Gaza Health System in Final Stage of Collapse: How will Trudeau respond?
On November 11, 2023, the health sector of the Palestinian Non-Governmental Organizations Network made an urgent call to the world to act immediately.
Take a minute and ask Prime Minister Trudeau and Global Affairs Minister Joly how they will respond.
Persistent targeting of the health sector in Gaza by the Israeli occupation has led to the destruction and bombing of 120 health facilities. 18 hospitals and 40 health centers are completely out of service due to shelling and fuel shortages. 193 medical staff have been killed. More than 45 ambulances have been destroyed.
Canada has remained shamefully quiet and complicit in these war crimes.
In line with the Palestine health sector’s appeal, Canada should:
- condemn Israel, the occupying power, for grave violations of the international law
- take immediate concrete steps through statements and any economic and diplomatic measures at its disposal to stop the continuous war crimes against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip. This includes publicly insisting Israel as the occupying power stop targeting health facilities.
- demand Israel allow fuel into the Gaza Strip to supply hospitals and health facilities that are about to collapse, so they can provide their services, applying pressure on the occupation to allow the entry of fuel without delay or hindrance.
- work urgently with the UN and other international bodies to secure the delivery of medical supplies to the wounded and sick, especially for cancer patients and others with chronic diseases, and the entry of the necessary medical equipment that helps save the lives of those injured by the bombing and the genocide against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
We insist that Canada uphold its responsibility under Article 1 of the Fourth Geneva Convention. As a high signatory of the Convention Canada is required to take actions to ensure that violations of the Convention do not occur under any circumstance.
To date 11,000 have been killed including more than 4,000 children, with thousands missing under the rubble. These terrifying numbers, which are increasing, require concerted efforts to hold the occupying power accountable within clear mechanisms from the United Nations and its institutions, as well as to ensure immediate international protection for the Palestinian people until being freed from occupation. Canada is complicity when it does not use all economic and diplomatic tools available to hold Israel as the occupier accountable.
The health sector at the Palestinian NGOs Network has urgently appealed to human rights and humanitarian organizations, the United Nations, People’s Health Movement and the relevant international bodies, to exert every effort to prevent the complete collapse of the health system in the Gaza Strip.
Read more including the statement by PNGO-Health Sector in English and Arabic.
We urge Canada, to take its responsibility under international law seriously, and end its complicity.
“Hospitals in Gaza are being targeted and being a front for direct aggression and the Ministry of Health in Gaza is demanding for international investigation committee to take action immediately, and save the lives of the injured, patients, and those affected by the bloody aggression and genocide that continued for more than 35 consecutive days, by the occupying power in light of an international silence by the world, who does not move a finger to stop these heinous crimes.”
Health Sector at the Palestinian Non-Governmental Organizations Network (PNGO)
Meanwhile, on November 9, Canada voted against the United Nations resolution on ending the illegal Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories. 145 countries voted in favor of ending the occupation, 18 abstained, and Canada shamefully joined 7 countries opposing the decision (Israel, United State, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Canada, Hungary)
Initiated by:
