UN warns Gaza healthcare system on verge of collapse due to Israeli strikes
Report says attacks have ‘catastrophic effect’ on healthcare, calls Israeli allegations terror groups use medical facilities ‘vague,’ days after IDF arrests hundreds at hospital
GENEVA — A United Nations report published Tuesday found that Israeli strikes on and near hospitals in the Gaza Strip have left healthcare in the Palestinian territory on the verge of collapse.
The report by the UN human rights office said such strikes raised grave concerns about Israel’s compliance with international law.
Hamas has fought from within hospitals throughout the war and periodically hid some of the hostages kidnapped from Israel on October 7, 2023, inside them. International law generally prohibits targeting hospitals during wartime, but hospitals can lose this protection if they are used for military purposes.
Israel has repeatedly raided hospitals it says were used as hideouts and command centers by terror groups throughout the war, making dozens and sometimes hundreds of arrests of terror suspects during such operations.
“Israel’s pattern of deadly attacks on and near hospitals in Gaza, and associated combat, pushed the healthcare system to the brink of total collapse, with catastrophic effect on Palestinians’ access to health and medical care,” the UN human rights office said in a statement.
The UN report came the day after Israel said it wrapped a military operation at one Gaza hospital in which it killed several gunmen and arrested hundreds of others, and after the IDF published a video of Hamas operatives planting bombs close to a second hospital.
The 23-page report, entitled “Attacks on hospitals during the escalation of hostilities in Gaza,” looked at the period from October 7, 2023, to June 30, 2024. The October date last year marked the start of the ongoing war in Gaza, when Palestinian terror group Hamas led a devastating attack on southern Israel that killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians. Terrorists also abducted 251 people to Gaza, of whom 96 remain in captivity, many of them no longer alive.
The UN said that during this time, there were at least 136 strikes on 27 hospitals and 12 other medical facilities, causing significant casualties among doctors, nurses, medics, and other civilians as well as significant damage to — if not the complete destruction of — civilian infrastructure.
‘Death trap’
The report noted that medical personnel and hospitals are specifically protected under international humanitarian law, provided they do not commit, or are not used to commit, acts harmful to the enemy outside their humanitarian function.
It found that Israel’s repeated assertions that Gaza hospitals were being improperly used for military purposes by Palestinian groups were “vague.”
“Insufficient information has so far been made publicly available to substantiate these allegations, which have remained vague and broad, and in some cases appear contradicted by publicly available information,” the report said.
UN human rights chief Volker Turk said Gaza hospitals had become a “death trap.”
“As if the relentless bombing and the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza were not enough, the one sanctuary where Palestinians should have felt safe in fact became a death trap,” he said.
“The protection of hospitals during warfare is paramount and must be respected by all sides, at all times.”
Call for investigations
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 45,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says it has killed some 18,000 combatants in battle as of November and another 1,000 terrorists inside Israel on October 7.
Israel has said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas including homes, hospitals, schools, and mosques. It has at times arranged the evacuation of patients and staff from hospitals in combat areas to safer locations.
The report concluded with a call for credible investigations into the incidents detailed and said they had to be independent, given the “limitations” of Israel’s justice system with respect to the conduct of its armed forces.
“It is essential that there be independent, thorough and transparent investigations of all of these incidents, and full accountability for all violations of international humanitarian and human rights law which have taken place,” said Turk. “All medical workers arbitrarily detained must be immediately released.”
“It must also be a priority for Israel, as the occupying power, to ensure and facilitate access to adequate healthcare for the Palestinian population, and for future recovery and reconstruction efforts to prioritize the restoration of the medical capacity which has been destroyed over the last 14 months of intense conflict.”
