Manuel Elias UN Photo
The South African government has called for an international investigation into the bombing of a hospital in Gaza that killed over 500 people and injured more than 1,000 civilians on Tuesday night.
Announcing the outcomes of this week's Cabinet meeting on Thursday, Minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, described the bombing as an act as a blatant violation of International Humanitarian Law.
“Cabinet has condemned the bombing by the Israeli government of Gaza’s Ahli-Arab Baptist Hospital on Tuesday,” she said, adding that Cabinet also called on the International Criminal Court to immediately act against such a breach.
Ntshavheni described it as a "war crime" as hospitals are considered a haven under International Humanitarian Law.
"Cabinet calls on the ICC to investigate the bombing and the crime of genocide in this conflict and on the international community not to allow the perpetration of another holocaust under its watch. The Jewish holocaust is enough stain in the history of mankind for the international community to fold its arms while the Israeli government perpetrates a Palestinian holocaust," she said.
Minister Ntshavheni said since the war started, thousands of Israelis and Palestinians have been killed, and far more injured.
"Cabinet condemned the cowardly attack by Hamas that killed and injured innocent people. Similarly, Cabinet condemned the heinous opportunism of the Israeli government to use Hamas’ cowardice to continue its genocide against the people of Palestine," she said.
The South African government believes that the “international community must be seized with finding a permanent security solution for the people of Israel and Palestine through the settlement of the two-state solution founded on the 1947 borders.”
Meanwhile, UN Middle East envoy Tor Wennesland on Wednesday highlighted the need for an inquiry into the strike against a Gaza hospital that killed hundreds, including patients, staff, and displaced people seeking shelter.
Wennesland told the Security Council that he "watched in horror and in real-time" as reports of mass casualties emerged from Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City.
"The circumstances of this catastrophe and responsibility remain and still need to be clarified. And we will need a fact-based, full investigation and broad investigation," he said from Doha.
