The file photo shows the aftermath of an Israeli shelling of the Rantisi Specialist Hospital in Gaza City on November 6, 2023. (Via social media networks)

Ramallah, December 23 (RHC)-- The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) has denounced Israel's persistent attacks on Palestinian health workers and facilities in the besieged Gaza Strip as "unprecedented major crimes" in the history of warfare.

The PFLP's Central Media Department stated on Friday after Israel's early morning airstrikes on the Jabalia camp in northern Gaza, where the regime also besieged the al-Awda Hospital and detained and interrogated medical staff in the Palestinian territory.

The group confirmed that Israel targeted Munir Al-Barsh, the director-general of the Palestinian Ministry of Health, and his entire family, killing his 13-year-old daughter in a " treacherous Zionist bombing" of his sister's house in Jabalia.

The PFLP said that Israel's ongoing siege of al-Awda Hospital, firing at medical staff inside the facility, shutting down all medical centers in northern Gaza, and arresting and harassing doctors, nurses, and paramedics exposes the "direct American" involvement and "international complicity" in these crimes.  The group added: "The silent and inept official Arab stance encourages this enemy to commit these crimes."

The group held the U.S. administration, the West, and the Arab world accountable for the continuing genocide of the Palestinian people in Gaza, the demolition of hospitals and medical centers, and the killing and injuring of the territory's health workers.

“The systematic destruction of the health infrastructure, the killing of a large number of medical crews, and the destruction of hospitals represent unprecedented major crimes, unheard of in the history of wars and conflicts that were governed by rules, ethics, and international laws,” the PFLP’s Central Media Department said in the statement.

Since the start of Israel's genocidal war on Gaza in early October, the besieged Palestinian territory's hospitals, medical centers and health clinics have been one of the main targets of the regime's bombardment campaign.  According to the Gaza government's media office on Friday, the Israeli forces have targeted 138 hospitals and medical centers, leading to total or partial destruction of facilities. 

“This rogue and cowardly Zionist enemy commits crimes against civilians at a time when its officers and soldiers flee from the battle in front of our brave fighters,” PFLP added.   The group also noted that such "horrific massacres" committed by the occupying regime in the Gaza Strip are a “testament to the crime of the century,” which Tel Aviv continues to commit against unarmed civilians in the Gaza Strip in full view of the entire world.

“The blood of children, women, and the elderly will remain a curse that haunts this criminal entity and its cowardly leaders, and everyone who conspired, colluded, and failed to act [against it],” the PFLP stressed.

The bloodiest-ever war on Gaza has so far killed more than 20,000 people, mostly women and children, and injured over 53,000 others, with thousands more believed lost and buried under rubble.   The regime has also cut off most water, food and power supplies into Gaza.