Israel’s Health Ministry slammed the World Health Organization (W.H.O.) in a statement on Monday for criticizing Israel’s call for civilians in northern Gaza to flee south ahead of a ground operation, the Times of Israel reported.
The Health Ministry said the W.H.O., which has been accused of being “in the pocket of the Chinese Communists,” has “perversely twisted” Israel’s evacuation efforts “in service of Hamas’s efforts to continue their use of Gaza’s civilians as human shields.”
“As Hamas rampaged through Israeli towns murdering infants, raping women and taking the sick and elderly hostage, including Holocaust survivors, the World Health Organization was largely focused on cessation of hostilities,” the Health Ministry said in a statement. “Israel’s efforts to save lives by evacuating civilians from the conflict zone in northern Gaza has been perversely twisted and maligned in service of Hamas’s efforts to continue their use of Gaza’s civilians as human shields.”
Hamas terrorists celebrate by a destroyed Israeli tank at the Gaza Strip fence east of Khan Younis Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023. The Hamas rulers of the Gaza Strip carried out an unprecedented, multi-front attack on Israel at daybreak Saturday, firing thousands of rockets as dozens of Hamas terrorists infiltrated the heavily fortified border in several locations by air, land, and sea and catching the country off-guard on a major holiday. (Yousef Masoud/AP)
“The call for evacuation of civilians from the conflict zone is a measure to protect civilians despite Hamas’s efforts to endanger them,” the ministry added.
The W.H.O. has issued several statements calling for an “end to hostilities” since Hamas terrorists attacked Israel on October 7, slaughtering at least 1,200 people and injuring at least 3,400. On October 13, the W.H.O. asked Israel to “immediately rescind orders for the evacuation of over 1 million people living north of Wadi Gaza.”
“A mass evacuation would be disastrous—for patients, health workers and other civilians left behind or caught in the mass movement,” the agency said.
On October 14, the W.H.O. said it “strongly condemns Israel’s repeated orders for the evacuation of 22 hospitals treating more than 2,000 inpatients in northern Gaza.”
“The forced evacuation of patients and health workers will further worsen the current humanitarian and public health catastrophe,” the agency said.
The W.H.O. is the health agency of the United Nations (U.N.), which has been accused by human rights expert Anne Bayefsky of having “blood on its hands” for refusing to “acknowledge or support Israel’s right of self-defense.”
“This fundamental right of every UN member state was never mentioned even once by the Security Council, the General Assembly, the Human Rights Council, the Secretary-General, or the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights,” Bayefsky wrote for the Times of Israel.
She continued:
Instead, UN officials reacted immediately by condemning Israel and finding ways to excuse and diminish the actions of its mortal enemies. The United Nations has revealed both a deep moral turpitude and its identity as an instrument of modern antisemitism. The demonization and attempted elimination of Israel may come from the barrel of a microphone, but make no mistake: it aims to be deadly.
The UN is not a neutral party in this war. Its actors are partisans, and their dishonest campaigns of unrelenting Israel-bashing and disinformation will only get louder and more frenzied in the days and weeks ahead.
Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Herzog told Fox News on Saturday that Israel is working with the U.N. to create safe zones in the southern part of Gaza.
“We are in the process of preparing what we call safe zones in the southern part of Gaza for all of those who evacuated their homes. We are working very closely with the United Nations to create these safe zones,” Herzog said. When they are in the safe zone, we will make sure they get all the vital supplies they need like water, food and medical support.”
Herzog also said Israel is “doing everything possible so that civilians will not be hurt,” but noted that “Hamas has made them into human shields.”
Other reports have emerged that Hamas terrorists are preventing civilians from evacuating northern Gaza and are killing innocent Palestinians who try to leave and preventing American citizens from using the Rafah border crossing to escape to Egypt.
Breitbart News’s Joel Pollak wrote, “Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman Jonathan Conricus has been warning for days that Hamas is preventing civilians from leaving Gaza ahead of an anticipated ground war. He cited both Israeli and international sources in an interview on CNN Sunday”:
Hamas is actively stopping the evacuation of civilians to safety in the south, because they want to use them as human shields.
As told on @cnni pic.twitter.com/tIT5kDcadx— Jonathan Conricus (@jconricus) October 16, 2023
Editor’s Note: This story was updated to reflect a revised number on the death toll from the October 7 Hamas attack in Israel. The Israeli government estimate of 1,400 was revised to around 1,200, according to Reuters.
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