The UN Security Council held a meeting this evening, Friday, to discuss "Israeli attacks on health facilities in the Gaza Strip."

The Council heard testimonies from the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the World Health Organization representative in the West Bank and Gaza, and Dr. Tania Haj Hassan, a physician at the Medical Aid for Palestinians Society.

The meeting comes at the invitation of Algeria, which holds the presidency of the UN Security Council during the month of January.

Turk: Human rights catastrophe continues in Gaza before the eyes of the world

“A human rights catastrophe continues in Gaza before the eyes of the world,” said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk. “Israel’s methods of war have resulted in tens of thousands of deaths, widespread displacement and destruction, raising serious concerns about compliance with international law.”

Turk referred via video conference to a recent report issued by his office covering the period from October 7, 2023 to June 30, 2024, which “documented a pattern of attacks on hospitals, starting with Israeli airstrikes followed by ground forces incursions and the detention of some patients and staff, leaving hospitals unable to function.”

Turk said that protecting hospitals during wars is of the utmost importance and must be respected by all parties at all times.

The UN official referred to the destruction caused by the occupation forces last Friday to Kamal Adwan Hospital, the last operating hospital in northern Gaza. He said this reflects the pattern of attacks documented in his office’s report. He pointed out that some staff and patients were forced out of the hospital, while others, including the hospital’s general manager, were detained amid numerous reports of torture and ill-treatment.

“Failure to respect these principles is a violation of international humanitarian law,” he said. “Deliberately attacking hospitals and places where the sick and wounded are being treated, given that they are not military objectives, is a war crime. Under certain circumstances, the deliberate destruction of health care facilities may amount to a form of collective punishment, which is also a war crime.”

Peppercorn: Only 16 of Gaza's 36 hospitals are operating, even partially

In turn, the World Health Organization representative in the occupied Palestinian territory, Rick Peeperkorn, said that about 7% of the population of the Strip had been killed or injured since October 2023. He added that more than 25% of the estimated 105,000 injured suffer from life-changing injuries that will require intensive rehabilitation efforts and lifelong technological medical assistance.

He stressed that hospitals, time and again, become battlegrounds, rendering them unable to provide their services and depriving those in need of life-saving care. He added that the health sector in Gaza is being systematically dismantled and pushed to the point of collapse, amid severe shortages of medical supplies, equipment and specialists.

He pointed out that only 16 hospitals out of Gaza's 36 hospitals are still operating partially, with a bed capacity of only 1,822, far below the needs to deal with the massive health crisis in the Strip.

He spoke about the slow pace of medical evacuations, saying that more than 12,000 people need to be transferred outside Gaza for treatment. He pointed out that if the current slow pace continues, it will take 5 to 10 years to evacuate them, including thousands of children.

Despite the challenges, Peeperkorn said WHO and its partners are doing everything possible to enable hospitals and health services to continue operating, but he touched on the obstacles and restrictions to bringing supplies into Gaza and throughout the Strip.

He said that only 40% of WHO's missions in Gaza during 2024 were facilitated, which directly affected the organization's ability to provide supplies to hospitals, transfer patients from critical conditions, and deploy emergency medical teams.

Dr. Haj Hassan: For more than a year, health sector workers have been sending distress messages to the Security Council

For her part, Haj Hassan pointed out that health sector workers in Gaza have been sending distress messages to the Security Council for more than a year.

Hajj Hassan, who taught in medical colleges and hospitals in the Strip, explained that she got to know many of the workers closely.

“Despite the blockade, they have amazingly managed to build a comprehensive health system, provide high-quality medical care to patients, and promote excellent medical education for new generations of doctors,” she said.

“They are hardworking professionals who take pride in their work and take their oath to care for their patients seriously,” she added.

She added that since last October, "health workers have become a clear target of Israeli military violence," noting that the Israeli occupation has killed more than 1,000 of them.

“They tell us they are targets just because they are health workers, and that wearing medical clothing and white coats is like putting a targeting mark on their backs… because hospitals and health workers represent life and the will to keep people alive,” said Dr. Haj Hassan.

Algeria's delegate: The occupation forces act as if international law does not exist or does not apply to them

Algeria's permanent representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Amar Benjamaa, said that the Israeli occupation aims to forcibly displace Palestinians from their land through a clear and deliberate policy of ethnic cleansing.

"The numbers speak for themselves," he added, describing what is happening as the systematic destruction of the health system, as 53 percent of hospitals in Gaza are out of service, and a number of doctors have been martyred while detained in the occupation's prisons.

"Security Council resolutions increasingly appear useless," Ben Jamaa stressed, as "the occupying forces in the occupied Palestinian territories act as if international law does not exist or simply does not apply to them."

“We must end this impunity, we must end this immunity,” he said, calling for “full accountability for violations of international humanitarian law and human rights law” in Gaza.

He called on the Security Council to take decisive action and demand a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.