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UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk yesterday expressed concern over ongoing Israeli attacks on health care facilities in the Gaza Strip.
“A human rights catastrophe continues to unfold in Gaza before the eyes of the world,” Turk told a Security Council meeting on the situation in the Middle East.
Israel’s means and methods of warfare have killed tens of thousands of people, inflicted vast displacement and laid waste to the territory, he added.
“The destruction of hospitals across Gaza goes beyond depriving Palestinians of their right to access adequate health care. Those hospitals provided sanctuary for thousands of people with nowhere else to go,” Turk stressed.
Underlining that the UN repeatedly warned that Israel’s military operations in North Gaza place the entire Palestinian population at risk through death and displacement, Turk said Israeli military operations in and around hospitals and associated combat have had a “terrible impact” precisely at a time of massive demands on health care due to the ongoing conflict.
Turk also called for “independent, thorough and transparent” investigations into all Israeli attacks on hospitals, healthcare infrastructure and medical personnel, as well as the alleged misuse of such facilities.
The rights chief also called on Israel to ensure and facilitate access to live in humanitarian aid, including adequate health care for the Palestinian population, urging Israel to end its continued presence in the occupied Palestinian territory “as rapidly as possible.”
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