HRW: Israeli attacks on Gaza hospitals should be investigated as war crimes

Nov. 14 (UPI) -- Human Rights Watch on Tuesday called on Israel to end attacks on hospitals in Gaza, which it said should be investigated as war crimes.

The group said the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory and the International Criminal Court should investigate Israel's attacks on hospitals, stating that no evidence put forward to support claims that Hamas has used hospitals as bases "would justify depriving hospitals and ambulances of their protected status under international humanitarian law."

"Israel's repeated attacks damaging hospitals and harming healthcare workers, already hard hit by an unlawful blockade, have devastated Gaza's healthcare infrastructure," said A. Kayum Ahmed, HRW special adviser on the right to health. "The strikes on the hospitals have killed hundreds of people and put many patients at grave risk because they're unable to receive proper medical care."

U.S. President Joe Biden on Monday urged Israel to protect Gaza's main Al-Shifa Hospital amid battles between Israeli forces and Hamas fighters close to the complex in Gaza City in the north of the strip.

Speaking to reporters at the White House, Biden told reporters the administration was communicating vocally with the Israelis and that he anticipated imminent action to dial back the situation, according to a transcript of his remarks released by the Oval Office.

"I have not been reluctant in expressing my concerns about what's going on. And it is my hope and expectation that there will be less intrusive action relative to the hospital," he said. "The hospital must be protected."

He added that a parallel effort to "take this pause" to get hostages being held by Hamas released, which was also being negotiated with the involvement of Qatar, meant he remained "somewhat hopeful."

Al-Shifa hospital is without power or communications, with thousands trapped inside and the World Health Organization describing it as "nearly a cemetery," with significant numbers of corpses decomposing inside and outside and the complex, surrounded by Israeli tanks, the BBC reported.

Israel's military says it cannot ignore Al-Shifa in its campaign to destroy Hamas because there is a major Hamas command center beneath it -- which is vehemently denied by the hospital and Hamas.

Israel has also claimed to have evidence that Hamas is using Al-Rantisi Hospital inside Gaza as its command headquarters.

Journalists permitted into the now-evacuated basement of Al-Rantisi Hospital in the north of Gaza City on Monday saw abandoned AK-47s, grenades and explosives-packed suicide vests, according to Israel Defense Forces.

The IDF said it was also likely hostages had been held there, with footage from another room beneath the hospital showing a chair to which Israel's chief military spokesman Daniel Hagari claimed a hostage had been shackled.

The director of Al-Rantsi hospital said the facility was surrounded by Israeli tanks Thursday into Friday.

The spokesman said the Israeli military was planning to detonate the grenades and vests and a that forensic team was going to probe the hospital for more evidence.

The hospital nearly had to close its doors between Thursday and Friday, according to UNICEF.

By Friday, Al-Rantisi Hospital had only a small generator powering the intensive care and neonatal intensive care units, UNICEF said.