Israel claims a Hamas command center under the hospital. The big question among all these is that can any country’s army target another country’s hospitals during war? Let us know what international law says:-
Israeli army enters Gaza’s largest hospital with tanks, trapping 2300 people inside; Hamas asked to surrender
Geneva Conventions
Under the 1949 Geneva Conventions, certain places such as schools, hospitals and places of worship are declared protected as war zones. According to the Geneva Convention, no enemy party can attack a place like a hospital. Also these positions cannot be vacated by force. However, the Geneva Convention mentions that if an enemy country misuses hospitals, schools or places of worship, then these institutions may lose protection.
“Everyone 16 and over…”: The horrific scene at a Gaza hospital during an Israeli army raid
War crime
Many international countries are also calling the Israeli army’s deployment of tanks outside hospitals and carrying out search operations into campuses a ‘war crime’. We try to understand this too. According to the Geneva Convention, there are certain acts in the war zone that are called war crimes. For example, obstructing the treatment of prisoners of war, targeting civilians, preventing the wounded from receiving treatment. Some of these war crimes have been committed by Hamas. Hamas fighters infiltrated Israel and killed innocent civilians. Apart from this, Israel’s pressure to evacuate hospitals in Gaza will also be considered a war crime by Hamas.
What is the international law regarding hospitals during war?
– Four Conventions which were agreed upon in the year 1949. It stipulated that civilians, wounded and prisoners should be treated humanely during the war. According to the rules, killing, torture, imprisonment and degrading treatment are prohibited during war, and if the army is required to treat the sick and wounded on the other side, it must provide it.
-Even if enemy countries use a hospital for harmful purposes during war, the other side does not have the right under international law to “completely destroy it by bombardment for two days”. The other party should be forewarned of his reaction. Exit procedures should be implemented for patients and healthcare workers.
Israeli bulldozers at Gaza’s Al Shifa hospital amid search for Hamas tunnel
– Staff and all patients of such hospitals may alternatively be shifted to one part of the hospital. But during any army operation against the site there should be doctors to take care of the patients.
Has Israel broken international rules?
-The Geneva-based International Committee of the Red Cross has said that directing thousands of people to leave their homes under complete siege and depriving them of food, water and electricity is not consistent with international humanitarian law.
– However, Israel’s army says it is following international law. Therefore, it attacks only legitimate military targets, because it wants to root out terrorists.
War crimes also occurred in Syria, Yemen and Ukraine
Hospitals have been repeatedly targeted in recent conflicts from Syria and Yemen to Afghanistan and Ukraine. In March 2022, a Russian airstrike on a maternity ward and a children’s hospital in the southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol killed five people, including a pregnant woman. Ukraine accused Russia of war crimes over the attack, while Russia said the building was protecting members of Ukraine’s Azov Battalion.
Hamas weapons cache found at Gaza’s Al Shifa hospital, IDF shares video