Arab Nations Abandon the Hostages

At a committee meeting of the 77th World Health Assembly on Wednesday, a group of Arab nations withdrew a resolution they had proposed. The draft resolution on the health situation in Israel and the ‘Palestinian territories’, was withdrawn because an Israeli amendment that called for the hostages to be released was passed and added to it.

Before that decision, the Israeli representative challenged the motivation for the draft resolution, saying,

‘If this decision was about health, it would address the systematic and deliberate militarisation of health facilities in Gaza by Hamas and by the Islamic Jihad.
Health facilities in Gaza are used as hideouts and launch sites for terrorism,
as shields for underground terror tunnels, as weapons arsenals …
at Shifa hospital, for example, there were more terrorists than patients.’

She went on to highlight the plight of the Israeli hostages, whose testimonies speak of torture, sexual assault, physical and psychological abuse. Acknowledging that the war has also taken a tragic toll on civilians in Gaza, she said,

‘This is first and foremost a result of Hamas’ systematic strategy
of maximising civilian harm since the beginning of this war.’

In contrast, Israel has taken numerous measures to ensure that the civilian population in Gaza has access to medicine and emergency health care, including facilitation of the establishment of eight operational field hospitals and three mobile clinics, along with enabling the entrance of over 23,000 tons of medical supplies through various humanitarian crossings into the Gaza Strip which have been repeatedly attacked by Hamas.

Claiming that the authors of the resolution had intentionally omitted the reality where Hamas exists and brutalises Israelis and Palestinians alike, the Israeli representative proposed the addition of a paragraph that called for the release of the Israeli hostages – which was passed by 50 votes in favour and 44 against.

It was that addition that prompted the Arab nations to withdraw the proposed resolution, apparently unwilling to call for an end to Hamas’ war crimes against the hostages.