Israeli authorities continue to pursue systematic policies undermining essential life services in Gaza, with the health sector facing unprecedented threats after months of siege.
Amid the ongoing comprehensive blockade imposed since 7 October 2023 and the widespread destruction of healthcare infrastructure, hospitals in Gaza now stand on the verge of total collapse. The situation represents one of the gravest health crises to impact the territory, threatening the lives of thousands of injured and ill individuals, and forming a direct extension of the broader policies that have severely impacted Gaza’s civilian population.
The Ministry of Health in Gaza has warned that the remaining fuel supplies at hospitals will last only three more days. It cautioned that continued Israeli restrictions on the entry of fuel could result in a complete shutdown of medical services.
In a statement, the Ministry noted that Israeli forces are preventing international and UN agencies from accessing designated fuel storage locations, citing their placement within so-called “red zones”. This has critically endangered hospital operations, which rely heavily on generators to power life-saving departments including surgical theatres, intensive care units, and neonatal wards.
The current crisis is not an isolated emergency but the direct outcome of the systematic blockade policy, aimed at civilians and civilian infrastructure. The denial of fuel entry into hospitals, essential for their operation, constitutes a serious violation of Article 18 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which mandates the protection and facilitation of humanitarian support for healthcare facilities.
Deliberately obstructing the delivery of fuel, with full knowledge of hospitals’ complete reliance on it for the functioning of critical medical equipment, may amount to acts of slow killing, falling under acts of genocide as defined by the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. This includes “causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group” and “deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.”
The health crisis escalates daily as Gaza faces relentless airstrikes and shelling by Israeli forces, resulting in hundreds of deaths and injuries amid the increasingly crippled medical system.
The systematic targeting of the health sector cannot be separated from broader patterns aiming to dismantle Palestinian life in Gaza through both direct and indirect means.
In the face of these realities, continued international silence risks compounding the crisis and enabling the escalation of mass casualties among patients and wounded individuals who have no alternative access to life-saving care.
