ICSPR: Targeting Hospitals in the Gaza Strip Is a War Crime That Requires Immediate and Firm International Intervention

Date: May 22, 2025
Original Language: Arabic

ICSPR: Targeting Hospitals in the Gaza Strip Is a War Crime That Requires Immediate and Firm International Intervention

The International Commission to Support Palestinian Rights (ICSPR) is closely following with grave concern the ongoing Israeli escalation against health facilities in the Gaza Strip. These attacks directly aim to disable and render hospitals non-operational, in blatant violation of international humanitarian law, which grants special protection to hospitals and medical staff.

According to information obtained by the Commission, Israeli occupation forces stormed the courtyard of Al-Awda Hospital in the early hours of Thursday morning and opened heavy fire, resulting in fires breaking out among the displaced persons’ tents within the hospital grounds. Additionally, the hospital’s medicine warehouse was set ablaze and remains on fire to this moment, while medical teams are completely unable to control the flames. There are fears the fire will spread to other departments of the hospital, especially amid ongoing gunfire directed at the building by occupation forces. Approximately 160 people, including medical staff and the wounded, remain trapped inside the hospital in extremely dire humanitarian conditions due to the lack of water and food and the ongoing bombardment and siege.

In a related development, the Kuwait Specialized Field Hospital in Khan Younis announced that its surgical operations unit has ceased functioning until further notice, due to severe damage caused by Israeli shelling in the hospital’s vicinity, which resulted in the breakdown of power generators and the main electrical control board, along with extensive damage to most departments. Similarly, the European Gaza Hospital has suspended its services due to the damage caused by attacks near the facility.

The occupation forces continue to commit crimes against unarmed civilians. Since early Thursday morning, 44 Palestinian citizens have been killed as a result of ongoing attacks across various areas of the Gaza Strip, bringing the death toll in the past 24 hours to around 100 martyrs, including 21 in Gaza City alone due to direct targeting of residential homes.

According to available statistics, the number of victims of the ongoing genocide in the Gaza Strip since October 7, 2023, has risen to 53,655 martyrs and 121,950 wounded, including 3,509 martyrs and 9,909 injured since the resumption of aggression on March 18, 2025. This escalation comes amid a deepening humanitarian catastrophe, continued forced displacement, and the starvation of over 2.3 million people, with extremely limited humanitarian aid trucks entering Gaza after more than 80 days of complete border closure.

This occurs in parallel with ongoing wide-scale evacuation orders issued by the Israeli occupation in both the northern and southern regions, threatening more than 50% of the Gaza Strip’s territory. Data indicates that over 200,000 people have been forcibly displaced since the beginning of the current week due to intense aerial and artillery bombardment under what is known as “Operation Gideon’s Chariots”, coinciding with the failure of international efforts to halt the escalation and end the genocide. In this context, hundreds of thousands of citizens are forced to leave the remains of their homes or tents, walking long distances under the scorching sun, amid ongoing famine and an almost total lack of shelters and basic life necessities, leading many to sleep on the streets and in public spaces such as parks and beaches. This tragic scene reflects the depth of suffering and the struggle for survival.

The ICSPR strongly condemns the targeting of hospitals and health facilities, which are granted special protection under international law. These attacks directly endanger the lives of patients and medical staff and completely disrupt their operational capacity. ICSPR also condemns the ongoing crimes of mass killing, siege and starvation, intimidation, and forced displacement, and warns of the catastrophic consequences of the continuation of these crimes on the humanitarian situation in the Strip.

Accordingly, the ICSPR records and demands the following:

• ICSPR calls on the High Contracting Parties to the Geneva Conventions to uphold their legal and moral responsibilities by working to stop the genocide against the population of the Gaza Strip, ensure the delivery of humanitarian aid, confront the escalating famine, and prosecute Israeli leaders as war criminals before international courts.

• ICSPR urges the World Health Organization, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and all relevant international organizations to ensure full protection for healthcare workers in accordance with the Geneva Conventions and their Protocols.

• ICSPR appeals to the international community to exert serious and immediate pressure on the Israeli occupation authorities to halt ongoing violations and prevent the forced displacement of civilians protected under international humanitarian law.

End