NOURNEWS- The following text is Hamas's statement regarding the Zionist regime's air strike on the Baptist hospital in Gaza and this regime's ongoing war crimes against the Palestinian nation.
Today, the “Israeli” Occupation Entity is trying to evade their responsibility for the crime of bombarding the “Baptist” Arab National Hospital in Gaza City, which the “Israeli” Occupation Forces (IOF) committed on the evening of Tuesday, 17 October 2023. This heinous crime was committed against innocent Palestinian civilians while taking the hospital as a shelter from the flames of the “Israeli” brutal aggression, which left nowhere safe in the besieged enclave. It is necessary to affirm that, the Baptist Hospital belongs to the Anglican Episcopal Church in Jerusalem, and was built before the occupation of Palestine.
It is obvious that the “Israeli” enemy has been spreading lies since the very beginning of his destructive war on our people when this regime, with no single evidence, claimed that the Palestinian resistance killed children, cut off heads, and raped women. In continuation of this series of lies, they tried to evade their crime, attributing it to one of the resistance factions. Accordingly, we present some conclusive evidence to prove the “Israeli” Occupation Entity responsible for this heinous crime:
1- It is no secret that the IOF, several days ago, threatened several hospitals in the Gaza Strip, contacting each hospital separately and requesting their evacuation and holding the hospitals' directors responsible for the consequences of neglecting the threats. In fact, there are dozens of clear statements from the IOF spokespersons in this regard.
2- Since the beginning of the ongoing aggression, the “Israeli” army has ignored the principle of distinguishing between civilian and military targets. Thus, the bombardment has systematically targeted emergency services, ambulances, civil defense facilities, schools, mosques, and churches.
3- The IOF contacted the directors of 21 hospitals in the Gaza Strip, especially those which are located in the Gaza and the North of Gaza governorates, most notably: (Al-Awda, the Indonesian, Kamal Adwan, the Kuwaiti, Al-Quds, and Al-Mamadani), asking them to evacuate immediately, given that the hospitals are located within the geographical scope of “Israeli” military operations. In this regard, the official spokespersons for the IOF plus a number of hospital directors conducted interviews live on Al Jazeera, revealing the premeditated intention of the IOF to target hospitals in the Gaza Strip.
4- On 14 October 2023, at 20:30, the IOF fired two shells toward the Baptist Hospital, and the next morning they called the hospital director, Dr. Maher Ayyad, saying to him: “We warned you last evening with two shells, so why have you not evacuated the hospital until this moment?!” Following that call, The hospital director contacted the bishop of the Evangelical Church in Britain and informed him of the incident, who in turn contacted international organizations before sending the hospital a message reassuring them that they could remain in the hospital. Yet with no warning, the IOF airstrikes returned, on Tuesday evening, to carry out the massacre against the hospital and the shelter-seekers of the displaced innocent Palestinian civilians.
5- Immediately after the massacre, the IOF spokesperson quickly published a statement on his page on the “X” and “Telegram” platforms at 21:17, which stated, “We had warned the evacuation of the Baptist Hospital and five other hospitals so that the Hamas terrorist organization would not take as a safe haven”. That statement is a clear claim of this massacre, and it is documented with a “screenshot” image attached to his page on Telegram, but he quickly deleted the post after seeing the massive scale of the massacre for the large number of victims, and the angry responses of the Arab, regional and international communities. Later on, he disavowed it and published another statement denying that he had issued the first statement.
6- Before and during the event, the resistance factions did not fire any missiles at the occupied territories, the “Israeli” sirens did not activate, and the Iron Dome missiles were not launched. Moreover, dozens of reconnaissance drones do not leave the sky of the Gaza Strip (365 km2), photographing and monitoring every inch around the clock. If the massacre was due to the resistance’s missiles, as the “Israeli” Occupation Entity falsely claims, why would not they show one picture of their claims?!
7- The “Israeli” Occupation Entity claimed that this massacre was caused by a missile launched by the Islamic Jihad. However, we would wonder how they could identify and distinguish between the missiles of the resistance factions immediately after they were launched?!
8- The IOF military system documents and records all their operations by day, hour, minute, and second, and in all previous times their media outlets came out to announce or deny much less severe massacres than this massacre, so what made them wait more than 4 hours before declaring their irresponsibility other than weaving scenarios of falsification, lies and deception?!
9- It is obviously known that the resistance’s missiles are somewhat “primitive” and do not have the destructive power that kills hundreds at one time. Throughout the history of previous confrontations and the current confrontation, no resistance missile has caused a tenth of this number of “Israeli” deaths.
10- The only video scene documenting the moment of the explosion reveals that the mass of flame and the sound of the explosion are identical to other “Israeli” bombs throughout the days of the ongoing aggression, which with no doubt proves the “Israeli” origin of the missile.
The deliberate attack on hospitals is a war crime, as stipulated in Article (8, 2, b, 9) of the Statute of the International Criminal Court. Accordingly, Hamas officially calls on the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to open an investigation into this crime, which falls within the framework of a genocidal war, in accordance with the provisions of Article 6 of the Basic Law. These bloody acts are also based on the policy of denial pursued by the “Israeli” Occupation Entity, as they deny the existence of the Palestinian people.
There is no doubt that impunity fuels crime, and investigating crimes is a way to protect people. Furthermore, if a legal and judicial response is necessary, it is above all the response to this crime must be humanitarian and global. Such actions must shock the conscience of the world, or else there would no longer be a reliable international community if the “Israeli” Occupation government were free to decide to bomb hospitals!
In conclusion, we are facing a genocidal massacre committed by IOF against children, women, and the elderly. The “Israeli” Occupation Entity is the only one responsible for the crime, no matter how much they try to weave lies and fabrications to get away with it, as they always do.
The Islamic Resistance Movement
HAMAS-Palestine
Wednesday, 18 October 2023
NOURNEWS