Human Rights Watch called on the International Criminal Court and an independent international commission of inquiry in the occupied Palestinian territory to investigate Israeli crimes against the Palestinian health sector in the Gaza Strip, as they are war crimes.

It said in a report issued today, Tuesday, that the repeated attacks launched by the Israeli army on medical facilities, crews, and transports are destroying the health care system in Gaza and must be investigated as war crimes, and that concerns about disproportionate attacks are exacerbated with regard to hospitals. Even the threat of attack or minor harm can have huge life-or-death implications for patients and caregivers.

The organization called on the Israeli government to end attacks on hospitals, and said: The “Independent International Commission of Inquiry in the Occupied Palestinian Territory” and the “International Criminal Court” must investigate.

It noted that hospitals, ambulances and health facilities are protected under international humanitarian law.

It pointed to what the World Health Organization reported that at least 521 people, including 16 medical workers, were killed in “137 attacks on health care” in Gaza as of November 12.

Human Rights Watch stressed in its report that “these attacks, along with Israel’s decisions to cut off electricity and water and obstruct humanitarian access to Gaza, severely impede access to health care.”

“Repeated Israeli attacks damaging hospitals and health care workers, adding to previous damage from the illegal blockade, have destroyed Gaza’s health care infrastructure,” said Human Rights Watch Special Adviser on the Right to Health, Qayyim Ahmed. “Raids on hospitals have killed hundreds.” "It has put many patients at serious risk, as they are unable to receive appropriate medical care."

According to its report, Human Rights Watch investigated the attacks on or near the “Indonesian Hospital,” “Al-Ahli Hospital,” the “International Eye Center,” the “Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital,” and “Al-Quds Hospital,” between October 7 and November 7, and she spoke with displaced people who took refuge in hospitals and 16 medical workers and hospital officials in Gaza. She said: “Israeli forces bombed the Indonesian hospital several times between October 7 and 28, killing at least two civilians. The center was exposed The International Airport in Laayoune was subjected to repeated bombardment and was completely destroyed after a raid on 10 or 11 October.

The Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital complex and its surroundings were bombed on October 30 and 31. Damage to the hospital, as well as a lack of fuel for the hospital's generators, led to its closure on November 1. Repeated Israeli raids damaged Al-Quds Hospital, wounding a man and a child in front of it. On several occasions, Israeli forces bombed clearly marked ambulances on 3 November, killing and wounding at least 12 people, including children, in front of Al-Shifa Hospital.

It added that these ongoing attacks are not isolated, as Israeli forces carried out dozens of strikes, causing damage to several other hospitals throughout Gaza.

In this regard, the organization stressed that hospitals and other medical facilities are civilian objects that enjoy special protection under international humanitarian law, or the laws of war, and that the occupation army’s claims about their use for military purposes are not subject to agreement, and Human Rights Watch has not been able to confirm them. She did not see any information justifying the attacks on Gaza hospitals.

Human Rights Watch said that the Israeli government must immediately end the unlawful attacks on hospitals, ambulances, and other civilian objects, as well as the comprehensive siege it imposes on the Gaza Strip, which amounts to the war crime of collective punishment.

The United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany and other countries called for the suspension of military aid and arms sales to Israel as long as its forces continue to commit serious and widespread violations that amount to war crimes against Palestinian civilians with impunity.