Gaza Health System ‘Completely Obliterated’, Says UN Expert

02 April 2024, Palestinian Territories, Gaza City: Palestinians inspect the damage at Al-Shifa Hospital complex, following a two-week military operation by the Israeli army in Gaza City. (dpa)
02 April 2024, Palestinian Territories, Gaza City: Palestinians inspect the damage at Al-Shifa Hospital complex, following a two-week military operation by the Israeli army in Gaza City. (dpa)
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Gaza Health System ‘Completely Obliterated’, Says UN Expert

02 April 2024, Palestinian Territories, Gaza City: Palestinians inspect the damage at Al-Shifa Hospital complex, following a two-week military operation by the Israeli army in Gaza City. (dpa)
02 April 2024, Palestinian Territories, Gaza City: Palestinians inspect the damage at Al-Shifa Hospital complex, following a two-week military operation by the Israeli army in Gaza City. (dpa)

Israel's war in Gaza has from the start been a "war on the right to health" and has "obliterated" the Palestinian territory's health system, a UN expert said on Monday.

Tlaleng Mofokeng, the United Nations special rapporteur on the right to health, accused Israel of treating human rights as an "a la carte menu".

Just days into the war that has been raging in Gaza since Hamas's unprecedented attacks inside Israel on October 7, "the medical infrastructure was irreparably damaged", she told reporters in Geneva.

Amid the unrelenting Israeli bombardment of Gaza, healthcare providers had for months been working under dire conditions with very limited access to medical supplies, she said.

"This has been a war on the right to health from the beginning," said Mofokeng, who is an independent expert appointed by the UN Human Rights Council but who does not speak on behalf of the United Nations.

"The health system in Gaza has been completely obliterated and the right to health has been decimated at every level".

There has been growing global opposition to Israel's offensive in Gaza, which has turned vast areas of the densely populated territory into rubble and sparked a dire humanitarian crisis including warnings of famine.

The Israeli offensive began after the October 7 attack, which killed 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.

Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed more than 34,000 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry.

'Intentionally imposing famine'

Its hospitals, which are protected under international humanitarian law, have repeatedly come under attack.

Israel has accused Hamas of using them as command centers and to hold hostages abducted on October 7, claims denied by the gunmen.

On Sunday, Gaza's civil defense said its teams had discovered 50 bodies buried in the courtyard of the Nasser Medical Complex in Gaza's main southern city of Khan Younis.

And the World Health Organization said earlier this month that Al-Shifa, Gaza's largest hospital, had been reduced to ashes by an Israeli siege, leaving an "empty shell" with many bodies.

"The destruction of healthcare facilities continues to catapult to proportions yet to be fully quantified," said Mofokeng, a medical doctor from South Africa.

The expert said she had received no response from Israel to the concerns she had raised about the situation, and that she had not been able to visit the Palestinian territory, nor Israel.

But she said it was obvious that Israel was "killing and causing irreparable harm against Palestinian civilians with its bombardments".

"They are also knowingly and intentionally imposing famine, prolonged malnutrition and dehydration", the expert added, accusing Israel of "genocide".

The current situation in Gaza, she said, "is completely incompatible with the right to health".



‘No One Dares’ … First Palestinian Response to Israeli Plan to Separate Hebron from PA

Israeli security forces stand guard as Israeli settlers tour in the Palestinian side of the old city and market of Hebron in the occupied West Bank on July 5, 2025. (Photo by HAZEM BADER / AFP)
Israeli security forces stand guard as Israeli settlers tour in the Palestinian side of the old city and market of Hebron in the occupied West Bank on July 5, 2025. (Photo by HAZEM BADER / AFP)
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‘No One Dares’ … First Palestinian Response to Israeli Plan to Separate Hebron from PA

Israeli security forces stand guard as Israeli settlers tour in the Palestinian side of the old city and market of Hebron in the occupied West Bank on July 5, 2025. (Photo by HAZEM BADER / AFP)
Israeli security forces stand guard as Israeli settlers tour in the Palestinian side of the old city and market of Hebron in the occupied West Bank on July 5, 2025. (Photo by HAZEM BADER / AFP)

A report published by The Wall Street Journal, and promoted by Israeli media on Sunday, has renewed focus on an Israeli plan dating back more than 60 years aimed at pushing for the creation of “emirates” or entities independent from the Palestinian Authority (PA).

The report focused on the Palestinian city of Hebron, and cited what it claimed were “21 tribal elders from Hebron,” who allegedly sent a letter in Hebrew to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, calling for negotiations with them to join the Abraham Accords and consequently abandon the “two-state solution,” which Palestinians rely on to establish their state.

However, a Palestinian security source, in remarks to Asharq Al-Awsat, said: “What is happening is yet another Israeli attempt to weaken the Palestinian Authority.”

“This is a failed plan,” he said: “No one here would dare take this step and say: I am the spy... I am the alternative to the Authority ... Those who tried that are known and represent no one.”

Reportedly, the elders included a detailed proposed timetable for talks to join the Abraham Accords and for “a fair and decent arrangement that would replace the Oslo Accords, which only brought damage, death, economic disaster and destruction.”

According to The Wall Street Journal, the initiative was helmed by Wadee al-Jaabari, who local city residents and its political leadership claim is unknown to them, and backed by "four other leading Hebron sheikhs.”

Palestinian city residents, including Jaabari's extended family members, condemned the proposal, saying that its authors do not represent them.

Israeli sources said that Economy Minister Nir Barkat stands behind the letter, which was allegedly sent to him. Barkat met at his home with al-Jaabari and the other sheikhs; he has held more than 12 meetings with them since February, The Wall Street Journal said. They asked him to forward the letter to Netanyahu and are now waiting for his response.

The sheikhs reportedly proposed that Israel grant work permits to 1,000 workers from Hebron on a trial basis, and then extend this to another 5,000.

According to Maariv newspaper, the Israeli government is “seeking to promote this plan to destroy the Palestinian Authority and the establishment of a Palestinian state.”