UN Human Rights Chief Volker Turk calls for investigation into Israeli attacks on hospital and health facilities in Gaza

(Patria) - Israel on Friday defended its attack on a hospital in northern Gaza last week, while the UN human rights chief called the justification unfounded, and the World Health Organization (WHO) called on Israel to release the hospital director from detention, Reuters reports.

Israel's ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Daniel Meron, posted on social media a letter he sent to the WHO and Volker Turk, the UN human rights official, on Friday. It stated that the raid on Kamal Adwan Hospital a week ago was "prompted by irrefutable evidence" that Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad militants had used the hospital. He said Israeli forces took "extraordinary measures to protect civilian lives, acting on credible intelligence".

Turk told the UN Security Council on Friday that Israel had not "substantiated many of these claims, which are often vague and broad. In some cases, they appear to contradict publicly available information".

"I call for independent, thorough and transparent investigations into all Israeli attacks on hospitals, health infrastructure and medical personnel, as well as alleged abuses of such facilities," he told the Security Council.

Israel's deputy ambassador to the UN, Jonathan Miller, said that more than "240 terrorists were arrested, including 15 who participated in the October 7 massacre" in southern Israel in 2023. Hospital director Hussam Abu Safiya was also detained in the raid.

"We suspect he is a Hamas operative, as hundreds of Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists were hiding inside Kamal Adwan Hospital under his management. He is currently being investigated by Israeli security forces," Miller said.

The WHO is deeply concerned about Abu Safiya, said WHO representative Richard Peeperkorn,
adding: "We have lost contact with him since then and call for his immediate release."

The United States is gathering information on Abu Safiya, US deputy ambassador to the UN Dorothy Shea told the Security Council.

UN Palestinian envoy Riyad Mansour tearfully recalled the words written by a doctor from Doctors Without Borders, Mahmoud Abu Nujaila, in Al Awda Hospital in Gaza before he was killed in an attack in November 2023.

Mansour said Nujaila had written on a hospital whiteboard used for planning operations:

"Whoever stays until the end will tell the story. We did what we could. Remember us."