Outrage Over Global 'Silence' as Israel Continues Ethnic Cleansing in Gaza
"History will reveal those who spoke out against this genocide, and those who did not," said one rights group.
A Palestinian medic carries an injured child from an ambulance to Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital for treatment following an Israeli attack on the Shuja'iyya neighborhood in Gaza City, Gaza on January 1, 2025.
(Photo: Dawoud Abo Alkas/Anadolu via Getty Images)
(Photo: Dawoud Abo Alkas/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Julia Conley
Jan 02, 2025
COMMON DREAMS
A pediatrician working in Gaza was among those on Thursday who condemned "how deaf the world has become to repeated cries" from people in the enclave as Israel continues its assault and humanitarian aid blockade, which has plunged parts of Gaza into famine conditions, according to experts.
"I'm watching children die in every possible way whether it's violence, cold, hunger, disease—all directly as a consequence of a carefully orchestrated Israeli military campaign that has been enabled by the United States and other countries that are turning a deaf ear and blind eye," Dr. Tanya Haj-Hassan toldAl Jazeera.
At least seven infants have died of hypothermia in the enclave in recent days, their families among 1.9 million people who have been forcibly displaced by Israel's bombardment of Gaza. With 92% of housing units destroyed or damaged, people across Gaza have resorted to living in makeshift tents that don't protect them from wind, heavy rain, and cold nighttime temperatures.
"I struggle for words to describe how horrific the situation has become and how deaf the world has become to repeated cries from humanitarian workers, and mostly from Gazans themselves," said Haj-Hassan. "They have documented on a daily basis their own genocide and have been killed for doing so."
Paula Gil, president of the Spanish chapter of Doctors Without Borders or Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), said Israel's U.S.-backed assault has reduced Gaza to "a death trap."
"This does not happen in a vacuum. The hypocrisy and complicity of Israel's allies is allowing the social fabric of Gaza to be destroyed with impunity."
"Families are surviving in makeshift shelters made of wood, plastic, and mattresses," she told Al Jazeera. "Now the cold and the storms have arrived. How will they face the winter in these conditions?"
Haj-Hassan's and Gil's comments came as Israel bombed the coastal area of al-Mawasi, a so-called "humanitarian zone" that has nevertheless been attacked by the Israel Defense Forces numerous times. At least 63 Palestinians were killed in attacks across Gaza on Thursday, including 12 in al-Mawasi.
A report by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) on Wednesday showed that around 100,000 Gaza residents have left the enclave since Israel began its assault in October 2023 and more than 45,000 people have been killed, while 10,000 are missing and presumed dead.
Those statistics mean that the population of Gaza is down 6% since Israel's current escalation started.
Israel, said the PCBS, has "raged a brutal aggression against Gaza targeting all kinds of life there; humans, buildings, and vital infrastructure... Entire families were erased from the civil register. There are catastrophic human and material losses."
Human rights groups have said Israel's relentless bombardment of Gaza and its recent ground offensive in northern Gaza—where Israeli military leaders seek to execute the so-called Generals' Plan to forcibly displace everyone in the area and kill anyone who remains through starvation or other means—amounts to ethnic cleansing.
"As the world watches in silence, the far-right government of indicted war criminal [Israeli Prime Minister] Benjamin Netanyahu is carrying out its intentional campaign of slaughter, mass destruction, forced starvation, and ethnic cleansing in Gaza," said the Council on American Islamic Relations. "History will reveal those who spoke out against this genocide, and those who did not."
The U.S. government—the largest international funder of the Israel Defense Forces, has continued to give political and material support to Israel as it has bombarded and blockaded Gaza, making more than 100 weapons transfers to the Israeli government.
"This does not happen in a vacuum," said Gil. "The hypocrisy and complicity of Israel's allies is allowing the social fabric of Gaza to be destroyed with impunity... There is no future. There is no hope. In Gaza, humanity is being destroyed and we cannot look away."
Gaza hospital chief held by Israel becomes face of crumbling healthcare
Gaza Strip (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) – Israel's raid on a major Gaza hospital and the arrest of its director over alleged links to Hamas have drawn global attention to the war-ravaged territory's crumbling healthcare system.
'Deadly attacks'
"This detention centre is notorious for the mistreatment of prisoners," his son, Idris Abu Safiyeh, said in a video message on Monday evening.
"We have received testimonies from released detainees who reported that he was subjected to humiliation and abuse," he said. "He was reportedly forced to strip".
Despite repeated attempts by AFP, the Israeli military has declined to specify Abu Safiyeh's location. It has also not responded to allegations of his abuse.
Several other medical staff of Kamal Adwan Hospital were detained in the raid as well.
"There is no justification for these arrests other than a desire to destroy the healthcare system," Mahmud Bassal, spokesman for Gaza's civil defence agency, told AFP. He described the situation as "catastrophic and tragic."
On Tuesday, a United Nations report revealed that Israeli strikes on and near hospitals in Gaza have led to the near total collapse of the healthcare system in the Palestinian territory of 2.4 million people.
"Israel's pattern of deadly attacks on and near hospitals in Gaza, and associated combat, pushed the healthcare system to the brink of total collapse, with catastrophic effect on Palestinians' access to health and medical care," the UN human rights office said in a statement.
'Hero in a white robe'
Israeli officials have repeatedly accused Hamas of using the territory's hospitals as command and control centres for launching attacks against Israeli forces.
Abu Safiyeh's family has urged the international community to pressure Israel for his prompt release -- and their message has resonated.
The World Health Organisation led by its chief, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has called for the "immediate release" of the hospital director.
Rights group Amnesty International has echoed the call, saying Abu Safiyeh had been the "voice of Gaza's decimated health sector".
Healthcare professionals across the world have also urged for his release, rallying on social media under the hashtag #FreeDrHussamAbuSafiya.
He was praised as a "hero in a white robe" in several social media posts for continuing his work amid an intense Israeli military campaign in northern Gaza.
Since October 6, Israeli forces have intensified their land and sea assault on northern Gaza, saying it was aimed at preventing Hamas from regrouping there.
According to the US-based NGO MedGlobal, which employs him, Abu Safiyeh lost a teenage son in an Israeli air strike in late October, while he himself was injured in the leg days later.
From a hospital bed, he, however, declared in a video that the injury would not deter him from fulfilling his mission, "whatever the cost".
© 2024 AFP
Gaza Strip (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) – Israel's raid on a major Gaza hospital and the arrest of its director over alleged links to Hamas have drawn global attention to the war-ravaged territory's crumbling healthcare system.
Kamal Adwan hospital chief, Hossam Abu Safiyeh, checking an injured child on October 24, 2024 amid the ongoing war in Gaza © - / AFP
31/12/2024 -
For weeks, as fighting escalated around the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza's Beit Lahia area, its head Hossam Abu Safiyeh made desperate appeals to the international community to intervene and stop the violence "before it is too late".
In the early hours of Friday, the Israeli military launched a major raid on the hospital, describing it as "one of the largest operations" it had conducted since the war in Gaza broke out in October last year.
The raid ended a day later, with the military announcing that it killed more than 20 militants and arrested over 240, including Abu Safiyeh on suspicion of "being a Hamas operative".
Since then, the whereabouts of the 51-year-old paediatrician have been unknown.
The World Health Organisation has said Kamal Adwan hospital has been out of service ever since, a massive blow to the healthcare system in northern Gaza, where tens of thousands live under ongoing Israeli bombardment.
His family believes he is being detained at the Sde Teiman military base in the Negev desert, near Gaza.
For weeks, as fighting escalated around the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza's Beit Lahia area, its head Hossam Abu Safiyeh made desperate appeals to the international community to intervene and stop the violence "before it is too late".
In the early hours of Friday, the Israeli military launched a major raid on the hospital, describing it as "one of the largest operations" it had conducted since the war in Gaza broke out in October last year.
The raid ended a day later, with the military announcing that it killed more than 20 militants and arrested over 240, including Abu Safiyeh on suspicion of "being a Hamas operative".
Since then, the whereabouts of the 51-year-old paediatrician have been unknown.
The World Health Organisation has said Kamal Adwan hospital has been out of service ever since, a massive blow to the healthcare system in northern Gaza, where tens of thousands live under ongoing Israeli bombardment.
His family believes he is being detained at the Sde Teiman military base in the Negev desert, near Gaza.
'Deadly attacks'
"This detention centre is notorious for the mistreatment of prisoners," his son, Idris Abu Safiyeh, said in a video message on Monday evening.
"We have received testimonies from released detainees who reported that he was subjected to humiliation and abuse," he said. "He was reportedly forced to strip".
Despite repeated attempts by AFP, the Israeli military has declined to specify Abu Safiyeh's location. It has also not responded to allegations of his abuse.
Several other medical staff of Kamal Adwan Hospital were detained in the raid as well.
"There is no justification for these arrests other than a desire to destroy the healthcare system," Mahmud Bassal, spokesman for Gaza's civil defence agency, told AFP. He described the situation as "catastrophic and tragic."
On Tuesday, a United Nations report revealed that Israeli strikes on and near hospitals in Gaza have led to the near total collapse of the healthcare system in the Palestinian territory of 2.4 million people.
"Israel's pattern of deadly attacks on and near hospitals in Gaza, and associated combat, pushed the healthcare system to the brink of total collapse, with catastrophic effect on Palestinians' access to health and medical care," the UN human rights office said in a statement.
'Hero in a white robe'
Israeli officials have repeatedly accused Hamas of using the territory's hospitals as command and control centres for launching attacks against Israeli forces.
Abu Safiyeh's family has urged the international community to pressure Israel for his prompt release -- and their message has resonated.
The World Health Organisation led by its chief, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has called for the "immediate release" of the hospital director.
Rights group Amnesty International has echoed the call, saying Abu Safiyeh had been the "voice of Gaza's decimated health sector".
Healthcare professionals across the world have also urged for his release, rallying on social media under the hashtag #FreeDrHussamAbuSafiya.
He was praised as a "hero in a white robe" in several social media posts for continuing his work amid an intense Israeli military campaign in northern Gaza.
Since October 6, Israeli forces have intensified their land and sea assault on northern Gaza, saying it was aimed at preventing Hamas from regrouping there.
According to the US-based NGO MedGlobal, which employs him, Abu Safiyeh lost a teenage son in an Israeli air strike in late October, while he himself was injured in the leg days later.
From a hospital bed, he, however, declared in a video that the injury would not deter him from fulfilling his mission, "whatever the cost".
© 2024 AFP
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