On Tuesday, December 31, 2024, the last day of 2024 and day 452 of the Israeli extermination campaign against the Palestinian population of 2.2 million people in the Gaza prison camp, Israeli forces continued their attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure – including schools, hospitals and homes.
The Palestinian National Campaign said that the Israeli occupation authorities detained the bodies of 198 Palestinians killed in 2024. However, these numbers do not include the detention of bodies from the Gaza Strip, which could number in the thousands, but there is no accurate information available about their number. The campaign did document the Israeli occupation’s return of 325 bodies of people from the Gaza Strip who had been killed by the Israeli military.
Also Tuesday, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said that the pattern of deadly Israeli attacks on hospitals in Gaza, and the associated combat operations, have pushed the health care system to the brink of total collapse, which has had a catastrophic impact on the ability of Palestinians to access health and medical care.
The report, issued on Tuesday, stated that the Israeli attacks, which were documented between October 12, 2023 and June 30, 2024, raise serious concerns about Israel’s compliance with international law. Medical personnel and hospitals are specifically protected under international humanitarian law, provided that they do not commit or are used to commit acts that harm the enemy outside the scope of their humanitarian function.
“As if the ongoing bombardment and dire humanitarian situation in Gaza were not enough, the only place where Palestinians should feel safe has become a death trap,” said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk. “ The protection of hospitals during war is of paramount importance, and all parties must respect this principle at all times.”
“This report details the devastation of Gaza’s health care system, and the scale of the killing of patients, staff and other civilians in these attacks, in blatant disregard of international humanitarian law and human rights law,” Türk added.
“The horrific devastation caused by Israeli military attacks on Kamal Adwan Hospital last Friday, which left residents of northern Gaza with virtually no access to adequate health care, mirrors the pattern of attacks documented in the report. Staff and patients were forced to flee or arrested, with numerous reports of torture and ill-treatment. The hospital director was also arrested, and his fate and whereabouts remain unknown,” he continued.
“It is imperative that independent, comprehensive and transparent investigations are conducted into all these incidents, that those responsible for all violations of international humanitarian law and human rights law are held accountable, and that all arbitrarily detained medical personnel are released immediately , ” Türk stressed.
“Israel, as the occupying power, must prioritize ensuring and facilitating access to adequate health care for the Palestinian population, and future recovery and reconstruction efforts, with the aim of restoring medical capacity that has been destroyed over the past 14 months of violent conflict,” he concluded.
During the reporting period , at least 136 airstrikes hit at least 27 hospitals and 12 other medical facilities, resulting in heavy casualties among doctors, nurses, paramedics and other civilians, and causing significant damage to or complete destruction of civilian infrastructure.
In exceptional circumstances where medical personnel, ambulances and hospitals lose special protection and meet the strict criteria for being considered military objectives, any attack must comply with the fundamental principles of distinction, proportionality and precautions in attack. Failure to respect these principles constitutes a violation of international humanitarian law. None of the Israeli attacks on hospitals and medical facilities over the past 452 days have met those criteria.
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A Palestinian citizen was killed on Tuesday in Israeli shelling of Jabalia al-Nazla area, north of the Gaza Strip.
A Wafa news correspondent reported that a Palestinian citizen was killed as a result of the Israeli occupation’s bombing of Ahmed Fikri Abu Warda Street in Jabalia Al-Nazla, in the north of the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli occupation artillery renewed its shelling of the Abu Sharia and Abd al-Aal areas south of al-Sabra neighborhood, south of Gaza City. The Israeli occupation forces also fired towards the southern areas of al-Zeitoun neighborhood, southeast of Gaza City.
Middle East Eye video focusing on current conditions in Gaza tent camps:
Al Jazeera has obtained exclusive footage revealing the Israeli occupation’s targeting of an ambulance in the northern Gaza Strip. The images document the initial moments of the attack and the missile striking the vehicle, killing everyone inside except for a young girl, who was… pic.twitter.com/QErkeTWUvU
— Osama Abu Rabee أسامة أبوربيع (@dn_osama_rabee) January 1, 2025
The Israeli occupation has continued its aggression on the Gaza Strip, by land, sea and air, since October 7, 2023, which resulted in the killing of 45,541 citizens, the majority of whom are women and children, and the injury of 108,338 others, in an incomplete toll, as thousands of victims are still under the rubble and in the streets, and ambulance and rescue crews cannot reach them.
