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STORY: UN / GAZA HOSPITALS
TRT: 05:21
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 03 JANUARY 2025, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE - NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior, UN Headquarters
03 JANUARY 2025, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, Security Council
3. Various shots, Palestine, Egypt and Israel representatives
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Volker Türk, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights:
“The protection of hospitals during warfare is paramount and must be respected by all sides, at all times.
The destruction of hospitals across Gaza goes beyond depriving Palestinians of their right to access adequate healthcare. Those hospitals provided sanctuary for thousands of people with nowhere else to go. The destruction wrought by the Israeli military’s attacks last Friday on Kamal Adwan hospital – the last functioning hospital in North Gaza – reflects the patterns of attacks documented in the report.”
5. Wide shot, Council
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Volker Türk, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights:
“Across Gaza, Israeli military operations in and around hospitals, and associated combat, have had a terrible impact, precisely at a time of massive demands on healthcare due to the ongoing conflict.”
7. Wide shot, Council
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Volker Türk, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights:
“According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, more than 1,050 medical professionals have been killed in Gaza. It is important to note that medical personnel are civilians who serve a critical function, particularly in wartime. They enjoy special protections under international law. The recent report by my Office documents at least 136 strikes on at least 27 hospitals and 12 other medical facilities in Gaza, which caused significant death and injury among doctors, nurses, medical staff and other civilians, and damaged or destroyed many of the buildings targeted.”
9. Wide shot, Council
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Rik Peeperkorn, Representative for the West Bank and Gaza World Health Organization (WHO):
“Time and again, hospitals have become battlegrounds, rendering them out of service and depriving those in need of lifesaving care. The health sector is being systematically dismantled and pushed to the breaking point, its resilience tested amid dire shortages of medical supplies, equipment, and specialized staff. Only 16 out of 36 hospitals in Gaza remain partially functional, with a total bed capacity of just 1,822—far below what is needed to address the overwhelming health crisis.”
11. Wide shot, Council
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Rik Peeperkorn, Representative for the West Bank and Gaza World Health Organization (WHO):
“WHO remains deeply concerned about Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, the Director of Kamal Adwan Hospital who was
detained during the raid. We have lost contact with him since and call for his immediate release. Reports indicate that key areas of the hospital were burnt and severely damaged during the raid, including the laboratory, surgical unit, engineering and maintenance department, operations theatre, and the medical store. WHO and partners' efforts over the last months to sustain the hospitals’ operations have been undone.”
13. Wide shot, Palestinian Ambassador Riyad H. Mansour addressing Council
14. SOUNDBITE (English) Riyad H. Mansour, Permanent Observer to the United Nations, Palestine:
“Doctor Mahmoud Abu Nujaila, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Al Awda Hospital, wrote a message many months ago on a whiteboard in the hospital normally used for planning surgeries. And I quote him, ‘whoever stays until the end will tell the story. We did what we could. Remember us. Remember us.”
15. Wide shot, Council dais
16. Wide shot, Israeli Ambassador Brett Jonathan Miller addressing Council
17. SOUNDBITE (English) Brett Jonathan Miller, Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Israel:
“This week’s precise operation by the IDF revealed the extent of Hamas's abuse of the facility. Over 240 terrorists were apprehended, including 15 who participated on October 7th massacre, the darkest day in Israel's modern history where with 1,200 lives were brutally taken by the terrorists. Among those apprehended was a hospital director himself, who suspected of being a Hamas operative, as hundreds of Hamas and Islamic defectors were hiding inside the Kamal Adwan hospital under his management. He is currently being investigated by Israeli security forces. Colleagues, this operation was not a choice. It was a necessity, conducted based on extensive intelligence gathered over months, confirming Hamas's activities on hospital premises. In accordance with international humanitarian law, the IDF has implemented comprehensive measures to mitigate harm to civilians.”
18. Wide shot, Council
The High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, today (3 Jan) told the Security Council that the destruction of hospitals across Gaza “goes beyond depriving Palestinians of their right to access adequate healthcare,” as those hospitals also “provided sanctuary for thousands of people with nowhere else to go.”
Briefing the Council by video teleconference on the protection of hospitals in Gaza, Türk said, “the protection of hospitals during warfare is paramount and must be respected by all sides, at all times.”
He said, “the destruction wrought by the Israeli military’s attacks last Friday on Kamal Adwan hospital – the last functioning hospital in North Gaza” reflected the patterns of attacks documented in a recent report by his Office.”
Türk told the Council that “across Gaza, Israeli military operations in and around hospitals, and associated combat, have had a terrible impact, precisely at a time of massive demands on healthcare due to the ongoing conflict.”
The High Commissioner noted that “more than 1,050 medical professionals have been killed in Gaza,” and stressed that medical personnel “enjoy special protections under international law.”
The report on Gaza hospitals by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), he said, “documents at least 136 strikes on at least 27 hospitals and 12 other medical facilities in Gaza, which caused significant death and injury among doctors, nurses, medical staff and other civilians, and damaged or destroyed many of the buildings targeted.”
The High Commissioner is calling for independent, thorough and transparent investigations into all Israeli attacks on hospitals, healthcare infrastructure and medical personnel – as well as the alleged misuse of such facilities.
Also briefing via video teleconference, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Representative for the West Bank and Gaza, Rik Peeperkorn, said, “time and again, hospitals have become battlegrounds, rendering them out of service and depriving those in need of lifesaving care. The health sector is being systematically dismantled and pushed to the breaking point, its resilience tested amid dire shortages of medical supplies, equipment, and specialized staff. Only 16 out of 36 hospitals in Gaza remain partially functional, with a total bed capacity of just 1,822—far below what is needed to address the overwhelming health crisis.”
Peeperkorn said the WHO “remains deeply concerned about Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, the Director of Kamal Adwan Hospital who was detained during the raid,” and called “for his immediate release.”
He said, “reports indicate that key areas of the hospital were burnt and severely damaged during the raid, including the laboratory, surgical unit, engineering and maintenance department, operations theatre, and the medical store. WHO and partners' efforts over the last months to sustain the hospitals’ operations have been undone.”
Back in the Council Chambers, Palestinian Ambassador Riyad H. Mansour said, “Doctor Mahmoud Abu Nujaila, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Al Awda Hospital, wrote a message many months ago on a whiteboard in the hospital normally used for planning surgeries.”
Holding back tears as he quoted Dr Nujaila, Mansour said, “whoever stays until the end will tell the story. We did what we could. Remember us. Remember us.”
For his part, Israeli Ambassador Brett Jonathan Miller said, “this week’s precise operation by the IDF revealed the extent of Hamas's abuse of the facility. Over 240 terrorists were apprehended, including 15 who participated on October 7th massacre, the darkest day in Israel's modern history where with 1,200 lives were brutally taken by the terrorists. Among those apprehended was a hospital director himself, who suspected of being a Hamas operative, as hundreds of Hamas and Islamic defectors were hiding inside the Kamal Adwan hospital under his management. He is currently being investigated by Israeli security forces. Colleagues, this operation was not a choice. It was a necessity, conducted based on extensive intelligence gathered over months, confirming Hamas's activities on hospital premises. In accordance with international humanitarian law, the IDF has implemented comprehensive measures to mitigate harm to civilians.”
