Israeli attacks on hospitals in Gaza have devastated the Palestinian enclave’s health system and raised serious concerns about the country’s compliance with international law, the UN Human Rights Office said in a report on Tuesday.
The 23-page report, documenting various attacks between Oct. 12, 2023, and June 30, 2024, concluded that since the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, the conduct of hostilities in Gaza had had severe consequences on Palestinians’ access to medical attention.
“The destruction of the health-care system in Gaza, and the extent of killing of patients, staff and other civilians in these attacks, is a direct consequence of the disregard of international humanitarian and human rights law,” it said.
An Israeli raid shut down a major Gaza hospital on Friday, the World Health Organization (WHO) said. The Kamal Adwan Hospital was the last functioning hospital in northern Gaza, and WHO spokesperson Margaret Harris says this ‘essential’ lifeline for local Palestinians is gone.
Israeli UN rep calls report’s data fabricated
Daniel Meron, Israel’s permanent representative to the UN in Geneva, described the report’s data as fabricated. He said on X that Israel operates in accordance with international law, would never target innocent civilians and accused Hamas of using Gaza hospitals for what he called “terror activity.”
The Israeli military has accused Hamas of using hospitals as command centres for military operations and said that people Israel has detained at the facilities were suspected militants.
The UN report alluded to such arguments, but said not enough information had been made public to substantiate them.
Israel has in the past few days conducted operations against hospitals in Gaza that drew criticism from the head of the World Health Organization (WHO), among others.
The report said deliberate attacks against hospitals and places where the sick and wounded are — provided they are not military objectives — would be war crimes.
It also warned that a systemic pattern of rights abuses against civilians could constitute crimes against humanity.
Israel has consistently rejected such suggestions.
‘A death trap’
The UN said that in responding to its report, the Israeli government said its military had taken extensive measures to mitigate civilian harm and minimize disruption, including providing aid and evacuation routes, and setting up field hospitals.
In a statement, Volker Türk, UN high commissioner for human rights, said, “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.”
Hamas led an attack on southern Israel that killed some 1,200 people and abducted 251 to Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023, according to Israeli tallies.
More than 45,500 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s subsequent war in Gaza, Palestinian health officials say.
