UN inquiry accuses Israel of ‘crime of genocide’ for deliberately destroying Gaza’s health care system | CNN

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A United Nations investigation has accused Israel of carrying out a “concerted strategy” to destroy the health system in Gaza during its year-long war with Hamas in attacks it says amount to war crimes.

Israel’s actions in the besieged Palestinian territory “constitute war crimes of intentional killing and torture and crimes against humanity of destruction,” the commission said in a statement Thursday.

“Israeli security forces have deliberately killed, detained and tortured medical personnel and medical vehicles” in Gaza, according to a report by the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, in including East Jerusalem, and Israel.

The Israeli attacks resulted in “fuel, food, water, medicine and medical supplies not reaching hospitals, while severely limiting the ability of patients to leave the area for medical treatment,” it said. said.

Israel’s foreign ministry called the allegations “disgusting” and said it was “another blatant attempt by (the commission) to legitimize the existence of the State of Israel and to hinder its right to protect its citizens while covering up the crimes of terrorist organizations. ”

“This report shames Israel’s operation of health centers in Gaza as a matter of policy against the health system in Gaza, while completely rejecting the overwhelming evidence that the services of Gaza’s medical facilities have been systematically used by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad for acts of terrorism.”

It said Hamas uses medical facilities to hide workers, store weapons, carry out attacks and hide hostages. Hamas has repeatedly denied using the hospitals for military operations.

The UN report also accused Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups of committing war crimes of “torture, inhuman or cruel treatment, rape and sexual violence” for holding hostages. Israel who were in captivity in Gaza. It also investigated the “systematic mistreatment” of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons.

Israel’s foreign ministry denied “allegations of ill-treatment and torture of detainees,” saying Israel was “fully committed to complying with international legal standards” regarding the treatment of detainees.

In a statement accompanying the 24-page, non-binding report, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said Israel “must immediately stop its brutal destruction of -never existed” in Gaza.

He said: “Children in particular have borne the brunt of these attacks, suffering directly and indirectly due to the collapse of the health system.

As part of the report, UN experts investigated the murder of 5-year-old Palestinian girl Hind Rajab, who made headlines in January after her record came to light. of an appeal to emergency workers to rescue him and his family after they were trapped. car because of Israeli shells.

Although an ambulance arrived at the scene while the girl was still alive, the presence of Israeli security forces effectively “blocked access,” meaning that the bodies of Rajab’s relatives “could not be retrieved from their car that was filled with bullets up to 12 days after the incident,” the report said.

The report “reasonably concluded that the Israeli Army’s 162nd Division” operating in the area at the time was “responsible for killing a family of seven, shooting an ambulance and killing two nurses inside.”

The incident was one of several alleged attacks on health care in Gaza, amid widespread wartime conditions.

The report will be presented to the UN General Assembly on October 30.

The Commission has stated that Israel and Hamas committed war crimes in the early stages of the Gaza conflict, and that Israel’s actions also amount to crimes against humanity.