Gaza hospital bombing was 'extremely serious war crime': UK-based lawyers

By Burak Bir

LONDON (AA) - Tuesday’s bombing of Al-Ahli Baptist hospital in Gaza, killing hundreds of people, is "an outrage of unspeakable proportions," according to a UK-based lawyers' group on Palestinian rights.

"The catastrophic airstrike yesterday on the Al Ahli hospital in Gaza killing hundreds of Palestinian civilians is an outrage of unspeakable proportions and an extremely serious war crime," Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights said in a statement on Wednesday.

The group, which focuses on protecting and promoting Palestinian human rights, urged both the UK government and the main opposition Labour Party to "unequivocally condemn the horrific hospital attack" and to demand full legal accountability.

"It must be the tipping point for an immediate ceasefire and for Israel to end its persecutory policy of siege starvation against civilians in Gaza," it added.

The statement highlighted the need for International Criminal Court investigators to be granted access to Gaza to enable an impartial assessment of the facts.

"An independent investigation and judicial process is vital to provide justice for the innocent victims, accountability for grave criminal wrongdoing, and deter mass atrocities which characterise this cruel conflict from being repeated," added the lawyers’ group.

More than 500 people were killed in an Israeli airstrike on Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza on Tuesday, a Health Ministry spokesman told Anadolu. Israel, however, has denied responsibility for the air raid.

Footage on social media showed corpses scattered across the hospital grounds.

According to an Anadolu reporter, thousands of Palestinians were at the hospital when the building came under bombardment.