NEW YORK, November 14. /TASS/. Israel’s attacks on medical facilities in the Gaza Strip, which cause numerous deaths and destruction, should be investigated as war crimes, Human Rights Watch, a New York-based international nongovernmental organization, said on Tuesday.

"The Israeli military’s repeated, apparently unlawful attacks on medical facilities, personnel, and transport are further destroying Gaza’s healthcare system and should be investigated as war crimes," it said in a statement posted on its website. It noted that despite Israel’s claims of "Hamas’s cynical use of hospitals," no evidence put forward would justify depriving hospitals and ambulances of their protected status under international humanitarian law."

Human Rights Watch cited the World Health Organization’s (WHO) data that at least 521 people had been killed as a result of Israeli strikes on medical facilities in Gaza as of November 12. "These attacks, alongside Israel’s decisions to cut off electricity and water and block humanitarian aid to Gaza, have severely impeded health care access," it stressed, adding that, according to UN data, about two thirds of primary aid facilities and half of hospitals were not functioning in Gaza as of November 10. It cited doctors as saying that hospitals were running out of medicine and basic equipment and surgeries were conducted without anesthesia, with vinegar used as an antiseptic.

"The strikes on hospitals have killed hundreds of people and put many patients at grave risk because they’re unable to receive proper medical care," HRW representative Kayum Ahmed was quoted as saying.

According to HRW, Israel’s order to hospitals to evacuate to northern Gaza proved to be ineffective "because it did not take into account the specific requirements for hospitals, including providing for the safety of patients and medical personnel." The real purpose of this order "was not to protect civilians, but to terrify them into leaving," it stressed.

The organization called on Israel to immediately stop attacks of medical and other civilian infrastructure facilities and end the total blockade of the Gaza Strip, "which amounts to the war crime of collective punishment." It also called on Palestinian groups not to use civilians as human shields and on Israel’s allies, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Germany, to suspend military assistance to Israel until it stops committing "widespread, serious abuses."