As Gaza’s health sector teeters on the brink of total collapse, the occupation has continued its systematic targeting of hospitals. On Friday, Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in central Gaza came under fresh bombardment, marking the 13th such attack since the onset of the genocidal war; a stark reflection of the clear determination to strike at what remains of a healthcare system dedicated to saving civilian lives.
According to Gaza’s Government Media Office, occupation warplanes bombed a displacement tent located within the hospital grounds, directly above the outpatient clinic building. The strike killed two displaced persons and injured others, in addition to causing extensive material damage that nearly endangered the lives of dozens of patients inside the wards. The bombing fell just metres away from the internal medicine department.
The statement stressed that this assault was not an isolated incident but part of a deliberate policy, representing the 13th attack on the hospital since the beginning of the war. It reflects a determined effort to dismantle the healthcare infrastructure, in blatant violation of international laws prohibiting attacks on medical facilities and civilians.
The Media Office held the occupation, along with the US administration and its supporting states, fully responsible for these systematic crimes, describing them as part of a policy aimed at destroying what remains of Gaza’s health system.
Since the war began, the occupation has forced most of Gaza’s hospitals out of service through direct strikes and a suffocating blockade. Hospital occupancy rates have now reached 200%, with only 15 hospitals still operating out of 38, just four of them central facilities. Of 157 primary healthcare centres, only 67 remain functional, while the number of operating theatres has fallen from 110 to just 40.
This collapse is compounded by a severe shortage of medicines and a chronic lack of fuel required to run hospitals, placing the lives of thousands of patients and the wounded, particularly those with chronic and critical conditions, in grave danger. With medical equipment shutting down and essential supplies running out, hospital wards are increasingly turning into places of slow death rather than centres of treatment and survival.
Targeting hospitals and patients represents one of the gravest violations recognised under international humanitarian law, which affords medical facilities special protection. Any attack on them constitutes a war crime, while depriving civilians of their right to healthcare and obstructing the delivery of medical supplies amounts to collective punishment, itself rising to the level of a crime against humanity.
What is happening in Gaza reflects an organised course of action aimed at dismantling the very foundations of civilian survival. When crossings are closed, food and medicine are blockaded, and hospitals are bombed, people’s lives become a daily struggle with death, whether from hunger, beneath the rubble, or through lack of treatment.
