The European Union has condemned Hamas for using hospitals and civilians “as human shields” in Gaza, while also calling on Israel to show "maximum restraint" in order to protect civilians.
"The EU condemns the use of hospitals and civilians as human shields by Hamas," European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said in a statement issued on behalf of the 27-nation bloc on Sunday evening. "Civilians must be allowed to leave the combat zone."
Israel says it is trying to free more than 200 hostages taken by Hamas militants on 7 October, and that Hamas has command centers under and near the hospitals.
Hamas has denied using hospitals in this way.
Borrell urged Israel to exercise maximum restraint, stressing the obligation under international humanitarian law to protect hospitals, medical supplies and civilians inside hospitals.
"These hostilities are severely impacting hospitals and taking a horrific toll on civilians and medical staff," the statement warned.
Hospitals in the north of Gaza are blockaded and medical staff say they are barely able to care for patients.
The enclave’s two largest hospitals, Al Shifa and Al-Quds, said they were suspending operations as staff struggled to care for patients with little medicine, food and water.
"Al Quds hospital has been cut off from the world in the last six to seven days. No way in, no way out," said Tommaso Della Longa, spokesperson for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
Ashraf Al-Qidra, spokesperson for the Health Ministry, said that of 45 babies in incubators at al-Shifa, three had already died.
"Hospitals must... be supplied immediately with the most urgent medical supplies, and patients that require urgent medical care need to be evacuated safely," Borrell said.
"In this context, we urge Israel to exercise maximum restraint to ensure the protection of civilians."
Israel's military said it had offered to evacuate newborn babies and that it had placed 300 liters of fuel at al-Shifa's entrance on Saturday night, but that both gestures had been blocked by Hamas.
Hamas denied that it refused the fuel and said the hospital was under the authority of Gaza's Health Ministry, adding that the amount of fuel Israel said it offered was "not enough to operate the generators for more than half an hour".
The World Health Organization has joined international calls for an immediate ceasefire, and WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X that the organisation had "lost contact with its focal points in Al-Shifa Hospital".
"WHO is gravely concerned about the safety of health workers, hundreds of sick and injured patients, including babies on life support, and displaced people who remain inside the hospital," he wrote.
"The world cannot stand silent while hospitals, which should be safe havens, are transformed into scenes of death, devastation, and despair," he said in a later post.
(with Reuters)
