Our new report, ‘No More Impunity: Gaza’s Health Sector Under Attack’, published today with Al Mezan Center for Human Rights and Medical Aid for Palestinians, highlights the devastating attacks on Gaza’s medical facilities and personnel which occurred during the 2014 military offensive on Gaza. This comes as states prepare to discuss the UN Commission of Inquiry into last summer’s 51-day attacks at the UN Human Rights Council session in Geneva on Monday.

The report expands on the findings of the UN investigation, to which these organisations contributed through submissions based on field research in Gaza. The authors have welcomed the Commission’s recognition of the “unprecedented” extent of the devastation and human suffering last year, and support its call for accountability for violations of international humanitarian law during the attacks.

Introducing the report, Baroness Helena Kennedy QC called for “unequivocal commitment from all states for the protection of medical infrastructure and its importance in ensuring the fulfilment of the right of all Palestinians to the highest attainable standard of health.”

Seventeen hospitals, 56 primary healthcare facilities and 45 ambulances were damaged or destroyed by Israeli strikes. The report provides detailed accounts of some of these incidents, including the complete destruction of Al Wafa, Gaza’s only rehabilitation hospital, and an attack on the Mebarret Palestine Centre for People with Disabilities in which two patients were killed and three injured. Sixteen health workers, many of them ambulance drivers, were also killed while on duty treating, transporting or trying to reach the injured.

New data revealed in the report show that 511 of the 2,217 Palestinians killed last summer died without ever receiving medical assistance, due to obstruction of ambulances trying to reach the wounded or carry them to hospitals. In one particularly shocking case, ambulances did not reach Anas ‘Bader’ Qdieh, a seven-year-old boy from Khuza’a with a serious shrapnel wound to his abdomen, for nearly four hours. When paramedics eventually found him, they were held at an Israeli checkpoint for a further 27 minutes on the way to hospital, during which time he died.

Tony Laurance, CEO of Medical Aid for Palestinians, said: “The scale of the attacks on health facilities and personnel have had a devastating impact in Gaza, and are deeply troubling. There must be a full and impartial investigation of what happened, and accountability for violations of international law.”

Issam Younis, General Director of the Gaza-based Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, said: “This report reaffirms that as long as Palestinians are denied justice and perpetrators advance with impunity, prospects for Palestine remain bleak. No peace is attainable without justice. The accession of the State of Palestine to the ICC must serve as an avenue for victims to be redressed and to hold the perpetrators to account.”

Tareq Shrourou, Director of LPHR, said: “This report highlights the horrors that occur when there is a status quo of systemic impunity for serious violations of international humanitarian and human rights law. Achieving full accountability, justice and respect for the rule of law must now be given primacy by all relevant actors to deter further grave violations and to secure the rights of victims.”

MAP, Al Mezan and LPHR jointly urge governments at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva to ensure accountability for apparent deliberate or reckless attacks on medical infrastructure and personnel during last summer’s military offensive on Gaza. With Gaza having endured three large-scale military attacks in six years, continuing impunity for these attacks and a lack of action to resolve the root causes of the conflict between Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory could put the lives of medics and civilians at risk again in future.

Notes for Editors:

The final report, and associated videos detailing some of the cases contained therein, will be available here from Friday 26th June.

Photos for media use, associated with the cases in the report, are available here.

Spokespersons available:

Al Mezan Center for Human Rights

Mahmoud Abu Rahma (Director of International Relations and Communications)

Geneva

Nuriya Oswald

Geneva

Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights

Tareq Shrourou (Director)

UK

Medical Aid for Palestinians

Tony Laurance (Chief Executive Officer)

London

No More Impunity – Gaza’s Health Sector Under Attack

View PDF of Press Release – LPHR, Al Mezan, MAP

Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights (LPHR), Al Mezan Center for Human Rights (Al Mezan) and Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) have this week submitted a comprehensive joint complaint to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health, the United Nations Special Rapporteur for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, and the United Nations Independent Commission of Inquiry on the 2014 Gaza Conflict, concerning destruction and damage to medical infrastructure and loss of life and injury to civilians and medical personnel in Gaza, during Israel’s military operation codenamed ‘Operation Protective Edge’ between 7 July 2014 and 26 August 2014.

Attacks against medical infrastructure and personnel in Gaza was a recurring feature of Israel’s military operation. 17 hospitals and 56 clinics were adversely affected ranging from total destruction to minor damage, and 45 ambulances were damaged. At least 19 healthworkers were killed, nine while on duty, and at least 27 healthworkers were injured.

LPHR, Al Mezan, and MAP’s joint complaint illuminates the serious human rights consequences for civilians and medical personnel in Gaza due to Israel’s apparent deliberate or reckless military targeting of medical infrastructure or personnel during their fifty day military operation, and the apparent unjustifiable obstruction of emergency medical access to the injured, by highlighting seven grave violation incidents of the right to health and the right to life and physical integrity. At least twelve Palestinian civilians or medical personnel were killed, with further numbers of individuals injured, in these serious incidents.

LPHR, Al Mezan and MAP’s joint complaint further includes a detailed legal analysis on the critical issue of targeting medical infrastructure and personnel, and concludes with suggested recommendations for urgent action by the United Nations Special Rapporteurs and the United Nations Independent Commission of Inquiry.

LPHR, Al Mezan and MAP submit in the complaint that the extensive destruction and damage caused to medical infrastructure during Israel’s military operation in Gaza amounts to a gross violation of the right to health for any Palestinian resident in Gaza whose access to health services was impeded by these military attacks. The apparent deliberate or reckless military targeting of medical infrastructure and personnel further raises the extremely serious concern that international humanitarian law was seriously violated with grave consequences for the right to life and physical integrity of Palestinians in Gaza. These actions may amount to war crimes.

LPHR, Al Mezan and MAP request the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the OPT and the United Nations Independent Commission of Inquiry use this complaint as the basis for their own urgent investigation into the documented seven serious incidents, and take appropriate action further to our suggested recommendations.

LPHR, Al Mezan and MAP’s recommendations include issuing a clear condemnation to Israel of the repeated apparent deliberate or reckless targeting of medical infrastructure and personnel by the Israeli military, and the apparent unjustifiable obstruction of emergency medical access to the injured, as conduct clearly indicating the commission of serious violations of international humanitarian and human rights law; urging Israel to allow and facilitate access for all necessary construction materials to enter Gaza so that reconstruction can take place for the medical infrastructure that has been destroyed or damaged; publicly asserting the vital need for criminal investigations, accountability and state responsibility and reparations for all alleged serious violations of international humanitarian and human rights law; and to consider appropriately referring this complaint and/or the findings of their own investigation into the seven documented serious incidents to other relevant international bodies, including the International Criminal Court.

LPHR, Al Mezan and MAP assert that full and credible investigations and accountability are necessary to enable the victims of Israel’s military operation in Gaza between 7 July 2014 and 26 August 2014 to obtain access to an effective remedy and justice. They are further imperative so to provide a robust deterrent against any appalling recurrence of apparently unlawful military attacks against medical infrastructure and personnel, and apparently unjustifiable obstruction of emergency medical access to injured people, with grave human rights consequences for civilians and medical personnel.

Joint Public Statement (PDF)

[UPDATE: in November 2014, our complaint was also directly submitted to the United Nations Independent Commission of Inquiry on the 2014 Gaza Conflict]

Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights (LPHR) and Al Mezan Center for Human Rights (Al Mezan) have today submitted a comprehensive joint complaint to the United Nations Special Rapporteurs on Adequate Housing and for the occupied Palestinian territory, concerning the large-scale destruction and damage to family houses in the Gaza Strip, with associated profound loss of life and injury to Palestinian residents, during Israel’s military operation codenamed ‘Operation Protective Edge’ between 7 July 2014 and 26 August 2014.

The targeting of family homes in Gaza was a significant aspect of Israel’s military operation. It caused the destruction or severe damage of approximately 18,000 housing units, the killing of at least 999 people inside their homes (including 329 children and 212 women) and the killing of an additional 233 people near their homes.

LPHR and Al Mezan’s joint complaint clarifies the devastating human rights consequences for the residents of Gaza of Israel’s large-scale, deliberate and systematic military targeting of family homes during their fifty day military operation, by highlighting forty grave violation incidents of the right to adequate housing and the right to life and physical integrity.

LPHR and Al Mezan’s joint complaint further includes a detailed legal analysis on the critical issue of targeting family homes, and concludes with suggested recommendations for urgent action by the United Nations Special Rapporteurs in liaison with the United Nations Human Rights Council independent Commission of Inquiry.

LPHR and Al Mezan submit in the complaint that the vast destruction and damage caused to family houses in Gaza amounts to a gross, deliberate and systematic violation of the right to adequate housing. We further assert that the large-scale, deliberate and systematic targeting of family homes raises the extremely serious concern that international humanitarian law had been seriously violated with grave consequences for respect for the right to life and physical integrity. These actions may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.

LPHR and Al Mezan request the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing and the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the OPT use this complaint as the basis for their own urgent investigation into the large-scale, deliberate and systematic targeting of family homes in Gaza by Israel’s military forces, and take appropriate action pursuant to our suggested recommendations in liaison with the United Nations Human Rights Council independent Commission of Inquiry.

LPHR and Al Mezan’s recommendations include issuing a clear condemnation to Israel of the large-scale, deliberate and systematic targeting of family houses by its military as conduct amounting to the commission of serious violations of international humanitarian and human rights law; urging Israel to allow and facilitate access for all necessary construction materials to enter Gaza so that reconstruction can take place for the vast number of people whose houses have been destroyed or damaged; and publicly asserting the vital need for criminal investigations, accountability and state responsibility and reparations for all alleged serious violations of international humanitarian and human rights law.

LPHR and Al Mezan assert that full and credible investigations and accountability are necessary to enable the victims of Israel’s military operation in Gaza between 7 July 2014 and 26 August 2014 to obtain access to an effective remedy and justice, and to provide a robust deterrent against any horrific recurrence of unlawful military attacks against family homes with grave consequences for civilians.

More Information:

As of 25 August 2014, the United Nations verified at least 142 families had lost three or more family members in the same incident, for a total of 739 fatalities. These victims include members of the most vulnerable groups of society: children, elderly people, and pregnant women.

As of 27 August 2014, Al Mezan’s documentation unit reports that at least 999 family members had been killed inside their houses. This includes 329 children and 212 women. Two women with severe and complex impairments were killed in an attack on a residential centre for people with disabilities. An additional 233 people were killed in the vicinity of their houses. This includes situations where people were trying to flee from their family homes as a result of Israeli military attacks.

In total, over 58 per cent of the 2,116 confirmed Palestinian fatalities during Israeli’s military operation in Gaza between 7 July 2014 and 26 August 2014 were caused as a direct consequence of Israel’s large-scale, deliberate and systematic military attacks against family homes.

The corroborated evidence of the alarming and grave consequences of the Israeli military targeting of family homes led the then serving United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, to express: ‘what we are witnessing is the killing of whole families‘.

The United Nations estimates that alternative housing will be needed for the approximately 108,000 residents of Gaza whose family homes have been destroyed or severely damaged. This emergency situation has been described by a United Nations Relief and Works Agency spokesperson as a ‘man-made homelessness crisis on an epic scale‘. The United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Robert Serry, has stated that ‘reconstruction is the main priority‘. The World Health Organisation has reported that injured persons whose families have been displaced are at particular health risk from medical complications following hospital discharge.

Joint Public Statement (PDF)