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| The Israeli Air Force and the Finnish Children's Clinic in Gaza |
13/01/09 "An attack of this kind violates all international conventions" said representatives of the Finnish Church. The clinic had supplied primary medical care to children. |
As part of the Israeli Air Force bombardments there was totally destroyed last Saturday in Gaza a children's clinic created some years ago by Finn Church Aid jointly with other Scandinavian humanitarian organizations. According to Jouni Hemberg, Chief of Humanitarian Aid for Finn Church Aid, the clinic was evacuated due to the approach of Israeli troops, with church personnel marking it conspicuously with Red Cross symbols, visible from both the ground and the air, in the hope of preserving it from harm and facilitating its re-opening once the fighting ended. The clinic had an important role in preserving the health of poor children in the neighbourhood.
The entire clinic was destroyed in a bombing by the Israeli Air Force, and all the medical equipment, provided through considerable sums collected from donations collected throughout Scandinavia, was totally destroyed. The church people strongly reiterate that this was a children's clinic which had no connection of any kind to Hamas and could not have been considered a military target by any criteria. Gideon Gitai, an Israeli journalist and peace activist living in Finland, says that this bombing – which went completely unreported in Israel – had caused great shock and outrage in Scandinavia .
Two other Scandinavian-funded children's clinics, located in other parts of Gaza, still survive, and the Finn Church Aid directors hope that their strong protest would at least save these from a similar fate.
"The army's rampage in Gaza passes all boundaries and all logic. The wanton destruction of a clinic is just a small sample of the insane and criminal policy also manifested in the widespread use of white phosphorus bombs which cause severe burns to civilians on whom they fall. The state of Israel, its government, and the soldiers and officers acting in its name all become increasingly inhuman with every continuing day of this monstrous war. All of us will feel the severe direct and indirect consequences for many years to come" says Gush Shalom, Israeli Peace Bloc.
Article of Finnish media site YLE
http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/channels/press_releases/1231809398/
