Attachments
The UN Human Rights Office condemns the renewed Israeli targeting of the last functional hospital in North Gaza and ongoing militarized operations by Israeli security forces in the West Bank in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, raising concerns about persistent, serious violations of international law.
Hospitals under attack in Gaza:
On 21 November, the Israeli military renewed its targeting of Kamal Adwan hospital, the last large functioning hospital in North Gaza. This latest attack reportedly caused severe damage to essential infrastructure, including the hospital’s only electric generator, oxygen generator and distribution system, as well as the water supply system with no means to fix the damage. The lives of 80 patients, including 8 intensive care patients and their families, as well as critical hospital staff, are now at grave risk. An Israeli quadcopter also allegedly launched explosives towards groups of people in the hospital’s yard, injuring six hospital staff members.
The UN Human Rights Office has received no reports suggesting combat in the vicinity of Kamal Adwan hospital or the use of its facilities for any military purposes. But even if Palestinian armed groups had failed to comply with international humanitarian law's prohibition on using the presence of civilians to prevent the targeting of a military objective, Israeli forces are still bound by their obligations under international humanitarian law, including the principles of distinction, proportionality and precautions in attack.
This is at least the seventh attack on Kamal Adwan hospital that the UN Human Rights Office has recorded through open sources since 6 October 2024 when the Israeli military commenced its latest operation in North Gaza. The manner in which this Israeli operation has been conducted is raising concerns about the likelihood that North Gaza will be emptied of Palestinians through death and displacement. The UN Human Rights Office reminds Israel in this regard of its obligation to prevent the commission of all acts within the scope of Article II of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide as per the binding provisional orders of the International Court of Justice issued on 26 January 2024.
Number of Palestinian deaths continues to rise at alarming levels in the West Bank:
Archival photo from an Israeli incursion into Jenin refugee camp, November 2023. UN Human Rights Office.
While Gaza faces unrelenting violence and the collapse of its healthcare system, the situation in the Occupied West Bank remains dire, marked by severe human rights violations and militarized operations despite lack of active hostilities.
Just last week, Israeli security forces conducted a two-day militarized operation between 18 and 20 November in the Jenin Refugee Camp and surrounding towns and killed 8 Palestinian men, injured at least 22, and severely damaged infrastructure. The incursion triggered clashes with armed Palestinian men. In the same period, a Palestinian man and a 17-year-old boy were killed in two additional separate incidents in Nablus.
During the Jenin operation, the UN Human Rights Office received alarming reports of serious violations of international law including extrajudicial killings, the use of Palestinians to shield Israeli security forces, damage to infrastructure such as water tanks, sewage system, electricity and roads, the desecration of bodies, and the withholding of the bodies of Palestinians who were killed. These practices have been documented with increasing frequency over the past months.
Israeli security forces reportedly used residents to shield them from possible fire by armed Palestinians on several occasions during the Jenin operation. On 18 November, a 50-year-old woman was forced to walk ahead of the advancing Israeli security forces and knock on doors to facilitate raids.
Among other incidents, on 19 November, Israeli soldiers reportedly killed one armed Palestinian and one bystander. Israeli soldiers prevented medical assistance to the injured by shooting at paramedics. Israeli security forces then forced a paramedic along with ten unarmed men to stand in the street near the injured for an hour, apparently to deter armed Palestinians from firing on the Israeli security forces. Soldiers also reportedly forced two more paramedics to search homes with drones hovering over their heads and directing them from room to room.
On 19 November, a video was circulated on social media that showed an Israeli soldier killing one or more men lying on the ground at close range after an exchange of fire in Jenin, in an apparent extrajudicial execution. Another video shows soldiers throwing the bodies of the deceased from the rooftop of the besieged building before reportedly loading the bodies on a bulldozer.
Over the past 13 months since 7 October 2023, Israeli security forces killed at least 745 Palestinians in the Occupied West Bank – nearly half of all recorded Palestinians killed by Israeli security forces since the UN started systematically recording fatalities in 2008.
Accountability and withdrawal:
According to the International Court of Justice, the continued presence of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including the West Bank, is unlawful and Israel must bring its presence to an end as rapidly as possible. However, the Court stressed that, meanwhile, this does not release Israel of its obligations as an Occupying Power under international humanitarian law, or its obligations under international human rights law.
Accordingly, there must be a swift and transparent investigation into the incidents of last week, and meaningful accountability for the grave violations committed against Palestinians. There also needs to be an immediate halt to all similar militarized operations in the occupied West Bank, which have applied military means and tactics during law enforcement operations. These operations have violated international human rights law’s strict limitations on the use of force, leading to the unlawful killing and injury of so many Palestinians.
ENDS
For more information and media requests, please contact:
UN Human Rights office at ohchr-opt@un.org
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