YESTERDAY, Israeli troops pulled out of Al-Shifa, the largest hospital in the Gaza Strip, after two weeks of brutal attacks that left behind a scene of utter devastation and death in the medical complex which provided shelter for thousands of displaced Palestinians as well as housing numerous staff and patients.
According to Al Jazeera journalist Ismail al-Ghoul, reporting from the hospital: ‘There is no life here. The complex is in ruins and cannot be revived.’
Al-Ghoul continued: ‘Buildings in all departments have been burned, and the structure of the complex has been damaged from the inside. From what we can see, it appears the occupation forces deliberately targeted the health sector and destroyed the largest medical complex in Gaza City.’
Medical sources told Al Jazeera that hundreds of bodies were found inside the complex and in surrounding streets, while a doctor reported that more than 20 bodies had been recovered from the hospital and that some had been crushed by withdrawing Israeli military vehicles.
The Israeli military described the two weeks of savage bombardment and destruction that has reduced Al-Shifa hospital to a ruin and left countless patients and Palestinians sheltering there dead as the ‘most successful operation’ of its war in Gaza.
The Zionist regime and its occupation forces measure success in how many Palestinian men, women and children it massacres and how many hospitals it destroys in its war of annihilation on Gaza.
Israel is fully supported in carrying on this open contempt for international law by the world imperialist powers led by the US and UK.
The International Court of Justice (IJC) ruling that called for Israel to stop its genocidal war, and the resolution passed by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) last week demanding an immediate ceasefire, have been treated with contempt by the Zionist regime and the US and UK which have continued to arm Israel in defiance of all international humanitarian laws and UN resolutions.
The depth of the complicity of the Tory government in Zionist genocide was revealed on Sunday when the Observer newspaper reported on a leaked recording of comments made by Tory MP and chair of the House of Commons select committee on foreign affairs Alicia Kearns.
At a Tory fundraising event on March 13, Kearns revealed that the Tory government had been advised by its own lawyers that Israel had breached international humanitarian law in Gaza.
Repeatedly, Tory ministers have either denied or ducked questions about what legal advice the government had been given by its own legal team.
Following the Observer report, Kearns stood by her comments and called for the government to come clean.
Tory ministers are running a mile from revealing the legal advice that confirms what everyone in the country knows – namely that Israel is guilty of crimes against humanity as defined by international law.
In ignoring this legal advice, the Tories are guilty of breaching international law by aiding and abetting war crimes by Israel through continuing to export the weapons used to commit these crimes.
Not just arms but intelligence-sharing between the UK and Israel is in breach of international law. In fact, lawyers are now pointing out that sharing intelligence with the US, with its dominant ties to Israeli security services, would also be illegal under international law.
Labour MP Zarah Sultana described the refusal of the Tories to make public this legal advice as ‘shocking’ and there should be a ban on arms sales to Israel, while David Cameron, the Foreign Secretary who has denied the existence of this advice, should resign.
Cameron will not resign, and neither will the Tory government implement any ban on arming the Zionist murder regime or providing it with the information to carry on its war to drive Palestinians from their land through genocidal war.
The way to end the complicity of the British state with Israel is for the working class to force the TUC to call a general strike to kick out the Tories and bring in a workers’ government that will arm the Palestinian masses to create the conditions for the establishment of the independent state of Palestine.
This is the way forward.
