Sri Lanka Army (SLA) attacked the makeshift hospital at Puthumaththa’lan with Rocket Propelled Grenade (RPG) in the early hours of Thursday between 4:00 and 4:30 a.m., killing two patients inside the hospital and causing injuries to 11 including two medical staff. Six patients who were already being treated for their injuries from shell attacks and 3 other civilians who were with the injured patients at the hospital were also wounded in the RPG attack.
The shelling and RPG attacks continued throughout the day in Puthumaaththa’lan and other areas of the ‘safety zone’. Detailed report on civilian casualties throughout Thursday is yet to be reported.
Article 18 of the Fourth Geneva Convention states that the civilian hospitals organized to give care to the wounded and sick, the infirm and maternity cases, may in no circumstances be the object of attack, but shall at all times be respected and protected by the Parties to the conflict.
Sri Lanka (Ceylon) is a signatory to the First, Second and Third Geneva Conventions and it ratified the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, by accession to it, on 23.02.1959.
Hospitals have come under attack several times. Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the Defence Secretary of Sri Lanka has openly stated that hospitals outside the ‘safety zone’ were legitimate military targets earlier. However, hospitals functioning within the ‘safety zone’ have also been attacked earlier.
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