Photo by Sunguk Kim on Unsplash

World medical leaders call for Gaza ceasefire amid mass graves horror

Melissa Sweet
Marie McInerney
Thursday, April 25, 2024

Child health, Trauma, Conflict and war, Global health, Human rights, Legal issues, Violence

Introduction by Croakey: As well as Anzac Day commemorations, this week has also marked International Day of Multilateralism and Diplomacy for Peace (24 April).

Yet still the horrors are emerging from Gaza, including reports of mass graves at two hospitals and that some bodies were found stripped naked and with their hands tied.

A recent Guardian article reported fears that children in Gaza were being targeted by Israeli snipers, and quoted a Canadian physician as saying:

This is not a normal war. The war in Ukraine has killed 500 kids in two years and the war in Gaza has killed over 10,000 in less than five months. We have seen wars before but this is something that is a dark stain on our shared humanity.”

Professor Martin Hensher, the Henry Baldwin Professorial Research Fellow in Health Systems Sustainability at the Menzies Institute for Medical Research, shared the article today in a thread at X/Twitter, concluding:

“As we remember our own fallen heroes this ANZAC Day, we should think carefully about our nation’s support for Israel’s war on children.”

Marie McInerney writes:

The World Medical Association has called for a ceasefire between Israel and Gaza, saying it is “gravely concerned by the deepening healthcare and humanitarian crisis in Gaza, the growing starvation and the lack of medical care and deeply concerned about the continued imprisonment and abuse of hostages”.

The WMA resolution comes this week as Amnesty International and other human rights groups are calling on Israel to ensure immediate access to Gaza for investigators, including forensic experts, to examine mass graves containing hundreds of bodies at two hospitals in the besieged territory.

In a statement issued at the WMA Council session in Seoul this week, the organisation calls for:

A bilateral, negotiated and sustainable ceasefire in order to protect all civilian life, secure the release and safe passage of all hostages and to allow the transfer of humanitarian aid for all those in need.
The immediate and safe release of all hostages.
Pending their release, humanitarian aid and healthcare attention to be provided to the hostages.
All parties to abide by international humanitarian law and the principle of medical neutrality to safeguard the rights and protection of healthcare facilities, healthcare personnel and patients from further threat, interference and attack.
Unimpeded and accelerated humanitarian access throughout all of Gaza, including the entry of humanitarian aid and safe passage of medical personnel. This also includes the evacuation of urgent medical cases to reduce secondary morbidity and mortality, public health risks, and alleviate pressure on hospitals inside Gaza.
The re-establishment of access to healthcare and the creation of a safe working environment for healthcare personnel to work in through the restoration of medical capacity and essential services.
Verified investigations into alleged gross violations and abuses of human rights and international humanitarian law including attacks on healthcare staff and facilities and the misuse of those facilities for military purposes.
The upholding by physicians of the principles in the WMA Declaration of Geneva and other documents that serve as guidance for medical personnel during times of conflict.

Independent investigations needed

In a statement on 24 April about the mass graves, Erika Guevara Rosas, Amnesty’s Senior Director of Research, Advocacy, Policy and Campaigns, said it was critical to ensure that evidence is preserved and that independent and transparent investigations are carried out “with the aim of guaranteeing accountability for any violations of international law”.

“Without proper investigations to determine how these deaths took place or what violations may have been committed, we may never find out the truth of the horrors behind these mass graves,” she said.

Rosas said the absence of forensic experts and the decimation of Gaza’s medical sector, along with the lack of availability of the necessary resources for the identification of bodies such as DNA testing, are huge obstacles to the identifications of remains.

“This denies those killed the opportunity to have a dignified burial and deprives families with relatives missing or forcibly disappeared the right to know and to justice – leaving them in a limbo of uncertainty and anguish. “

Ensuring the preservation of evidence is among the key measures the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered Israeli authorities to take in order to prevent genocide, Amnesty said.

The United Nations human rights office, OHCHR, said this week disturbing reports continue to emerge about the mass graves, prompting renewed concerns about possible war crimes amid ongoing Israeli airstrikes.

“The development follows the recovery of hundreds of bodies “buried deep in the ground and covered with waste” over the weekend at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, central Gaza, and at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City in the north,” OHCHR said in a statement.

A total of 283 bodies were recovered at Nasser Hospital, of which 42 were identified.

“Among the deceased were allegedly older people, women and wounded, while others were found tied with their hands…tied and stripped of their clothes,” it said.

OHCHR said the Al-Shifa Hospital was Gaza’s main tertiary health facility before war erupted on 7 October and was the focus of an Israeli military incursion to root out Hamas militants allegedly operating inside.

“After two weeks of intense clashes, UN humanitarians assessed the site and confirmed on 5 April that Al-Shifa was ‘an empty shell’, with most equipment reduced to ashes.”

Concerns continue about the destruction of health facilities in Gaza, with World Health Organization chief Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus tweeting this week that the Al Awda Hospital – Nuseirat was reportedly hit by Israeli fire, disrupting power supplies and causing damage to water and fuel tanks.

“This attack brings the total to 31 out of 36 hospitals that have sustained damage since October 2023,” he said, warning that access to healthcare “continues shrinking every day”.

“We cannot repeat loudly enough: stop targeting hospitals. Stop militarising hospitals. Ceasefire. Work for peace,” he tweeted.

Children pay the price

As of 22 April, more than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, including 14,685 children and 9,670 women, the High Commissioner’s office said, citing the enclave’s health authorities. Another 77,084 have been injured, and over 7,000 others are assumed to be under the rubble.

“Every 10 minutes a child is killed or wounded. They are protected under the laws of war, and yet they are ones who are disproportionately paying the ultimate price in this war,” Türk said, in a statement reporting a series of Israeli strikes on Rafah in the past few days that killed mostly children and women.

“The latest images of a premature child taken from the womb of her dying mother, of the adjacent two houses where 15 children and five women were killed, this is beyond warfare,” he said, appealing for an immediate ceasefire, the release of all remaining hostages taken from Israel and the unfettered flow of humanitarian aid.

The International Red Cross also said this week it was concerned about escalating violence in the West Bank, which had seen the death of a Palestinian Red Crescent medico.

Meanwhile the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute released its latest report card on global military spending, finding that expenditure increased for the ninth consecutive year in 2023, reaching a total of $2,443 billion, the highest it has ever recorded.

UNRWA investigation

Germany this week joined other countries, like Australia, in restoring funding to United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) after an independent review said Israel had not provided evidence to back up claims that hundreds of employees of the UN agency for Palestinians were members of terrorist organisations.

The much-awaited report, led by former French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna, found that UNRWA “has extensive tools in place to ensure it remains unbiased in its work”.

“In the absence of a political solution between Israel and the Palestinians, UNRWA remains pivotal in providing life-saving humanitarian aid and essential social services, particularly in health and education, to Palestinian refugees in Gaza, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the West Bank,” the report said.

“As such, UNRWA is irreplaceable and indispensable to Palestinians’ human and economic development. In addition, many view UNRWA as a humanitarian lifeline.”

However, the report noted that, despite having a robust framework, “neutrality-related issues persist” for the UNRWA, including instances of staff publicly expressing political views and host-country textbooks “with problematic content” used in some UNRWA schools. It identified a range of measures to address those “neutrality challenges”.

A separate inquiry by the UN’s top watchdog, the Office of Internal Oversight, to investigate the veracity of Israel’s claims against the 12 UNRWA staff members, is ongoing.

Journalists targeted

Australia’s journalism union, the Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance, says this year’s Workers Memorial Day, marked on 28 April each year, “has added significance for media workers because of the high casualty rates in armed conflicts around the world”.

“We will remember and grieve for the journalists and media workers killed or missing in armed conflicts in Ukraine and Palestine, including Roshdi Sarraj, a freelance Palestinian journalist who had worked for the ABC’s 7.30 program,” it said this week.

“The Committee to Protect Journalists reports 15 journalists and media workers killed in Ukraine, and more than 100 killed or missing in Palestine and Israel.“