Gaza

Physicians for Human Rights–Israel commissioned a fact-finding mission to investigate the Israeli military offensive in the Gaza Strip that began in July 2014. Eight independent international medical experts gathered evidence on the types, causes, and patterns of injuries and attacks; attacks on medical teams and facilities; evacuation; impact of the conflict on the health care system; and longer-term issues. A new report presents their findings, including that medical teams were killed or injured in the course of evacuating the injured and that at least one apparent deliberate attack on a hospital resulted in several people killed and injured.

As major emergencies around the globe increase in scale, complexity and frequency, WHO is calling for an end to the targeting of health workers in conflicts and other humanitarian crises, which represent a breach of the fundamental right to health.

Hospitals and health facilities in Gaza are in dire need of support from the international donor community, a senior representative of the United Nations health agency today said following a visit to the Gaza Strip and Ramallah to survey the infrastructure there.

IntraHealth International joins the Safeguarding Health in Conflict Coalition in calling on the government of Israel, Hamas, and armed groups to respect humanitarian law and cease targeting health facilities and health workers in their attacks. We call on all groups to ensure that civilians maintain access to much-needed health care.

Overnight Israel punished the town of Rafah, 30 kilometres south of Gaza, relentlessly. It’s where the Israeli soldier Hadar Goldin went missing on Friday after an ambush by Hamas forces. In the past 24 hours, more than 60 people have died there, according to the health ministry. The only acute hospital was evacuated after a shell hit the entrance of its emergency room. At the Shifa hospital in Gaza City doctors are struggling.