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Ivan Zhakata
Herald Correspondent
Israel has burned the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza and has arrested, stripped naked and tortured the hospital’s director of Dr Hussam Abu Safiyya along with 350 hospital staff and patients.
Ambassador of the state of Palestine to Zimbabwe Dr Tamer Almassri has condemned Israel’s ongoing attacks.
He said the attacks killed at least five healthcare workers at the facility and destroyed ambulances.
“The State of Palestine demands for the immediate release of the detained doctors and other health workers detained in Israeli prisons,” he said.
“This brutal act, violates the fundamental principles of international humanitarian law, constitutes a blatant assault on human rights and an unjustified attack on medical institutions providing essential humanitarian services to civilians.
“Targeting hospitals and other locations protected under international humanitarian law constitutes a war crime under the Geneva Conventions.
“The Israeli occupation’s persistence in its crimes is largely due to the silence of the international community regarding the ethnic cleansing and massacres taking place therefore the international community must assume its legal and moral responsibilities, and to oblige the occupying state to immediately stop its ongoing aggression against Gaza, its ongoing violations of international law and international humanitarian law, stop its crimes against our people, and hold those responsible accountable.”
Over the past year, Israeli forces have detained more than 600 health workers from various specialties, and approximately 1060 health workers have been killed, some while being tortured in custody.
Hundreds more have been injured, representing a significant loss of skilled personnel and expertise and a blow to the health system as a whole.
Ambassador Almassri has called on the international community and the UN Security Council to take decisive steps to end the violations which he said do not only constitute serious and blatant violations of international law and international humanitarian law, but also pose a serious threat to regional and international peace and security.
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