dominant group. The story that is told is a function of the perspective of the person who’s relating it. It’s how they see it from where they stand, and its meaning is determined by where they choose to start their narrative.
When I was in school, the American history we learned began with Columbus’ “discovery” of what was termed “the New World.” “Indians” were savages and the “3/5ths compromise” was presented as a logical answer to how to count slaves in the census.
The world history we studied was Eurocentric. Islam was a barbaric threat; China was a mere footnote “discovered by Marco Polo”; Genghis Khan was a marauder. And the British and French, we were told, brought civilization to the primitive people of the south and east.
In reality, of course, the “New World” was populated with ancient civilizations that had built magnificent cultures, slavery was a barbaric institution, Islamic civilization taught the West a great deal, Genghis Khan was one of the great conveyors of culture from East to West, and colonialism was an evil that subjugated and exploited and distorted the economic and political development of the conquered nations. But that’s not the story that was taught, because those who wrote the history we learned in school began their story in 1492 and told it from the perspective of Americans or Europeans looking out at the world.
Public opinion in the U.S. is changing with more Americans understanding the Palestinian story and empathizing with their pain. This broader view, however, has not taken hold in official political and media circles.
Back to October 7th. Palestinians have a tragic story to tell of dispossession, displacement, and horrific oppression that began a century ago. But here in the U.S., their story is not the dominant narrative. The nightmare they’ve lived isn’t understood or is outright rejected.
In mid-October 2023 I had an encounter with a senior Biden administration official. After he spoke passionately about October 7th and the trauma it evoked for Jews everywhere, I told him I understood. I noted how my uncle, a U.S. soldier in WWII, told me about what he saw on entering the concentration camps in Nazi Germany. His stories and The Diary of Anne Frank, which I read in high school, helped me understand Jewish trauma and be understanding of their fears. I cautioned him, however, that there was another people who also had a history of trauma and that what Palestinians were seeing play out evoked for them the nightmare of the Nakba. We must, I insisted, be sensitive to the horror and trauma of both peoples. He angrily shot back, dismissing my observation saying that it smacked of “whataboutism.” I was stunned and angry. It was one thing for Israelis to feel that only their suffering matters and that anyone who attempts to distract from that one-sided view is either dismissive of Jewish pain or is defending those who inflict it. It’s quite another for U.S. officials and major media figures to share this view.
Public opinion in the U.S. is changing with more Americans understanding the Palestinian story and empathizing with their pain. This broader view, however, has not taken hold in official political and media circles. They still see history through the eyes of only one side. For them, only Israeli lives and suffering matters and the story of the current tragedy began and ended on October 7th.
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