Francesca Albanese, UN’s Special Rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territory, has called on “medical professionals worldwide” to suspend ties with Israel in an act of solidarity with the more than “1,000 colleagues of yours” killed in Gaza over the past 14 months.
Albanese said in a post on social media that countless more Palestinian medical workers “were arrested, tortured, disappeared.”
“Out of dismay [and] solidarity you should revolt and urge suspension of ties with Israel until it stops the genocide [and] accounts for it. What are you waiting for?”
Francesca Albanese
UN experts have urged an end to the “blatant disregard” of the right to health in the Gaza Strip, following last week’s raid on the Kamal Adwan Hospital and the arbitrary arrest and detention of its Director, Hussam Abu Safiya.
UN Special Rapporteur on the right to health, Tlaleng Mofokeng and Francesca Albanese said in a statement, “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.”
“We are horrified and concerned by reports from northern Gaza and especially the attack on the healthcare workers including the last remaining of 22 now destroyed hospitals: Kamal Adwan Hospital.”
Tlaleng Mofokeng and Francesca Albanese
According to the experts, more than 1,057 Palestinian health and medical professionals have been killed and many arbitrarily arrested.
They urged Israeli authorities, as the occupying power, to respect and protect the right to life and the right to health in Gaza and the whole occupied Palestinian territory by ensuring unhindered access to necessary healthcare and urgently restoring the continuity of essential health services in Gaza.
Separately, Doctors Without Borders, known by its French initials MSF, warned that a paediatric department in Nasser Hospital in Gaza’s Khan Younis has been operating beyond its capacity and the neonatal intensive care unit is treating children with respiratory infections, dehydration and premature newborns with life-threatening complications.
MSF Emergency Coordinator, Pascale Coissard said that the onset of winter in Gaza, disintegrating tents and no other shelter for people displaced by Israel’s war on the territory has created “exceptional” conditions that threaten the lives of babies before they are even born.
“Even before their lives have started outside the womb, babies are at risk of disease and death.
“Once born, babies face immediate and extreme challenges: displaced in the cold of winter, without adequate access to warmth, shelter, or healthcare, as Israel continues to bomb Gaza and restrict essential supplies from entering the Strip.”
Pascale Coissard
MSF called on the Israeli government to ensure “rapid, unimpeded and safe entry of humanitarian aid at the level sufficient to address people’s needs, including water and medical supplies.”
Targeting Of Hospitals In Gaza Denounced
Meanwhile, the United Nations denounced the targeting of hospitals in the Gaza Strip, saying that medical facilities need “to be off limits.”
UN Deputy Spokesperson, Farhan Haq said that there are more than 12,000 people in Gaza who need medical evacuation.
“There’s a lot of hospital needs. We continue to call on all sides to keep hospitals out of harm’s way, which means not placing or trying to infiltrate the hospitals.
“We want to make sure that all steps are taken to protect and preserve the lives of the injured and sick, who are in those hospitals.”
Farhan Haq
Haq cited an Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs report and said that Israel’s “evacuation orders” cover more than 80 percent of the Gaza Strip.
He noted that humanitarian aid organisations face increasing restrictions.
READ ALSO: President Akufo-Addo to Deliver Final State of the Nation Address Today
