UN Inquiry Accuses Israel of Crime of ‘Extermination’ in Destruction of Gaza Health System
A United Nations inquiry said on Thursday it found that Israel carried out a concerted policy of
destroying Gaza’s healthcare system in the Gaza war, actions amounting to both war crimes and the crime against humanity of extermination.
A statement by former U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay that accompanied the report accused Israel of “relentless and deliberate attacks on medical personnel and facilities” in the war, triggered by Hamas militants’ deadly cross-border attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
“Children in particular have borne the brunt of these attacks, suffering both directly and indirectly from the collapse of the health system,” said Pillay, whose 24-page report covering the first 10 months of the war will be presented to the U.N. General Assembly on Oct. 30.
Israel’s prime minister’s office and its foreign ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Israel says that Gaza’s militants operate from the cover of built-up populated areas including private homes, schools and hospitals and that it will strike them wherever they emerge, while also trying to avoid harming civilians. Hamas denies hiding militants, weapons and command posts among civilians.
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Emma Farge reports on the U.N. beat and Swiss news from Geneva since 2019. She has produced a string of exclusives on diplomacy, the environment and global trade and covered Switzerland’s first war crimes trial. Her Reuters career started in 2009 covering oil swaps from London and she has since written about the West African Ebola outbreak, embedded with U.N. troops in north Mali and was the first reporter to enter deposed Gambian dictator Yahya Jammeh’s estate. She co-authored a winning story for the Elizabeth Neuffer Memorial Prize on Russia’s diplomatic isolation in 2022 and was also part of a team of journalists nominated in 2012 as Pulitzer finalists in the international reporting category for coverage of the Libyan revolution. She holds a BA from Oxford University (First) and an MSc from the LSE in International Relations. She is currently on the board of the press association for UN correspondents in Geneva (ACANU).
Featured image: Some of the wounded at al-Shifa hospital (Gaza Health Ministry)
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