CHAIRMAN: DR. KHALID BIN THANI AL THANI
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: PROF. KHALID MUBARAK AL-SHAFI

Views /Editorial

Humanitarian catastrophe

Published: 19 Nov 2023 - 09:30 am | Last Updated: 11 Jul 2025 - 06:55 am

Gaza is under naked barbarism of Israel where its military is employing cruel power against innocent civilians including children and women. The occupation forces shamelessly attacking hospitals causing deaths of babies and injured patients and also bombing schools.

A health ministry official in Gaza Strip said more than 80 people were killed yesterday in twin Israeli strikes on the Jabalia refugee camp including on Al Fakhoora School, sparking condemnation from the United Nations’ humanitarian chief. Philippe Lazzarini said he had seen “horrifying images and footage of scores of people killed and injured” in one of his agency’s schools “sheltering thousands of displaced”.

The State of Qatar also condemned in the strongest terms the Israeli occupation’s renewed bombing of Al Fakhoora School in Jabalia Camp, north of Gaza, which led to the martyrdom of dozens, majority of them are children and women, and considered it a horrific massacre, a brutal crime against defenseless civilians, and a blatant violation of the principles of international law and international humanitarian law.

In a statement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs renewed the State of Qatar’s demand for an urgent international investigation, which includes sending independent UN investigators to investigate the facts regarding the Israeli occupation forces’ continued targeting of schools and hospitals. Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates also condemned Israel’s forced evacuation of Al-Shifa Medical Complex in Gaza. “The evacuation of Al-Shifa Medical Hospital represents an official Israeli insistence on completing the episodes of execution and genocide against any Palestinian presence in Gaza City and the northern Strip,” the Ministry said in a post on X.

“This deepens the humanitarian and environmental catastrophe facing the Strip. It is also a literal translation of the calls of extremist Israeli zealots who incite and demand the burning of Gaza, as they previously called for and practiced in the burning of Huwara,” it added.

More than 11,500 Palestinians have been killed in the war, according to Palestinian health authorities. Another 2,700 have been reported missing, believed buried under rubble. More than two-thirds of those killed are women and children. The National Human Rights Committee (NHRC) called upon the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to urgently work in cooperation with all stakeholders to apply strong pressure to put an immediate end to the Israeli occupations aggression against the Gaza Strip, given that the United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner (UNHROHC) is a United Nations specialized agency with promoting and protecting human rights.