Gaza, 25 June 2025 – Israeli forces continue their systematic attacks on Gaza’s healthcare sector, deliberately targeting what remains of its already devastated services. Hospitals and their surrounding areas, along with medical teams and ambulance crews, have come under direct Israeli attack. Simultaneously, Israeli authorities are obstructing the entry of essential medicines, medical supplies, and fuel needed to operate power generators. The sick and the wounded continue to be denied the possibility of medical evacuation to receive life-saving treatment abroad. Amid ongoing large-scale attacks on civilians and repeated displacement orders, key hospitals have been forced out of service, leaving Gaza's collapsed healthcare system barely able to provide even the most basic care.

Field data collected by Al Mezan indicates that, since October 2023, Israeli forces have carried out 720 attacks on healthcare infrastructure in Gaza. As a result, only 61 out of 157 health facilities remain operational. These include 13 public facilities, seven operated by UNRWA, 44 run by local civil society organizations, and 32 affiliated with international organizations, most of which are only capable of providing basic primary healthcare and limited surgical services.

According to field documentation, Israeli forces have systematically targeted the core of Gaza’s healthcare system, effectively dismantling the entire medical network in the Northern Gaza Governorate. All hospitals in the governorate have been rendered non-operational, with critical units and infrastructure destroyed – including the only kidney dialysis center in northern Gaza, located in the Noura Al-Kaabi building at the Indonesian Hospital, which was completely destroyed.

Israeli forces also blew up the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital – the sole oncology center in Gaza – after having previously set fire to it before the temporary ceasefire. The Kamal Adwan and Al-Awda hospitals and Hamad Hospital for Rehabilitation and Prosthetics have all been completely shut down. Civilians living near these hospitals have been forcibly displaced, and medical teams and administrative staff were later compelled to evacuate under direct bombardment and live fire. Warehouses storing medication and medical supplies were also destroyed.

In southern Gaza, Israeli attacks on the vicinity of the European Gaza Hospital in Khan Younis caused severe infrastructure damage, putting the hospital out of service.

On 12 June 2025, Israeli forces ordered the evacuation of residents in areas surrounding Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis, posing a serious threat to the hospital's continued operation. The displacement order, which was circulated online, warned civilians against remaining in or approaching the area. This created widespread panic and fear among hospital staff and patients, prompting many to flee and discouraging others from seeking care at the facility. Dr. Atef Al-Hout, Director of Nasser Medical Complex, warned that the continuous threat of evacuation poses catastrophic risks – particularly since Nasser Hospital is now the only functioning hospital in southern Gaza following the shutdown of the European Gaza Hospital. The complex provides essential and specialized services not available elsewhere, such as neurosurgery, and has  51 intensive care beds. Its closure would deprive thousands of access to critical healthcare and effectively amounts to a death sentence for the wounded and sick in the southern district. The hospital administration has urgently called for the establishment of a humanitarian corridor to ensure the safe movement of ambulances, staff, and patients.

The sick and wounded in operating theatres and intensive care units at the few remaining operational hospitals are enduring extreme hardship due to critical shortages of electricity, fuel, and medical supplies. These shortages threaten the functioning of neonatal incubators and the storage of life-saving medications. There is a severe lack of essential medical supplies, including anaesthetics, surgical sutures and orthopedic implants, such as platinum rods. Medical teams have been forced to reuse equipment – sterilizing and repurposing implants from recovered patients – due to the acute shortage of these items. It has become a grim necessity to prioritize patients with the highest chances of survival. Meanwhile, widespread food shortages have further worsened the health outcomes of the sick and the wounded, as hospitals are no longer able to provide meals. Malnutrition is on the rise, which means that fewer people can be blood donors.

According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza, 51% of essential medicines are currently unavailable. Shortages of primary care medications for chronic conditions – such as diabetes, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease – have reached 53%. Cancer and hematology drugs face a 64% deficit, while that of medical consumables has reached 60%. Supplies for cardiac catheterization are 100% depleted, and orthopedic equipment is 87% unavailable. Of the 34 oxygen stations across Gaza, only nine remain partially operational. Laboratory services and blood banks are nearing total collapse due to widespread destruction, prolonged power outages, and severe fuel shortages. Approximately 40% of medical equipment remains functional but is operating under extreme strain and with no maintenance or access to spare parts.

Furthermore, the collapse of Gaza’s healthcare system has had a devastating impact on cancer patients. Approximately 11,000 cancer patients in Gaza are now deprived of treatment, essential medication, and diagnostic services. At least 5,000 patients with urgent medical referrals out of Gaza remain trapped due to the closure of crossings and Israeli-imposed travel restrictions.

Amna Salama Al-Akra’, a 74-year-old cancer patient from Deir al-Balah, shared the following testimony:

“In November 2024, I felt pain in the left side of my breast and went to the hospital for a medical examination. The doctors discovered a cancerous mass in my breast. I was issued a medical referral for treatment abroad and have been waiting ever since for travel clearance from the World Health Organization. My health has deteriorated significantly. Doctors at the Gaza Cancer Center – based at the European Gaza Hospital in Khan Younis – developed a chemotherapy protocol consisting of several sessions and stressed the importance of adhering to the treatment schedule. I received the first dose on 14 April 2025 and the second on 5 May 2025. The third session was scheduled for 26 May, but I was unable to receive it after Israeli forces attacked the hospital. I now suffer from constant pain in my head, chest, and left arm, and I fear for my life."

Al Mezan stresses that Israel’s deliberate and sustained attacks on Gaza’s healthcare infrastructure are not only deepening the humanitarian catastrophe but are part of its ongoing genocidal campaign. These acts are not isolated incidents but reflect a systematic policy aimed at dismantling life-sustaining systems and denying Palestinians access to essential services. This conduct flagrantly violates international humanitarian law, which mandates the protection of medical facilities at all times and obliges all parties to ensure their continued operation.

Al Mezan urgently calls on the international community and relevant organizations to take immediate and meaningful action to halt the ongoing genocide, ensure the protection of remaining hospitals and medical facilities, and support the restoration of Gaza’s healthcare system by delivering electricity, fuel, medicines, and critical medical equipment necessary to save lives.

Al Mezan reminds the international community of its legal and moral responsibilities to uphold the International Court of Justice’s provisional measures aimed at preventing genocide, and to act upon that Court’s advisory opinion declaring the Israeli occupation unlawful. Both compel urgent and concrete action to end the occupation and halt the ongoing atrocities in Gaza.

Finally, Al Mezan reaffirms that safeguarding hospitals, civilian infrastructure, and civilians is a binding obligation under customary and international humanitarian law. Third-party states have clear legal duties to intervene, to prevent war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, and to ensure that perpetrators are held accountable. Ending the siege, allowing the entry of medicines, medical equipment, fuel, and humanitarian delegations, and ensuring the safe, continuous evacuation of patients to specialized medical centers outside Gaza –  as well as the possibility of returning after treatment – are legal obligations, not merely humanitarian or moral imperatives.