News desk :
The human rights group Amnesty International Thursday called for an investigation into what it said was mounting evidence that Israeli forces had deliberately attacked hospitals and health professionals in Gaza. The attacks have left at least six medics dead.
“Our ambulances are often targeted although they are clearly marked and display all signs that they are ambulances,” said Dr Bashar Murad, director of Palestinian Red Crescent Society’s (PRCS) emergency and ambulance unit, which lost at least two members of staff.
“The army should be able to distinguish from the air that what they are targeting are ambulances.”
Amnesty International said attacks on health facilities and professionals were prohibited by international law and amounted to war crimes.
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has met with US lawmakers in the hope that they can ring-fence his country from Palestinian accusations that it committed war crimes during the recent fighting.
Israel has consistently maintained that its military strikes on Gaza, some of which
have resulted in civilian deaths, have been in self-defence.
However, Palestinian officials are thought to be considering joining the International Criminal Court (ICC) in a bid to have Israel investigated.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has approached US lawmakers in a bid to avoid war crimes charges. He’s pictured here speaking to the media at the defense ministry in Tel Aviv on Saturday
Netanyahu met with a delegation of US politicians – including Republican Steve Israel – to discuss ways of keeping the spotlight off its actions in Gaza, according to the New York Post. US-Israeli relations were also on the agenda, the paper reported.
Israel said: ‘The prime minister asked us to work together to ensure that this strategy of going to the ICC does not succeed.’ Netanyahu told a press conference: ‘Israel deeply regrets every civilian casualty. We do not target them. The tragedy of Gaza is that it is ruled by Hamas. They want civilian casualties, they use them as PR fodder.
Nick Clegg, Britain’s Deputy Prime Minister, said he believed Israel has every right to defend itself but its operation had ‘overstepped the mark’.
He described recent strikes on three UN schools in Gaza as ‘outrageous’. “I have no sympathy for Hamas,” Obama said. “I have great sympathy for ordinary people who are struggling within Gaza.”
More than 1,800 Palestinians were killed in Gaza during the conflict, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. The United Nations estimates that approximately 65,000 people in the small, impoverished territory lost their homes in the fierce fighting and bombardments.
