In recent days, OCHA and the Palestinian Red Crescent (PRC) have reported an escalation in direct Israeli aerial and ground attacks on health facilities. The lives of thousands of patients, health workers, and displaced persons are at extreme risk. Doctors of the World urgently calls for the immediate protection of all civilians, including patients, humanitarian workers, medical staff, and civilian infrastructure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":4870,"template":"","actualite_type":[10],"actualite_sujet":[],"action_combat":[],"mdm_pays":[],"class_list":["post-4869","actualite","type-actualite","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","actualite_type-international-actions"],"acf":{"mise_en_avant":false,"chapeau":"In recent days, OCHA and the Palestinian Red Crescent (PRC) have reported an escalation in direct Israeli aerial and ground attacks on health facilities. The lives of thousands of patients, health workers, and displaced persons are at extreme risk. Doctors of the World urgently calls for the immediate protection of all civilians, including patients, humanitarian workers, medical staff, and civilian infrastructure.","cta_type":"aucun","cta_lien":"","contenu":"
Since 9 November, Israeli bombings around hospitals in northern Gaza<\/strong> have intensified, with many of them being directly hit by airstrikes. These attacks have killed healthcare workers and caused severe damage<\/strong>\n to the intensive care units of Al Quds Hospital as well as the \nmaternity ward, the oxygen supply system, water tanks, \nthe cardiovascular centre and part of the surgery department \nat Al Shifa Hospital.<\/p>\n Hospitals have also been encircled by ground attacks.<\/strong> Sources cited by the World Health Organization (WHO) have reported cases of shooting at civilians, patients and staff members<\/strong>\n as they attempted to flee hospital premises. Fearing to \nleave or being physically unable to do so, civilians were \nsieged in hospitals, without food, water or electricity. \nAs of 13 November, approximately 600 hospitalised patients, over 200 \nstaff members and 1,500 internally displaced persons were trapped inside \nAl Shifa Hospital<\/strong>, the largest medical facility \nin the enclave and a shelter for tens of thousands of \npeople. Reports also indicate that patients and healthcare workers were targeted by snipers<\/strong> while inside healthcare facilities.<\/p>\n Bodies are decomposing in the courtyard of Al Shifa as the relentless attacks on the hospital<\/strong> prevent staff from burying them, thereby increasing the serious risks of infectious disease outbreaks<\/strong> near Gaza\u2019s largest healthcare facility.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Israeli government justifies attacks on healthcare \nfacilities by claiming they are allegedly used by Palestinian \narmed groups to shield military objectives. While \ncivilian infrastructure must never be used as a shield to protect \nmilitary objectives, this does not relieve the attacking party of its \nobligation to consider the risk to civilians.<\/strong> Under International \nHumanitarian Law (IHL), hospitals and medical staff are granted \nspecial protection, and all parties to the conflict must take all necessary precautions and measures<\/strong>\n to spare and protect patients, medical staff and \nall civilians. Israeli evacuation orders targeting \nhospitals cannot be considered appropriate precautions<\/strong>.\n Indeed, the WHO has warned that evacuating healthcare facilities \nwould be a \"death sentence\" for patients, given the collapse of the \nmedical system and the overcrowding of hospitals in southern Gaza.<\/p>\n Healthcare for the civilian population is already severely affected by the shortage of medical supplies and power outages<\/strong>\n caused by the total siege imposed by the Israeli government for \na month. These severe attacks, combined with the depletion of \nfuel reserves for backup generators, have led to the closure of all hospitals in northern Gaza except one.<\/strong>\n As generators in several hospitals have stopped working in \nrecent days, the lives of patients requiring life-support \ndevices are immediately at risk.<\/p>\n Since 11 November, 32 patients at Al Shifa Hospital, \nincluding premature babies, have died when their life-support systems \nwere cut off due to the lack of electricity.<\/strong> \nThe collapse of major hospitals places an already vulnerable civilian \npopulation at extreme risk, with immense needs for vital healthcare \nlikely to increase in a context of widespread consumption of unsafe water<\/strong>, dropping temperatures and upcoming heavy rains.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The attacks on hospitals we are witnessing must stop immediately. The international community cannot remain passive<\/strong>\n in the face of bombed hospitals and killed patients. The lack of a \nstrong and effective diplomatic response to the atrocities committed in Gaza constitutes a failure by states to fulfil their obligations to ensure respect for IHL<\/strong>.<\/p>\n M\u00e9decins du Monde reiterates its call to all states to exert maximum pressure on the warring parties to secure an immediate ceasefire<\/strong>,\n along with full, safe and unhindered humanitarian access, as well as \nthe restoration of basic supplies by the Israeli government.<\/p>","temps_lecture":4,"legende_couverture":"","signature_nom":"","signature_role":"","signature_initiales":"","signature_avatar":"","communique_lien":"","communique_libelle":"","encadre_titre":"","encadre_texte":"","partenaires_titre":"","partenaires":null,"reseaux_partage":["facebook","twitter","linkedin","email","copy"],"evenement_date":null,"evenement_type":"","evenement_lieu":"","evenement_inscription":"","presse_afficher":false,"presse_surtitre":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medecinsdumonde.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/actualite\/4869","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medecinsdumonde.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/actualite"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medecinsdumonde.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/actualite"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/medecinsdumonde.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/actualite\/4869\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4871,"href":"https:\/\/medecinsdumonde.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/actualite\/4869\/revisions\/4871"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medecinsdumonde.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medecinsdumonde.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"actualite_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medecinsdumonde.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/actualite_type?post=4869"},{"taxonomy":"actualite_sujet","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medecinsdumonde.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/actualite_sujet?post=4869"},{"taxonomy":"action_combat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medecinsdumonde.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/action_combat?post=4869"},{"taxonomy":"mdm_pays","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medecinsdumonde.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/mdm_pays?post=4869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Spare and protect patients, medical staff and all civilians<\/h2>\n
For a strong and effective diplomatic response<\/h2>\n