Israeli committed ‘war crimes’ in occupied Gaza hospitals: HRW
Israeli forces’ actions while occupying Palestinian hospitals in Gaza amount to war crimes, Human Rights Watch has found.
In a new report published today, the leading rights group concluded that the Israeli military caused deaths and unnecessary suffering among Palestinian patients, including by denying electricity, water, food, and medicines to patients, shooting civilians, mistreating health workers and deliberately destroying medical facilities and equipment.
“Israeli forces repeatedly demonstrated deadly cruelty against Palestinian patients in hospitals that they seized,” said Bill Van Esveld, associate children’s rights director at Human Rights Watch. “The Israeli military’s denial of water and electricity left sick and wounded people to die, while soldiers mistreated and forcibly displaced patients and health workers, and damaged and destroyed hospitals.”
UNRWA chief says homes in occupied West Bank ‘systematically destroyed’
Philippe Lazzarini, chief of the UN refugee agency for Palestinians (UNRWA), has warned of a “deepening humanitarian crisis” unfolding in the occupied West Bank.
Israeli forces have been intensifying a crackdown in the northern West Bank, targeting refugee camps in Jenin and Tulkarem, forcing thousands of Palestinians to flee their homes.
Homes and other civilian infrastructure have been “systematically destroyed”, Lazzarini said in a post on X.
“Just yesterday, the Israeli Authorities issued new demolition orders for another 66 buildings in Jenin camp. Dozens of houses have already been destroyed in the camp over the past two months,” he said.
“These demolition orders must not be carried out. Tens of thousands of Palestine Refugees are at risk of renewed long term displacement with Jenin Camp permanently altered.”
‘We are leading a revolution’ in the occupied West Bank: Smotrich
Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has welcomed the approval of a record number of new housing units in illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
“An annual record for approvals for housing units in Gush Etzion, and we are only in the first third of the year,” Smotrich wrote in a post on X, in reference to a report that 500 new housing units were approved today for the Gush Etzion cluster of settlements.
“We are leading a revolution in Judea and Samaria,” he added, using a biblical term for the occupied West Bank, “to strengthen our sovereignty and prevent the danger of the Palestinian state. And this is just the beginning.”
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