Thread by @ShahrarAli

UN human rights experts have said that as occupying power, Israel is required under Fourth Geneva Convention, “to the fullest extent of the means available to it”, to maintain health services in the occupied territory.

https://twitter.com/ShahrarAli/status/1355640398354460677

Article 56 requires Israel to adopt and apply “the prophylactic and preventive measures necessary to combat the spread of contagious diseases and epidemics” in cooperation with national and local authorities.

If the protected population is inadequately supplied, the occupying power is required under the Convention to facilitate relief schemes “by all means at its disposal”.

Even if relief consignments, including ‘medical supplies’, are provided by others, Article 60 states that such consignments “shall in no way relieve the occupying power of any of its responsibilities” for health care to the protected population.

“The right to health is also a fundamental human rights issue,” UN experts said. “International human rights law, which applies in full to occupied Palestinian territory, stipulates that everyone enjoys the right to ‘the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health’.

The denial of an equal access to health care, such as on the basis of ethnicity or race, is discriminatory and unlawful.”
Full UN statement ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/…