(Witness): Targeting and Besieging Hospitals in Gaza is an Ongoing Crime of Genocide

The Palestinian Association for Human Rights (Witness) warns of the total collapse of the healthcare system in Gaza City, as Israeli occupation forces continue to target hospitals and medical centers through siege and direct shelling. This has led to more than 20 hospitals going out of service, while only 7 hospitals remain partially operational, all of which are threatened with complete shutdown due to the depletion of fuel, medicines, and medical supplies.

 

(Witness) points out that Al-Shifa and Al-Hilu hospitals are under a suffocating siege, with Israeli tanks surrounding their entrances and shelling their surroundings, cutting off communication with medical staff and preventing access to care for dozens of patients and newborns in incubators. Al-Hilu Hospital alone hosts more than 90 people, including medical staff and patients, among them 12 premature infants, trapped under a total blackout of communications and internet.

 

(Witness) affirms that the destruction of hospitals and depriving thousands of patients of their right to treatment constitutes a full-fledged crime of genocide, and a flagrant violation of the Four Geneva Conventions and Article (8) of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, which classifies attacks on medical facilities and personnel as war crimes. Hundreds of patients—including children, women, and the wounded—are facing imminent death amid unjustified international silence.

 

(Witness) holds the international community, the UN Security Council, and the United Nations fully responsible for the continuation of these crimes, warning that silence and inaction amount to direct complicity with the occupation and grant it a green light to continue its policy of genocide against the population of Gaza.

 

Accordingly, the Palestinian Association for Human Rights (Witness) calls for:

 

▶ An immediate and sustained ceasefire and full protection of hospitals and medical staff as protected civilian facilities.

 

▶ The opening of safe humanitarian corridors to allow the entry of medicine, fuel, and medical supplies, and to enable patients and the wounded to access treatment.

 

▶ An urgent intervention by the World Health Organization and UN bodies to prevent the total collapse of the health system in Gaza.

 

▶ Referring the crimes of the occupation to the International Criminal Court as war crimes and crimes of genocide that do not lapse with time.

 

▶ Providing urgent international protection for medical facilities and personnel inside the Gaza Strip.

 

▶ Ending the targeting of hospitals and exposing newborns and patients to certain death, which represents yet another dark chapter in the record of Israeli crimes, and requires immediate and effective action by the international community to stop the escalating humanitarian and human rights catastrophe in Gaza.

 

The Palestinian Association for Human Rights (Witness)

Beirut – 30 September 2025