JERUSALEM.- Israel accused the World Health Organization (OMS) of collusion with Hamas for ignoring Israeli evidence of “terrorist use” of hospitals in the Gaza Strip.
Ambassador Meirav Eilon Shahar told the WHO executive committee that there can be no health in the Palestinian territory if Hamas “is embedded in hospitals and uses human shields.”
In “each of the hospitals that the Israel Defense Forces searched in Gazathey found evidence of Hamas’ military use,” he said.
“These are undeniable facts that the WHO chooses to ignore time and time again. It is not incompetence, it is collusion,” he added.
The war was triggered by the bloody attack by Hamas fighters on October 7, which left 1,140 dead in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP report based on official Israeli figures.
They also kidnapped 250 people. Israel claims that some 132 are still being held in Gaza, and this number includes at least 28 dead hostages, according to an AFP report also based on Israeli figures.
In response, Israel launched a military offensive in the Gaza Strip that left at least 25,700 dead, 70% of them women and minors, according to Hamas’ Health Ministry.
The Israeli army accuses Hamas of using tunnels under hospitals and using health infrastructure as command centers, something the Islamist group denies.
The WHO did not confirm the accusations
“In our missions we saw nothing of this on the ground,” Richard Peeperkorn, the WHO representative for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, told reporters on December 21, adding that the organization was “not in a position to say how is using any hospital.”
“The role of the WHO is to monitor, analyze and report (…) We are not (a) research organization,” he added.
However, Eilon Shaher alleged that this UN agency “knew that hostages were being held in hospitals and that terrorists were operating from them.”
“Even when presented with concrete evidence of what is happening underground and on the surface (…) the WHO decides to look the other way, endangering those it is supposed to protect,” he said.
Source: AFP
