MSF: Clear signs of ethnic cleansing in Gaza

KABUL (Pajhwok): Doctors Without Borders, also known as MSF, claims to have found “clear signs of ethnic cleansing” in the embattled Palestinian enclave of Gaza by the Israeli military.

In a report on Thursday, the independent organisation said:  Tthe recent military offensive is a clear illustration of the brutal war the Israeli forces are waging on Gaza.”

Al Jazeera quoted the MSF report as saying that clear signs of ethnic cleansing were being witnessed, as Palestinian life was being wiped off the area.

“Our first-hand observations of the medical and humanitarian catastrophe inflicted on Gaza are consistent with the descriptions provided by an increasing number of legal experts and organisations concluding that genocide is taking place in Gaza.”

The report, titled Gaza: Life in a death trap, said as of mid-October, only 17 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals were partially functioning amid Israeli attacks, and the other 19 hospitals were out of service.

Skin ailments, upper respiratory tract infections and diarrhea were common in the city, where children were missing out on vaccinations against polio and measles, the group pointed out.

In the first year of the ongoing war, MSF workers were subject to 41 attacks and violent incidents, including air strikes, shelling and incursions in health facilities, direct fire on its shelters and convoys and arbitrary detention by Israeli forces.

Separately, Chile’s President Gabriel Boric slammed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a war criminal for the “barbarity” of his actions in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

Speaking at a Christmas event for Palestinians in Chile, Boric claimed the Israeli premier’s actions amounted to war crimes and crimes against humanity.

He went on to comment: “We are deeply pained and shaken not only by what is happening in Gaza but also by the events in the West Bank.”

PAN Monitor/mud