UN experts slam Israel's 'blatant assault' on health rights in Gaza

Children warm by the fire next to the rubble of destroyed buildings at the Bureij camp for displaced Palestinians on January 2, 2025, amid the continuing war between Israel and the militant Hamas group. [AFP]

UN experts on Thursday decried Israel's raid on an embattled hospital in northern Gaza, demanding an end to the "blatant assault" on health rights in the besieged Palestinian territory.

Reiterating charges that Israel is committing "genocide" in Gaza -- something the Israeli government strongly denies -- two independent United Nations rights experts said they were "horrified" by the raid last Friday on Kamal Adwan, northern Gaza's last functioning major hospital.

"For well over a year into the genocide, Israel's blatant assault on the right to health in Gaza and the rest of the occupied Palestinian territory is plumbing new depths of impunity," the experts said in a statement.

"We are horrified and concerned by reports from northern Gaza."

Israel's military, which did not offer an immediate response to the comments, has said it killed more than 20 suspected militants and detained more than 240, including the hospital's director, Hossam Abu Safiyeh, describing him as a suspected Hamas militant.

Francesca Albanese, the outspoken and controversial independent UN special rapporteur on the rights situation in the Palestinian territories, and Tlaleng Mofokeng, special rapporteur on the right to health, said they were "gravely concerned" at Safiyeh's detention and demanded his "immediate release."

"Yet another doctor to be harassed, kidnapped and arbitrarily detained by the occupation forces, in his case for defying evacuation orders to leave his patients and colleagues behind," they said.

"This is part of a pattern by Israel to continuously bombard, destroy and fully annihilate the realisation of the right to health in Gaza."

UN special rapporteurs are independent experts appointed by the UN Human Rights Council but who do not speak on behalf of the world body.

The experts also highlighted "disturbing reports" that Israeli forces allegedly carried out extrajudicial executions of some people near the hospitals, including a Palestinian man reportedly holding a white flag.

They pointed to figures provided by the health ministry in Hamas-led Gaza indicating that at least 1,057 Palestinian health and medical professionals have been killed since the war erupted following the Palestinian militant group's October 7, 2023 attack inside Israel.

"Under occupation, intentional assaults on healthcare facilities have the potential to expose individuals to cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment and may constitute a war crime," the experts said.

"In Gaza, this is clearly part of a well-established pattern of genocide, for which Israeli leaders will have to be held accountable."