United Nations (TDI): Pakistan has denounced Israel’s “deliberate” targeting of hospitals, medical personnel, patients and the wounded as Israeli military presses on with its war in Gaza, and urged for “Independent and transparent” probe into its strikes on health infrastructure and other war crimes.
“Impunity must end,” Ambassador Asim Iftikhar, Pakistan’s alternate permanent representative to the United Nations, told the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) which met in emergency session on the collapse of health services in Gaza.
The envoy underlined the need for ensuring that perpetrators are held to account.
The Council meeting was convened by Algeria, the leading voice for the Arab world on the Security Council which has just assumed presidency for January.
World Health Organization (WHO) senior official Rik Peeperkorn briefed diplomats alongside High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk, Dr. Tanya Haj Hassan with the charity Medical Aid for Palestinians, also addressed, sharing healthcare workers’ perspective.
In his address, the Pakistan envoy said that the deliberate targeting of hospitals, medical personnel, patients and the injured defies every principle of international humanitarian law and has no justification whatsoever.
Pakistan Calls for Accountability
“There must be accountability for these war crimes, not just condemnation,” stated Pakistan’s during the country’s first address at the 15-member UNSC after assuming its role as a non-permanent member on January 1.
Between October 2023 and June 2024, at least 136 attacks were carried out on 27 hospitals and twelve other medical facilities, with more than 500 healthcare workers losing their lives, it was pointed out.
By June, 22 of 38 hospitals in the besieged strip were rendered non-functional, leaving the healthcare system on the verge of collapse.
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“The brutal destruction of Kamal Adwan Hospital – the last operational major hospital in Northern Gaza – is an atrocity that shocks the conscience of humanity,” Ambassador Iftikhar said.
For over 14 months, the Palestinian people have endured a relentless assault on their lives, rights, and dignity that resulted in the killing of more than 45,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children as well as uprooting of over 90 percent of Gaza’s 2.1 million population, he said.
Nearly 160,000 housing units have been destroyed, leaving almost the whole population homeless.
“The scale of this genocidal drive is staggering, its intent unmistakable,” he said, adding that Gaza’s homes, schools, hospitals, and its important heritage lay in ruins, and even the United Nations and its personnel have not been spared.
“This is not a war; it is a campaign of annihilation, dispossession and ethnic cleansing,” the envoy said.
“The indiscriminate bombing of civilians and the systematic destruction of infrastructure are not isolated incidents. They are calculated acts aimed at erasing an entire population from their homeland.”
Despite UNSC resolutions and International Court of Justice (ICJ) judgments, he said the Council remains “inexplicably paralyzed”, undermining its own authority and credibility.
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He called for “decisive” action to for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire to end the bloodshed and destruction in Gaza and lifting of the enclave’s inhumane blockade to ensure free flow of food, medical supplies, and humanitarian assistance for those in desperate need.
