#Title Gaza hospitals have become ‘death trap’ Warns UN rights chief, says Israel’s claims of armed groups using hospitals ‘vague’

AFP, Geneva

UN rights chief Volker Turk said yesterday that hospitals in the Gaza Strip had become a “death trap”, insisting that such facilities must instead be protected during conflict.

“As if the relentless bombing and the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza were not enough, the one sanctuary where Palestinians should have felt safe in fact became a death trap. The protection of hospitals during warfare is paramount and must be respected by all sides, at all times,” the UN high commissioner for human rights said.

The UN human rights office report published yesterday found that Israeli strikes on and near hospitals in the Gaza Strip had left healthcare in the Palestinian territory on the “brink of collapse”.

It said such strikes raised grave concerns about Israel’s compliance with international law. Its 23-page report, entitled “Attacks on hospitals during the escalation of hostilities in Gaza”, looked at the period from October 7, 2023 to June 30, 2024.

It said that during this time, there were at least 136 strikes on 27 hospitals and 12 other medical facilities, claiming significant casualties among doctors, nurses, medics and other civilians and causing significant damage to, if not the complete destruction of, civilian infrastructure.

The report also found that Israel’s repeated claims that Gaza hospitals were being improperly used for military purposes by Palestinian groups “vague”.

“Insufficient information has so far been made publicly available to substantiate these allegations, which have remained vague and broad, and in some cases appear contradicted by publicly available information,” it said.

Israel’s military campaign has killed more than 45,541 people in Gaza, a majority of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry that the UN considers reliable.

The report concluded with a call for credible investigations into the incidents detailed, and said they had to be independent given the “limitations” of Israel’s justice system in respect of the conduct of its armed forces.