play videoplay video

By bombing, booby-trapping, burning, arresting, and intimidating, the Israeli occupation army has continued since dawn last Monday to attack Al-Shifa Medical Complex with all the tools at its disposal, attacking international law and human conscience.

For the second time since they unleashed the war machine on Gaza and its residents, the occupation soldiers continued to violate the most basic concepts of respect for human dignity, using the largest medical complex in the Strip as a scene for their new crimes.

Thousands of people fleeing the hell of war inside and outside its walls, and hundreds of patients in its various wards, once again found themselves under terror and panic, with the escalation of random killings and the expansion of arrests among the displaced.

Even the inhabited homes surrounding the complex - located west of Gaza City - were not spared from oppression and violations, as eyewitnesses reported that the occupation soldiers burned many of them in the western area of ​​the complex.

In testimonies documented by an Al Jazeera Net correspondent, the occupation prevented ambulances and civil defense from reaching the area, and threatened to target everything that moves in the vicinity of the hospital, amid desperate appeals from residents to evacuate them.

Clashes and smoke bombs in the vicinity of Al-Shifa Medical Complex, the Communications Area, and Tal Al-Hawa, west of #Gaza pic.twitter.com/upFOjIYBjN

- Al Jazeera Egypt (@AJA_Egypt) March 21, 2024

Bombing and bombing

With more indifference and indifference, the occupation responded to the calls of humanitarian and relief organizations to stop the attacks, and not only continued setting fires, but also continued its campaign of intimidation by booby-trapping the rest of the houses with explosives.

Moreover, the artillery fires did not stop bombarding the surroundings of the complex since dawn on Monday, after blowing up one of its largest buildings, without information being available as to whether the building that was housing displaced persons had been evacuated before it was blown up, according to Al Jazeera’s correspondent.

Earlier on Wednesday, the Israeli army admitted to killing 90 Palestinians and interrogating 300 in Al-Shifa Hospital. It also admitted to arresting 160 others and transferring them to Israel for investigation.

This is the second time that Israeli forces have stormed the complex since the beginning of the war on Gaza on the 7th of last October. They stormed it on the 16th of last November after besieging it for a week and then withdrew from it 8 days later. During the storming, its courtyards and parts of its buildings were destroyed. And its medical equipment, in addition to the electricity generator.

Commenting on this military operation, which Israel described as comprehensive, against what it describes as the remnants of resistance fighters holed up in the medical complex, Ahmed Jamil Azm, professor of international affairs at Qatar University, said, “What is happening is a type of ethnic cleansing.”

ethnic cleansing

Speaking to Al Jazeera Net, Azm said that what contributes to this ethnic cleansing is the targeting of hospitals, workers in relief organizations, journalists, and other entities that enjoy international and legal immunity.

Regarding the occupation’s justification for its campaign against the complex by the presence of a network of tunnels and infrastructure used by the resistance, the speaker recalled the admission of former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak that part of the excavations, fortifications and constructions located under Al-Shifa Hospital were built by Israel.

The university professor added that the Israeli allegations are an absolute lie, and what is happening in the Al-Shifa Complex is exactly what is happening in the issue of preventing the arrival of aid and claiming that it goes to the resistance men and not to those who deserve it.

As long as our Lord is afraid, and as long as our Lord lives!


What's wrong with me!


I want to go !

From Al-Shifa Complex a while ago, if a video like this does not move you, be sure that you are not a human being


!

I swear to God, my heart breaks for this child 💔🙏🏻! pic.twitter.com/5skL07ReKT



- Nooh Ayasreh 𓂆 (@Naseem_nooh) March 18, 2024

Regarding the position of international law on targeting health facilities, he said that international law gives immunity to hospitals, paramedics, and journalists, especially those who are in visible places or wearing ambulance or press uniforms.

Hospitals receive special protection in the Fourth Geneva Convention, as it is not permissible under any circumstances to attack civilian hospitals that provide care for the wounded, the sick, the elderly, and women, as the law requires these hospitals to be respected and protected.

Intentional attacks on hospitals and places where the sick and wounded congregate under the Rome Statute constitute a grave violation of the laws and customs of war. Under the Statute of the International Criminal Court, intentionally directing attacks against hospitals and places where individuals and wounded are gathered constitutes a war crime.

Source: Al Jazeera