This handout picture released by the Israeli army on November 15, 2023, shows soldiers on an armed vehicle during a military operation around at Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City. (AFP)
Gaza: The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor (Euro-Med Monitor) strongly condemned the storming of the Israeli occupation forces of the Al Shifa Medical Complex in Gaza and turning it into a military barracks and a detention center, where patients, displaced persons and healthcare professionals are subjected to different forms of abuse.
In a statement released on Wednesday, the Euro-Med Monitor expressed fears of killings and executions as its team documented sporadic gunfire in the hospital, stressing that the complex did not witness any gunfire other than from the Israeli forces.
The Euro-Med Monitor highlighted that the Israeli army is the only party controlling the scene inside the Al Shifa Medical Complex, as the voice of the Palestinian Ministry of Health officials is being blocked from the media. No third party or international organization was permitted to be present inside, which raises doubts about any Israeli narrative that would be released later.
The Israeli allegations about the use of the Al Shifa Medical Complex for military purposes do not require extended hours of searching and raiding. Therefore, there are concerns that the army might be staging a fake scene that might be released later, the Euro-Med Monitor further pointed out.
The statement also called on the Israeli army to withdraw from the Al Shifa Complex immediately and fulfill its obligations under the international law of armed conflicts, which requires parties to an armed conflict to ensure the protection of relief and health personnel and medical facilities and not to restrict their work in any way.
There are about 1,500 medical staff members, about 700 patients, 39 premature babies and 7,000 displaced people in the Al Shifa Complex, according to the government media office in Gaza.
At dawn on Wednesday, the Israeli occupation forces stormed part of the Al Shifa Medical Complex, west of Gaza City, after a siege that lasted six consecutive days.
The occupation's tanks were stationed at the gates of the medical complex, surrounding it from all sides. The past hours witnessed intense bombing and gunfire in its vicinity.
More than 40 Palestinians were martyred, including premature babies and patients in the intensive care unit, as a result of the lack of oxygen after the bombing of the generating station and the depletion of fuel.
