LOC16:28
13:28 GMT
BRUSSELS, July 30 (KUNA) - A Norwegian doctor who has just returned from Gaza Strip narrated in a press conference in Brussels Wednesday his personal account of the horrific suffering of the Palestinian people in Gaza due to the Israeli military aggression.
"My main message is that this is an all out warfare against the Palestinian people," said Mads Gilbert who had been working in the Al Shifa hospital in Gaza.
He was speaking at a press conference organised by Palestinian doctors Association in Europe (PALMED Europe) to inform the European public about the recent deadly events in the Gaza Strip.
Gilbert, who has been working with the Palestinians in the medical sector since 1981, showed pictures that he had himself taken in the Shifa hospital of the many Palestinians killed and injured.
He noted that the numbers of Palestinian civilians killed till Tuesday night reached 1210, including 287 children, and 7000 injured, including 2164 children.
"Pose yourself one question," he told the journalists," What would the world, what would Mr.Obama, what would the President in Belgium or France say, if Palestinian militants had killed 287 Israeli children and injured 2164 Israeli children in three weeks. What would their reaction have been. You know the answer," he said.
"This is a very concrete way of illustrating the apartheid system that we see in front of us," said the Norwegian doctor.
He said the Al Shifa hospital, the largest in Gaza, has been totally drained of medical equipment and medicine due to seven years of Israeli siege. For the last four months the staff has not been paid their salaries.
Gilbert denied Israeli accusations that Hamas' military headquarters was based in Al Shifa hospital.
"We stress that what we see in Shifa' hospital are not part of any military defence of Gaza. It is only civilians," he stressed.
Gilbert clarified that he did not support Hamas, PLO or any other Palestinian faction.
"It is not Hamas against Israel. It is the Palestinian people standing together against a military attack, siege and occupation. We support the Palestinian people and their right to resist occupation and their right to survive the hardest of all times," he said.
" I salute the Palestinian people from the depth of my heart.I have never seen so much civilian courage and so much blood in my life," he added..
Christophe Oberlin, a French medical school professor and surgeon, said he has visited Gaza 40 times, the last time was a few weeks ago.
He said that he and others like himself received a mandate from the Palestinian justice ministry to deliver a complaint against Israel to the prosecutor in the International Criminal Court Fatou Bensouda, last Friday.
This complaint is in accordance with the international law and the statute of ICC and is supported by more than 130 law professors all around the world and many international NGOs like Amnesty international, he said.
The ICC prosecutor now has to transfer the complaint to the pre-trial chamber of the court to organise a debate between the different parties.
"With this complaint we have made a small crack in the window of the ICC fortress. This is the best complaint that we can imagine and completely acceptable from the legal point of view," stressed Oberlin.
Three other Palestinian doctors who are based in Europe also spoke at the press conference about their experiences in Gaza.
Hadi Shebli, deputy chief of the Palestinian mission in Brussels, read a letter by PA President Mahmoud Abbas granting honorary citizenship on Gilbert.
Lahebib Adami, Arab League ambassador to Brussels, presented a gift to Gilbert in recognition of his selfless dedication to help the Palestinian people. (end)
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