Ref: 96/2014
Date: 22 July 2014
Time: 13:00 GMT
The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) strongly condemns Israeli forces’ targeting of medical facilities (hospitals and clinics),healthcare centers, fixed and mobile medical crews, including ambulances and vehicles to transport the deceased and wounded, and paramedics during the Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip that has been ongoing for 15 consecutive days. PCHR calls upon the international community, especially the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, to immediately intervene in order to stop attacks against medical facilities and crews or any other places around them to maintain the safety of patients, wounded persons and workers in these facilities. PCHR demands alsothe international community to stop the Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip, guarantee the entry of medical consignments and food aid to the Gaza Strip and end all forms of targeting humanitarian relief teams.
According to PCHR’s documentation and statements of eyewitnesses, including medical personnel and wounded persons, Israeli forces have committed grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention against medical facilities, crews and vehicles. Since the beginning of the Israeli offensive on 08 July 2014, PCHR’s fieldworkers have documented dozens of Israeli violations against medical facilities, staff members and first aid centers. These violations have resulted in the death ofFo’adZohairJaber (27), a paramedic, who was killed while transporting victims from al-Shuja’iyaneighborhood in the east of Gaza City, as Israeli forces fired a shell directly at the area where the ambulance was present. Moreover,4 other paramedics have been wounded and 9 ambulances,4 hospitals, a healthcare center and a clinic have been damaged.
The most prominent attacks on medical facilities was the direct targeting of 2 hospitals that were full of patients and visitors and hundreds of medical staff members. On 21 July 2014, Israeli forces shelled al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Hospital in the central Gaza Strip. As a result, 4 civilians, including a wounded person and 3 visitors, were killed and 40 others were wounded, including a number of the hospital’s staff. Kamal Khattab, director of the abovementioned hospital said that shells landed on the Intensive Care Unit, operations room, incubator room, internal medicinedivision and the administrative department. The hospital and medical supplies sustained severe damage, taking into account that there was a shortage of such supplies before the Israeli offensive. Dr. Ashraf al-Qedrah, spokesperson of the Ministry of Health, stressed that operation rooms and the oxygen plant that produces oxygen for operations were stopped. In addition, the administrative department and overnight stay were destroyed due to the intensive shelling on the hospital. He pointed out that the attacks againstambulances that tried to evacuate the wounded from al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Hospital to ShifaHospital in Gaza City were violent, due to which 2 ambulances sustained damage.
At approximately 02:25, on 11 July 2014, Israeli forces fired 4 missiles at the 5th and 6th floors of al-Wafa’ Hospital in al-Shuja’iya neighborhood in the east of Gaza City. The attack resulted in severe damage in the 2 aforementioned floors. According to Basman al-‘Ashi, the executive director of al-WafaHospital, the Israeli attack resulted in damaging the northern side of the hospital that annually offers rehabilitation services to 6,000-7,000 patients, who are unable to move and need medical care and follow-up around the clock.
In a serious violation, at approximately 09:25, on 09 July 2014, an Israeli warplane bombed an agricultural land opposite to the ambulance and emergency centerof the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) in the east of Jabalia. As a result, 4 paramedics were wounded: Yusef Abdul Hamid; RamdanHosou;IyadBasyouni; and Marwan Hamouda. They sustained fractures and bruises and were taken to al-Quds Hospital in Gaza City. Their wounds ranged between minor and moderate. The attack resulted also in the complete destruction of 3 ambulances and heavy damage to the center in a manner obstructing work in the centre. According to the PRCS, the emergency center was evacuated and all the staff members and ambulances were taken to the emergency centerin Gaza City. Calls of civilians in Jabalia were responded to from there. A similar attack took place at approximately 21:10, on 14 July 2014,when an Israeli warplane fired a missile at an open land near the PRCS center at Zemmo crossroads in Jabalia. As a result, the storehouse was burnt as it was hit by the missile’s shrapnel. Yusef Abdul Hamid, director of the centre, said that civil defense headed to the center to extinguish fire and told him that the storehouse likely caught fire because of the shrapnel. All staff members in the centervacated it as a number of neighboring lands were targeted.
PCHR’s fieldworkers documented other violations, the most prominent of which were:
• At approximately 01:30 on 22 July 2014, the Israeli artillery shelled the area around a PRCS crew who were evacuating the wounded from the eastern area of the Industrial Zone in Beit Hanountown. The staff, comprised of 7 paramedics in 3 vehicles, survived, while an ambulance was damaged and a civilian sustained a shrapnel wound to the chest.
• At approximately 02:30 on 22 July 2014, the Israeli artillery shelled the yard of Beit HanounHospital in the western side of the hospital in Beit HanounTOWN. As a result, Belal Mohammed al-Sabe’ (34) was wounded while he was present in the emergency department that overlooks the yard. In addition, the hospital facilities sustained damage as well.
• At approximately 08:10 on 22 July 2014, the Israeli artillery fired smoke shells at Beit Hanoun Hospital. One of the shells landed before the emergency department, due to which the medical staff and civilians in the hospital panicked. Furthermore, the main door of the administrative building caught fire.
• At approximately 00:30 on 19 July 2014, an Israeli drone fired a missile at the 2nd floor of the administrative building of Beit Hanoun hospital, which is designated for pediatrics. The targeted floor sustained partial damage, but no casualties were reported.
• On Wednesday morning, 16 July 2014, al-WafaHospital’s elderlydivisionwas targeted by a missile from an Israeli drone and a number of artillery shells, due to which the hospital sustained partial damage.
• At approximately 18:00 on 13 July 2014, Israeli warplanes launched 7 airstrikes on agricultural and open areas in Ma’an area, al-Manarah neighborhood and the vicinity of the European Gaza Hospital, which resulted in causing severe damage to the fence of the European Gaza Hospital.
• On 12 July 2014, Israeli warplanes attacked agricultural lands twice in the vicinity of the healthcare clinic in al-Fokhari village, southeast of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip. As a result, the clinic sustained damage.
• At approximately 16:17 on 09 July 2014, an Israeli warplane fired 2 missiles at the vicinity of the European Gaza Hospital, southeast of Khan Yunis. As a result, the hospital sustained damage, but no casualties were reported.
These serious violations have disrupted the work of medical staff members and emergency teams and denied them access to dozens of victims, including deceased and wounded person, in various areas in the Gaza Strip. This added more suffering to the wounded as they were rescued after over 24 hours. Many wounded persons died because they were left bleeding in different areas in the Gaza Strip, where Israeli forces moved into. Paramedics and civil defense vehicles were unable to reach houses and facilities that were shelled and destroyed or burnt in order to evacuate the victims because Israeli forces were stationed in these areas and aerial and sea attacks did not stop.Medical crewswere prevented from performing their duty despite the prior coordination via the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Israeli denial of access of medical staff and relief members to theaffected areas. PCHR in concerned, based on facts and evidence collected by PCHR, that dozens of wounded persons in al-Shuja’iya neighborhood died due the lack of medical care needed to save their lives.
In view of the above, PCHR calls upon the international community, especially the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention, to stop the conspiracy of shameful silence and stop the grave violationsthat have been committed against medical staff members and humanitarian relief teams in the fixed and mobile medical facilities, including ambulances and civil defense vehicles. PCHR also demands putting an end to targeting medical facilities and areas around them to maintain the safety of patients, wounded persons and medical staff inside. Moreover, PCHR calls upon the international community to immediately intervene to stop this offensive, guarantee the entry of medical consignments and food aid to the Gaza Strip and stop all forms of targeting the humanitarian relief teams.
