ISRAEL struck an ambulance in Gaza City on Friday that health authorities in the Hamas-controlled enclave said was evacuating wounded people from the besieged north to the south of the territory. Ashraf al-Qidra, spokesperson for the Health Ministry in Gaza, said the ambulance was part of a convoy that Israel targeted leaving al-Shifa Hospital, adding that “a big number” were killed and wounded but without giving figures.
Israel has also acknowledged it struck ambulances on the pretext that these were used to transport Hamas fighters and weapons to different locations, a baseless claim as Hamas has an elaborate network of tunnels to move around. World Health Organisation Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, in a social media post, that he was “utterly shocked” by reports of attacks on ambulances evacuating patients, adding that patients, health workers and medical facilities must be protected but such appeals have no impact on the decision-makers in Tel Aviv who sanction raids on hospitals and schools sheltering both patients and civilians. It was in this backdrop that a UN official warned on Friday that UN buildings in Gaza are no longer safe as shelters due to fighting by Israel and Hamas, with more than 50 buildings “impacted” by the conflict, including five “direct hits.” Thomas White, an official with the body’s Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA lamented, “We cannot even provide them safety under a UN flag.” Regrettably, there is no voice for the oppressed from Washington and London and instead both the powerful countries are providing both political and material support to the Jewish state to continue with its crimes against humanity. At a time when Israel is crossing all limits, the British Prime Minister visits Tel Aviv in a plane-load of ammunition and Pentagon flies drones in Gaza to facilitate targets for Israeli raids. There are no signs that the human tragedy in Gaza would come to an end soon due to the pathetic response of the civilized world to the plight of Palestinians.
