Libya .. Haftar forces continue targeting hospitals and medical staff

Mahmoud Mohamed - Tripoli

The continued targeting of the forces of retired Major General Khalifa Hafter hospitals and medical staff in Libya, the latest on Monday when the air bombardment of the field hospital Zatarna field south of Tripoli, amid calls for an international investigation.

The Presidential Council of the National Reconciliation Government described the targeting of civilian facilities and field hospitals as a "war crime" by the Hafar forces in accordance with international humanitarian law and international human rights law.

He said in a statement that the competent authorities of the government document these crimes to submit to the judiciary, and calls on the international community through its legal and judicial institutions to assume its responsibilities towards the abuses committed by the aggressor militias.

International investigation
"The bombing and direct targeting is repeated on our medical teams, and most of our field hospitals have been attacked, so the international organizations must act to document and hold accountable the perpetrators," said Health Minister Humaid Ben Omar.

He added in an interview with Al Jazeera Net that two main hospitals directly affected were the Gharian Hospital and Ali Omar Askar Hospital, as well as the destruction of field hospitals and the loss of the finest medical staff.

The Minister of Health demanded a detailed international investigation to identify those responsible for these crimes and bring them to justice and to ensure that the attack on medical personnel is not repeated.

He stressed that his ministry is doing its best to provide treatment and humanitarian service to families in areas of clashes, and activate emergency management to provide assistance to the displaced.

Continuous shelling
"We went to the Zatarna axis in support of the medical staff there, and we were hit by more than one rocket from a plane," said Samer Kheil, coordinator of the Wadi al-Rabea field hospital. "One of our colleagues, who was wounded in the bombing, was rushed to the hospital and was in stable condition."

The campaign of direct targeting of field hospitals with aerial bombardment, or guided missiles against ambulances, was surprised, although ambulances and field hospitals were not near the front lines.

He said the direct targeting of hospitals and medical staff was 37 targets, including four bombed sites and 33 artillery shells, in which 11 people were killed and 33 injured.

war crimes
The National Human Rights Commission of Libya expressed its strong condemnation of the targeting of medical centers and staff, in particular Al Zahraa Field Hospital on the Airport Road, which belongs to the Humanitarian Medicine Center of the Ministry of Health.

"The direct and repeated targeting of field hospitals, paramedics and medical personnel has caused many casualties and is a violation of international and humanitarian law," said Ahmad Hamza, the National Human Rights Committee's commissioner for Al-Jazeera Net.

He stressed that these blatant and repeated attacks are a clear war crime in contravention of the international conventions and conventions set out in international humanitarian law, namely Article 20, which provides for the protection of workers in the administration and operation of hospitals and ambulance crews transporting and evacuating the wounded from places of operations of a military nature.

Hamza called on the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court and the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to open an independent international investigation into all crimes and gross violations of human rights committed against medical workers and health hospitals.