5h ago
Doctors treating the casualties of
Israeli airstrikes in
Lebanon have urged world leaders to take action agains
t violations of international law – warning of the horrifying parallels between Israeli actions in Gaza and what it is now doing in Lebanon.
British surgeon
Dr Tom Potokar, who was inside Gaza’s European hospital near Khan Younis
when it was bombed by Israel ten months ago,
told Sky News on Thursday:
The violation of international humanitarian laws has become normalised.
Once again we’re seeing attacks on the medical infrastructure, just like we saw in Gaza, but this time in Lebanon. Once again, we’re seeing attacks on hospital staff, ambulance workers and first responders.
He said there was the familiar “condemnation and words from political leaders, yet
no action - nothing is done to stop these violations”.
Hospitals should be places of refuge where you can receive treatment and are protected under international law. Yet they and first responders continue to be subject to attack.
The remains of the medical centre in Bourj Qalaway, where 12 medics were killed in an airstrike.Photograph: Sally Hayden/SOPA Images/Shutterstock
As my colleague
William Christou reported earlier this week, Lebanese healthcare workers and officials have said that
Israeli bombings have deliberately targeted medical workers and facilities in south
Lebanon, including through the use of double-tap strikes, in what they describe as a systematic effort to make the area unliveable. (Indeed, Israel has since
announced another occupation of southern Lebanon – describing a so-called “defensive buffer” running up to the Litani river).
Since Israel renewed its offensive on Lebanon three weeks ago, it has struck at least 128 medical facilities and ambulances across south Lebanon, killing at least 42 healthcare workers and wounding at least 107, according to the country’s health ministry.
Per William’s
report,
most of Israel’s strikes on medics happened while they were sitting in ambulances or at first aid centres, several of which have been destroyed in south Lebanon.
Israel has also carried out
at least five double-tap strikes, a tactic in which an initial strike is followed by a pause, allowing medical workers to arrive before the area is bombed for a second time.
Medical workers and hospitals are protected under international law and deliberately targeting them could constitute a war crime. Amnesty International said on Thursday that, regardless of political affiliation, medical workers are considered civilians and targeting them is unlawful.
As of Thursday, Israeli attacks have killed at least 1,116 Lebanese people, wounded at least 3,229 others, and displaced more than a million – nearly one in five of the population - since 2 March.
Funeral of paramedics Ali Jaber and Joud Suleiman in Nabatiyeh, who were killed in an Israeli attack, in southern Lebanon, on Wednesday. Photograph: Bruno Thevenin/SIPA/Shutterstock
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