OHCHR: Israeli attacks on health facilities in Gaza City leaving sick and injured with nowhere to turn [EN/AR]

29 September 2025

عربي

Israel’s military attacks on and around hospitals in Gaza City are leaving sick and injured civilians with nowhere to turn to for life-saving care, as escalating attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure are leading to countless casualties. Israel must immediately end all attacks on hospitals and ensure access to all wounded Palestinians to emergency medical healthcare.

The intensification of Israeli military attacks on civilian infrastructure in Gaza City, including direct attacks against hospitals and other health facilities, is dramatically impacting the already crumbling healthcare system in Gaza and worsening the dire humanitarian situation of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who remain trapped in Gaza City.

Since 16 September 2025, the UN Human Rights office in the Occupied Palestinian Territory has recorded at least 17 Israeli attacks on or in the vicinity of health facilities in all areas of Gaza City. Al Quds Hospital in the southwestern part of the city, Al Rantisi Children’s Hospital in the northwest, and the Medical Relief Health Centre in the centre were directly struck, while the Office also recorded strikes in the vicinity of Al Shifa Medical Complex in western Gaza City and Al Ahli Hospital in the eastern part. Meanwhile, on 22 September, the Jordanian Field Hospital in Tal Al Hawa, southwestern Gaza City, announced that it had evacuated to Al Mawasi in Khan Younis, after Israeli strikes damaged the facility. On 23 September, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society reported that Israeli ground forces were stationed at the gate of Al Quds Hospital in Tal Al Hawa and were besieging the hospital. As of 25 September, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, only 7 out of 13 hospitals in Gaza City were operational, but only barely. The intensity of bombing in their vicinity also renders safe access to the facilities impossible for those in need of care.

Hospitals enjoy special protection under international humanitarian law and only lose their protection from attack in extremely limited circumstances and only after warnings for hostile use to cease have gone unheeded. Even when these conditions could have been met in the case of medical facilities in Gaza City, it is inconceivable how attacks that have left practically the whole population without access to life-saving medical care could have complied with the principle of proportionality in attack. Furthermore, the Israeli military has taken no steps to make alternative provision of medical care to those in need, in violation of its obligations as an occupying power.

The Israeli military’s repeated attacks on health facilities, amid heavy destruction of residential buildings throughout Gaza City and mass forced displacement of the civilian population, as well as statements from political leadership about the destruction of Gaza City, raise grave concerns of the commission of the whole range of crimes under international law. The UN Human Rights office in the Occupied Palestinian Territory calls on the Israeli military to halt its military operations in Gaza, including its brutal attacks on health facilities and other civilian objects, and to allow and facilitate the smooth entry of humanitarian assistance into Gaza, including food and medical supplies. Civilians in Gaza need immediate protection, safe passage to hospitals, and access to humanitarian assistance. The international community must take concrete actions to stop the senseless destruction, killings and displacement, and hold Israel accountable for its ongoing serious violations in Gaza.