The Palestinian Association for Human Rights (Witness) condemns the targeting and storming of Kamal Adwan Hospital by the Israeli occupation forces on December 27, 2024. This attack resulted in the destruction of the last major healthcare facility in the northern Gaza Strip. Key departments suffered severe burns and destruction during the assault. (Witness) views this attack as part of a systematic policy to target health and relief facilities in Gaza.
(Witness) highlights that the World Health Organization has confirmed that the systematic dismantling of the healthcare system in Gaza equates to a death sentence for tens of thousands of Palestinians in need of medical care. The storming of Kamal Adwan Hospital and the burning of parts of it have rendered the last major healthcare facility in northern Gaza out of service.
Human rights reports indicate that the occupation forces targeted the hospital more than 20 times in recent days, using quadcopter drones to drop bombs, in addition to artillery shelling and gunfire. This caused the intensive care unit to catch fire, inflicted damage on several departments, and injured approximately 20 patients and medical staff.
The Palestinian Civil Defense confirmed that the arrest of the hospital’s director, Dr. Hussam Abu Safia, along with several medical staff members, as well as Ahmed Hassan Al-Kahlout, the director of Civil Defense in northern Gaza, is part of Israel’s systematic policy to destroy Gaza’s humanitarian infrastructure. Civil Defense spokesperson Mahmoud Basal stated, "The occupation has completely destroyed the medical and humanitarian system in northern Gaza, rendering it entirely non-operational."
International law provides general and special protections for civilian sites under the Fourth Geneva Convention and its Additional Protocols I and II of 1977, as well as the Hague Convention of 1954. Hospitals are granted special protection under the Fourth Geneva Convention, which explicitly prohibits attacks on civilian hospitals providing care to the wounded, sick, elderly, and women. The law requires that these hospitals be respected and protected. Under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, intentionally directing attacks against hospitals and places where the sick and wounded are gathered constitutes a war crime.
The Palestinian Association for Human Rights (Witness) recommends an impartial international investigation into the ongoing attacks on healthcare facilities in Gaza, including the recent assault on Kamal Adwan Hospital.
(Witness) also calls for those responsible for targeting hospitals and other medical facilities in Gaza to be held accountable and brought to trial before the International Criminal Court.
Beirut, December 28, 2024
The Palestinian Association for Human Rights (Witness)