Palestine

Physicians for Human Rights-Israel reports on the increasing number of attacks against personnel and transport teams by Israeli Army and Border Police in Israel and Palestine and the Israeli authorities dismissal or delay in investigating these occurrences.

In a world of conflict, confrontation, deadlocks and dead ends, few crises are as protracted as the Israeli-Palestinian impasse. But in hospitals, schools and businesses, Israeli Arabs, Jews and Palestinians are working side by side to forge a better future.

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.

A dozen shells hit the Al Aqsa hospital in the town of Deir el-Balah on Monday, Palestinian health official Ashraf al-Kidra said. He said four people were killed and 60 wounded when the shells landed in the administration building, the intensive care unit and the surgery department.

The ICRC deplores outright the casualties and the damage caused at the Palestine Red Crescent branch in Jabaliya, northern Gaza on 9 July when a dozen staff and volunteers were wounded and three ambulances destroyed. “The human impact of this vicious circle of armed violence is worsening by the hour,” said Jacques de Maio, head of the ICRC delegation in Israel and the occupied territories. “Civilians must be protected. In all cases, ambulances, hospitals and medical workers must be ensured the conditions of safety they require to carry out their vital work.”