Israeli Minister Visits Ukraine, Blasts Russia over ‘War Crimes’

Israeli Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz. (Photo: Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung, via Wikimedia Commons)

By Palestine Chronicle Staff  

Israeli Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz on Monday visited a field hospital set up by Israel in Ukraine and blasted Russia over the “war crimes it is committing in Ukraine,” the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported.

In his first visit to Ukraine since the start of Russia’s military operations on February 24, Horowitz expressed Israel’s “solidarity with Ukraine, against a vicious Ukrainian invasion, against the acts of slaughter and war crimes that are now being revealed around the country,” according to Haaretz.

“We can’t look away from that, nor from the war crimes committed by Russia. Crimes against humanity, against human rights and against democracy,” Horowitz reportedly added.

Horowitz’s remarks follow similar comments by Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, who also condemned Russia’s actions in a Tweet on Sunday.

“It is impossible to remain indifferent in the face of the horrific images from the city of Bucha near Kyiv, from after the Russian army left,” Lapid tweeted, adding that “intentionally harming a civilian population is a war crime and I strongly condemn it.” 

Yet, last February, Lapid said in a letter to the United Nations that Israel will not cooperate on the UN’s inquiry into alleged war crimes committed during Israel’s latest war in Gaza in May 2021. Israel also refused a request by the chair of the UN Commission of Inquiry to meet with Israeli officials.

Also in February, following the publication by Amnesty International of a report labeling Israel an apartheid state, Lapid said that Amnesty had become “another radical organization echoing (…) the same lies shared by terrorist organizations.” He also said that the report’s claims were “delusional and disconnected from reality.”

(The Palestine Chronicle)

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