The World Health Organization condemned the attack on the Baptist Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip, which claimed the lives of hundreds as a result of Israeli bombing, describing the attack as “unprecedented in its scope,” while the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, called for an end to “this horrific situation.”
The representative of the World Health Organization in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Richard Pepperkorn, said yesterday evening, Tuesday, “This attack is unprecedented in scope… We are witnessing continuous attacks on health care in the occupied Palestinian territories,” explaining that 51 attacks have so far hit facilities. Health care in Gaza, which claimed the lives of 15 health workers and injured 27 others.
For his part, the Regional Representative of the World Health Organization in the Eastern Mediterranean Region, Ahmed Al-Mandhari, earlier condemned the attack on Al-Baptani Hospital, explaining that the hospital contained patients, health care workers, and internally displaced people when it was bombed.
Al-Mandhari explained that the hospital was one of 20 hospitals that faced evacuation orders from the Israeli army, and that it was impossible to implement the evacuation order “given the current lack of security, the critical condition of many patients, the lack of ambulances and employees, the bed capacity in the health system, and alternative shelter for the displaced.”
The Undersecretary of the Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip, Yousef Abu Al-Rish, said – during a press conference surrounded by the bodies of bombing victims – that the Israeli army warned the Ahli Baptist Hospital with two shells the day before it was bombed, calling on the world to take a position on Israel’s crimes and bring those responsible to trial.
In turn, Mike Ryan, Executive Director of the World Health Organization’s Health Emergencies Program, said that it is “inhumane” to leave health workers in Gaza to the dilemma of caring for their patients, or fleeing to save their lives.
He added, “It is completely clear to all parties to this conflict where health facilities are located,” noting that health care is not a goal, and this is stipulated in international humanitarian law.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, also condemned the bombing of the Baptist Hospital in Gaza, describing it as “completely unacceptable.”
Turk said in a statement, “Words are inexpressible. Hundreds of people were killed in a horrific way in the attack on the National Arab Hospital, including patients, health care providers, and families who took refuge in the hospital and its surroundings, stressing that “hospitals are sacred and must be protected at all costs.”
The Ministry of Health in Gaza announced last Tuesday night that the number of victims of the Israeli bombing that targeted the courtyard of Al-Ahly Baptist Hospital in Gaza had risen to 500 martyrs, most of whom were women and children, noting that what the occupation did in the Baptist Hospital is an embodiment of the crimes that were occurring in the ages. Fascism.
2023-10-18 10:01:55
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