Belfast (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – Since the beginning of Israel’s latest offensive against the Palestinian people in Gaza in October of last year, Israel has targeted the healthcare sector, not only as part of its military strategy but also as a means of genocide. The deliberate destruction of hospitals means there is no place where the wounded can be treated, leading them to eventual death. This problem is exacerbated by attacks on ambulance vehicles, further complicating efforts to transport the wounded to any partially functioning hospitals.
A report published by the United Nations Commission regarded Israel’s attacks on Gaza’s health facilities as war crimes and crimes against humanity. Chair of the UN Commission, Navi Pillay, stated: “By targeting healthcare facilities, Israel is targeting the right to health itself, with significant long-term detrimental effects on the civilian population. Children in particular have borne the brunt of these attacks, suffering both directly and indirectly from the collapse of the health system.”
Moreover, Israel’s assault on the Palestinian healthcare sector has been unparalleled in its inhumanity. An analysis by the charity Save the Children, covering the period from October 7, 2023, to early April 2024, showed that the rate of Israeli attacks on healthcare in Gaza is higher than in any other conflict worldwide since 2018. According to Save the Children, on average, Israel carried out 73 attacks per month on Palestinian healthcare facilities. Ukraine followed with 67 attacks per month, while the Democratic Republic of Congo averaged 11 attacks per month.
As part of Israel’s strategy to destroy the health sector, it has also targeted healthcare staff. For example, last May, Dr. Adnan Al Bursh, head of the orthopedic department at Al-Shifa Hospital, was reportedly abducted by the Israeli army and tortured to death. After one year of the Israeli war on Gaza, an estimated 986 Palestinian healthcare personnel were killed by Israel, along with 85 civil defense workers. Al Jazeera indicated that 34 hospitals and 80 health centers became inoperative, in addition to the destruction of 131 ambulances.
International healthcare staff in Gaza do not feel safe from Israeli attacks either. For instance, in the previously mentioned Save the Children report, Dr. Simon Struthers, a pediatrician at a field hospital in Rafah, stated: “We can’t take risks and must be careful which route we take because of what’s going on. We’re fearful of what’s coming from Israeli forces, rather than the local population, who are very supportive of us.”
Human Rights Watch (HRW) argued last year that the Israeli military’s persistent and seemingly illegal assaults on healthcare facilities, staff, and transportation were further dismantling Gaza’s medical infrastructure and said that they should be examined as potential war crimes. The HRW quotes special adviser on Palestinian health A. Kayum Ahmed: “Israel’s repeated attacks damaging hospitals and harming healthcare workers, already hard hit by an unlawful blockade, have devastated Gaza’s healthcare infrastructure. The strikes on hospitals have killed hundreds of people and put many patients at grave risk because they’re unable to receive proper medical care.”
Sadly, many Palestinians may have died from natural causes and diseases such as cancer, diabetes or other treatable conditions, whose lives might have been saved if not for Israel’s destruction of Palestinian hospitals. These victims are not counted among those who died due to direct Israeli fire, though their deaths can still be attributed to the conditions created by the occupation and blockade. Even in times of ceasefire, Palestinians will continue to die unnecessarily as it will take time for the Palestinian healthcare sector to recover to its previous state—which was already severely under-resourced due to Israel’s longstanding blockade on Gaza.
You may think that the circumstances of the Gaza War explain this attack on Palestinian healthcare. In fact, the targeting of healthcare facilities is not a new tactic in Israel’s conflict with the Palestinian people. According to a 2017 report issued by the charity Medical Aid for Palestine, 147 hospitals and clinics, along with 80 ambulances, were either damaged or destroyed in Israeli military offensives on Gaza between 2008 and 2017. Additionally, 145 medical staff, most of them ambulance drivers, were either injured or killed. In the West Bank, between October and December 2015, there were eight armed Israeli raids on Palestinian hospitals. The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) documented 92 instances of damage to ambulances and 147 injuries to medical workers.
Considering the scale and history of attacks on the health sector and the targeting of Palestinian healthcare personnel by Israel, along with the failure of governments and the international community to hold Israel accountable — often appearing complicit — healthcare professionals and their representative bodies across the world should show solidarity with their colleagues in occupied Palestine. Healthcare organizations should also express their support by boycotting healthcare products produced in Israel and its illegal settlements before it is too late.
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Bonus video added by Informed Comment:
Al Jazeera English: “Israel shells Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza”
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