FORMER first minister Humza Yousaf has spoken out after “unimaginable horrors” in the Gaza strip saw people burned alive in an Israeli air strike.
Without evidence, Israel claimed it had been targeting militants hiding among civilians at a camp for displaced people at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the central city of Deir al-Balah.
At least four people were killed and dozens more injured after the airstrike led to a fire which tore through the tent encampment.
Associated Press footage showed children among the wounded. A video shared by Al Jazeera showed people in the flames as others shouted: “The people are on fire.”
WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGES
At least four Palestinians have been killed and several were injured in an Israeli air attack on tents housing forcibly displaced people in the yard of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Gaza's Deir el-Balah. pic.twitter.com/jLR3LwTPR2
— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) October 14, 2024
The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital was already struggling to treat a large number of wounded people from an earlier strike on a school-turned-shelter nearby that killed at least 20 people.
In a statement on Monday, the UN’s Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said: “Another night of horror in the Gaza Strip.
"A strike hit a hospital courtyard, burning the tents where people were sleeping. Just before this, an @UNRWA school sheltering families was hit in Nuseirat.
“That same school was going to be used as a polio vaccination site today.”
Another night of horror in the #Gaza Strip. A strike hit a hospital courtyard, burning the tents where people were sleeping. Just before this, an @UNRWA school sheltering families was hit in Nuseirat. That same school was going to be used as a #polio vaccination site today. pic.twitter.com/EZt07HuKol
— UNRWA (@UNRWA) October 14, 2024
Commenting on the developments on Monday, former SNP leader Humza Yousaf said: “Israel deliberately targets refugees in hospitals, schools and destroys vaccination sites. Innocent people are being burned alive.
“Every day, we witness unimaginable horrors and a complete disregard for international law.
“No sanctions, just more arms. Failure and complicity, all the while human beings are being burned alive in front of our eyes.
“When our children ask us how we let such atrocities occur, what will we tell them? For shame.”
Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who is attending an investment summit in London, has at the time of writing made no public comment on the Israeli strike.
In September, his UK Government suspended 30 out of 350 arms export licences to Israel amid concerns that they would be used to commit war crimes.
However, Labour explicitly allowed the export of parts for F-35 fighter jets, which Israel has used in Gaza, to continue.
Israel is still carrying out near-daily strikes across the Gaza Strip more than a year into the war, and has been waging a major ground assault in the north, where it claims militants have regrouped.
Israel launched a total siege of Gaza after Hamas attacked southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing some 1200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting around 250 hostages. Around 100 are still being held inside Gaza, a third of whom are believed to be dead.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed over 42,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not say how many were fighters but says women and children make up more than half the fatalities.
Around 90% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million people have been displaced by the war, often multiple times, and large areas of the coastal territory have been completely destroyed.
Israel has ordered the entire remaining population of the northern third of Gaza, estimated at around 400,000 people, to evacuate to the south and has not allowed any food to enter the north since the start of the month.
The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor is seeking an arrest warrant for Israel prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu for war crimes including the use of starvation as a method of war.
