Amnesty urges investigation into Israel's 'deliberate attacks' on Gaza health workers

Amnesty International has appealed for “an immediate investigation” into “mounting evidence” that the Israeli military conducted “apparently deliberate attacks against hospitals and health professionals in Gaza”, strikes which left “six medics dead”.

The global human rights organisation has published “disturbing testimonies from doctors, nurses, and ambulance personnel” that depict health professionals trying to save lives even as “bombs and bullets” are “killing or injuring their colleagues”.

“The harrowing descriptions by ambulance drivers and other medics of the utterly impossible situation in which they have to work, with, paint a grim reality of life in Gaza”, commented Philip Luther, Middle East and North Africa Director at Amnesty International.

Luther added that targeting health facilities and professionals are “absolutely prohibited by international law and would amount to war crimes”.

Amnesty cites Dr. Bashar Murad, director of Palestinian Red Crescent Society’s (PRCS) emergency and ambulance unit, who said that at least two PRCS ambulance workers had been killed, with at least a further 35 injured.

One example given is the killing of ambulance worker Mohammad Al-Abadlah, shot by the Israeli army on 25 July while on his way to reach the injured, and travelling in a visibly marked ambulance and wearing his medical uniform.

Amnesty cites data from the Palestinian Ministry of Health, according to whom “at least six ambulance workers, and at least 13 other aid workers, have been killed as they attempted to rescue the wounded and collect the dead”. A further “49 doctors, nurses and paramedics have been injured by such attacks; at least 33 other aid workers were also injured”.

Amnesty noted that they have “previously documented and reported on attacks by the Israeli army on health workers during military operations in Gaza in 2008/09 and 2012. Endangering the lives of aid and medical workers and obstructing their work is a violation of international law”.