By Ali Karbalaei
Israel “exploited shameful international silence”
TEHRAN- Hamas has hit out at the “shameful” silence of the international community after two mass graves were discovered in Gaza, including one with 20 members of the same family.
The resistance group says that the horrifying scenes of a new mass grave discovered on Monday (April 15) in one of the courtyards of the al-Shifa Medical Complex “confirm once again that there are no limits to this repugnant Zionist fascism and its continuous practices.”
Hamas added in a statement that the Israeli occupation regime “exploited the shameful international silence with its heinous violations of international law and a genocidal war against our people in the Gaza Strip.”
The statement emphasized that this endless series of atrocities, discovered in the al-Shifa Medical Complex and its surroundings, including mass graves, signs of executions, and hundreds of bodies still under the rubble, as well as the massive destruction that befell the complex and its sections, are “a charge against the international community and its political, humanitarian, and judicial institutions, foremost among them the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court, as described and documented war crimes.”
Hamas reiterated its demand that international institutions “fulfill their role by holding the leaders of this rogue entity accountable immediately.”
The Gaza Media Office announced the retrieval of the bodies of nine patients, (including an elderly man and a woman who were identified by family members) from the mass grave discovered at the al-Shifa hospital, noting that the search operations for the bodies of the remaining people “were temporarily halted due to the occupation’s aircraft flying over the medical complex.”
Another mass grave has been discovered in northern Gaza by the Health Ministry and the Civil Defense Forces.
Reports say it contained 20 members of the same family killed in Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip. Residents said all 20 bodies were members of the al-Assaf family that had been killed in an Israeli military offensive in the area four months ago.
The Gaza Media Office had announced earlier this month that the occupation regime committed a massacre resulting in the deaths of 400 people in the al-Shifa Medical Complex, adding that “the occupation committed a shocking crime against humanity by destroying, burning, and bulldozing the al-Shifa complex, and by killing and arresting more than 700 Palestinian civilians.” It called for establishing field hospitals to save the health sector.
The International Rescue Committee (IRC) says, “No hospitals in Gaza are fully functioning any longer. IRC staff and partners in Gaza continue to witness devastation in the health facilities that are left.
With Gaza’s health system decimated by Israel, diseases once easily controlled are now spreading, and children, especially malnourished children, are the most susceptible …. Patients as young as four months old are dying from preventable or easily treatable diseases like pneumonia and gastroenteritis.
Many patients arrive either dead on arrival or too sick to warrant resuscitation due to delaying their care.”
Search operations for the bodies of civilians continue in the al-Shifa Medical Complex after dozens of bodies were discovered following the second invasion of the hospital by the occupation forces, which besieged the health center for about two weeks.
Hundreds of Israeli army soldiers, armed with weapons and police dogs, as well as dozens of tanks, drones, and helicopters, participated in the second invasion of al-Shifa hospital, firing bullets, shells, and missiles heavily inside the complex towards patients, displaced persons, and civilians.
The assault, which constitutes a war crime, resulted in the death and injury of hundreds of civilians while some facilities inside the hospital were set on fire.
Survivors of the Israeli military’s raid on the hospital said they witnessed the summary execution of Palestinians, including children at point-blank range, by Israeli troops during the assault, which started in mid-March.
Gaza’s Ministry of Health has also appealed to relevant institutions to “establish field hospitals in Gaza City and northern Gaza Strip” to provide health services, at least minimally, after the al-Shifa medical facility and several hospitals went out of service completely.
Meanwhile, Malak Haniyeh, the granddaughter of Ismail Haniyeh, the head of the Hamas political bureau, succumbed to her wounds, joining her father and members of her family who were assassinated in an Israeli airstrike targeting a vehicle they were traveling in the Shati refugee camp.
The assassination of Hamas leader’s family members has not held the group back from offering any concessions in negotiations with the Israelis.
Hamas leader Ezzat al-Reshq says a permanent ceasefire is the only guarantee to protect Palestinians and “stop the waterfall of blood and massacres”.
“There will be no concessions to the complete withdrawal of the Israeli occupation forces from the Gaza Strip and the free return of all the displaced Palestinians to return to their homes after being forcibly removed,” he pointed out.
The senior Hamas official says the Israeli occupation regime wants a temporary agreement to release its captives, after which the war and genocide will resume.
Al-Reshq also says attempts by Netanyahu and his government to release the Israeli captives being held in the Gaza Strip by force have failed, and there is no alternative to releasing the captives without a credible deal with the Palestinian resistance movement.
He went on to say that after more than six months the occupation regime is still floundering and has not and will not achieve any victory, highlighting the regime’s targeting of civilians and all aspects of civilian life “are signs of defeat, not preludes to victory”.
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