Newborn, baby and child patients are deprived of necessary treatment due to power crisis and lack of medicines as Israeli forces cutting off electricity, preventing the entry of fuel and various supplies disrupted the functioning of all hospitals in the region, at the Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, Gaza on July 04, 2024. (Photo: Hani Alshaer/Anadolu via Getty Images)
“It’s an impossible situation, because even if we prioritize the little fuel that is left to the most urgent departments, we know that they won’t last more than 36 to 48 hours,” said Julie Faucon, MSF medical team leader in Gaza.
The international humanitarian group Médecins Sans Frontières, also kno wn as Doctors Without Borders or MSF, warned in a Wednesday statement that newborn babies and other patients are at dire risk as southern Gaza’s Nasser Hospital runs out of fuel.
The group warned that electricity for the MSF-supported Nasser Hospital, where MSF members are providing emergency, maternity, pediatric, burn, and trauma care, may be cut off for some hospital departments leaving patients without “lifesaving care.” The hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit is currently treating children and newborns who are reliant on mechanical ventilation and incubators. All of these young patients are dependent on electricity from fuel generators, MSF wrote.
Nasser Hospital, as well as two other facilities in the Gaza Strip, Al-Aqsa Hospital and European Gaza Hospital, are nearing the need to close due to lack of fuel, the group reported Wednesday.
“It’s an impossible situation, because even if we prioritize the little fuel that is left to the most urgent departments, we know that they won’t last more than 36 to 48 hours,” said Julie Faucon, MSF medical team leader in Gaza, according to the statement. “While some patients are hanging on by a thread, the lack of sustained electricity is impacting the level of care we can provide to those with burns and trauma.”
Pascale Coissard, MSF emergency coordinator, said that the situation is “a consequence of Israel’s ongoing blockade and continuous criminal looting of lifesaving supplies.”
In mid-July, the United Nations reported that “Israeli authorities continue to tightly control allocations of incoming fuel, thereby limiting humanitarian operations, especially by local partners,” and just last week the body noted that only 16 of the region’s 36 hospitals remained partially in operation.
Pointing to lack of medical supplies, equipment, and personnel, Rik Peeperkorn, the World Health Organization representative for the West Bank and Gaza, told a recent U.N. Security Council meeting that “the health sector is being systematically dismantled.”
Attacks by the Israeli military have left northern Gaza’s three hospitals—the Kamal Adwan Hospital, al-Awda Hospital, and the Indonesian Hospital—either entirely out of service or barely functioning.
Hussam Abu Safia, the head of the Kamal Adwan Hospital, was detained by Israeli forces during their raid on Kamal Adwan Hospital in late December.
Human rights defenders and the medical community have called for his release, it’s believed that he is being held in an Israeli detention center, though the Israeli officials had given news media and human rights groups conflicting messages about his whereabouts.
A view of destruction following the Israeli attack on the courtyard of Kamal Adwan Hospital and its surrounding buildings in Beit Lahia, Gaza on December 25, 2024. (Photo: Khalil Ramzi Alkahlut/Anadolu via Getty Images)
By targeting hospitals—essential lifelines in a besieged region—Israel not only deepens the humanitarian crisis but also sends a chilling message: no space, not even those dedicated to saving lives, is off-limits.
The recent Israeli raid on Kamal Adwan Hospital, or KAH, the only partially operating hospital in northern Gaza, is the latest phase of Israel’s egregious disregard for international humanitarian law and the sanctity of medical facilities. This audacious act highlights the alarming impunity with which Israel conducts its war of genocide in Gaza, and further aggravate the suffering in Gaza.
In attacking KAH, Israel resorted to the same discredited lies used to justify its assault on al-Shifa Hospital in November 2023, falsely alleging that Hamas operated a command center beneath the facility. This fabricated story has long been employed as a pretext to target medical facilities across Gaza. During its raid on al-Shifa Hospital in November 2023, Israeli forces found no evidence of a military presence yet proceeded to arbitrarily destroy the hospital without justification.
Eyewitness accounts report that Israeli forces stormed KAH under the pretext of searching for individuals allegedly connected to militant groups. Hospital staff were forcibly removed from their posts, and several patients, including children, were left unattended during the raid. Patients and medical staff faced severe intimidation and arrest, critical care was forcibly disrupted as soldiers combed through wards and operating rooms, ultimately setting the hospital on fire after failing to uncover the alleged military infrastructure.
Western media, in particular, frequently report on Israeli atrocities as though they are inevitable natural disasters, devoid of human accountability or compassion.
Two days after setting KAH ablaze, Israel escalated its attacks on Gaza’s medical infrastructure, killing seven civilians in a strike on al-Wafaa Hospital in Gaza City and shelling the nearby Ahli Baptist Hospital. Despite mounting evidence disproving its claims, Israel, unchallenged, repeated the same fabricated justification: that fighters were allegedly operating within the hospitals. This unsubstantiated template has become a routine pretext for targeting healthcare facilities, disregarding international laws designed to protect civilians and medical institutions during conflict.
Israel’s disinformation regarding the presence of military targets within Gaza’s medical facilities continues to be reported unquestionably by Western media, despite a well-documented track record of inaccuracies and history of falsehoods. This uncritical reporting not only undermines journalistic integrity but also perpetuates misleading narratives, often downplaying or outright ignoring Israeli crimes. By omitting the broader context of occupation, two-decade blockade, and systemic oppression, these media platforms contribute to a distorted representation of the reality on the ground. Western media, in particular, frequently report on Israeli atrocities as though they are inevitable natural disasters, devoid of human accountability or compassion. This approach not only erases the agency behind these tragedies but also dehumanizes Palestinian lives, reducing them to mere statistics.
The failure to keenly examine and challenge Israel’s repeated falsehoods reflects a blatant bias in Western journalism. By granting disproportionate weight to Israeli perspectives while sidelining Palestinian voices, these outlets perpetuate stereotypes and reinforce systemic racism. This one-sided, remote reporting on Gaza undermines the principles of journalistic integrity and fuels global indifference to the plight of the civilians. The lack of accountability for such biased coverage underscores the need for a more equitable and truthful approach by reporting directly from inside the war zone.
The targeting and subsequent destruction of hospitals is not random but part of a broader, systematic pattern of military violence against all aspects of civilian life in Gaza.
The raid on KAH is not an isolated incident but a manifestation of a broader military policy aimed at inflicting maximum pain on the people of Gaza. Already deprived of food, water, power, and adequate medical supplies due to Israel’s blockade, the timing of the raid on the only partially functioning hospital in northern Gaza, is emblematic of a systematic strategy to render the region uninhabitable.
The international community’s tepid response to such blatant violations has emboldened Israel to act with impunity. Despite clear evidence of war crimes, accountability remains elusive. The lack of meaningful action from global powers and institutions undermines the credibility of international law and signals to Israel that it can evade consequences.
Hospitals, including military hospitals, are recognized as neutral spaces under international law, protected from military aggression to ensure the uninterrupted provision of critical care during times of war. The United Nations has both a moral and legal obligation to uphold and enforce Article 18 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which explicitly prohibits attacks on medical facilities. Anything less would be a betrayal of the principles that underpin international humanitarian law and a failure to stop war crimes.
The genocidal war on Gaza is not merely a regional issue; it is a moral litmus test for the global community. Every bomb dropped, every home destroyed, and every life lost in Gaza is a stain on humanity’s conscience. The international community must confront this genocide with the urgency and resolve it demands. Failing to act not only condemns Gaza’s population to further suffering but also erodes the very foundations of international law and human decency.
The international community’s response for the Israeli genocide in Gaza has been woefully inadequate. While some countries issue lukewarm condemnations, others, like the United States, provide unwavering support for Israel to “finish the job.” This double standard exposes the hypocrisy of the U.S. and Western powers that, ostensibly, champion human rights and international law in other contexts while turning a blind eye to the injustice in Palestine.
The Israeli attacks on medical facilities reveal a deliberate intent to coerce the population into forced “voluntary” ethnic cleansing. The targeting and subsequent destruction of hospitals is not random but part of a broader, systematic pattern of military violence against all aspects of civilian life in Gaza. This includes hospitals, schools, shelters, religious centers, agricultural infrastructure, water wells, bakeries, and aid distribution networks. These calculated assaults are designed to dismantle the foundations of daily life, exacerbate the humanitarian crisis, and strip the population of even the most basic means of survival.
The international community’s conspicuous silence and failure to hold Israel accountable have emboldened such actions, creating an environment where impunity reigns. By targeting hospitals—essential lifelines in a besieged region—Israel not only deepens the humanitarian crisis but also sends a chilling message: no space, not even those dedicated to saving lives, is off-limits.
Israeli war crimes in Gaza cannot be ignored. The world must respond—not with platitudes or empty gestures, but with concrete actions to ensure that those responsible for this ongoing genocide are held accountable.
Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpAUK Foreign Minister David Lammy confirms that UK government and military are active participants in Israel’s genocides and that the F-35 parts that they suspended from supplying to Israel are instead simply diverted via the United States. He says see https://youtu.be/QILgUHrdWRE
Kamal Adwan Hospital Director Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya approaches the open door of an Israel Defense Forces tank after an Israeli raid on the facility, in Beit Lahia on December 28, 2024. (Photo: Channel 14 screen grab)
“Bombing of hospitals and kidnapping, torturing, and killing doctors and healthcare workers is illegal and immoral and a crime according to the Genocide Convention,” asserted Doctors for Humanity.
Human rights defenders in the global medical community and beyond are demanding Israel immediately release Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of Gaza’s obliterated Kamal Adwan Hospital, who was seized by Israeli troops on Saturday and is believed to be imprisoned at a notorious detention center where dozens of detainees have died and where torture, rape, and other abuses have been reported.
“We appeal to world leaders, to the global medical community, and to all who value humanity: Help us save our friend, our colleague, and a true healer,” Dr. Karameh Kuemmerle, a Boston-based pediatric neurologist and co-founder of Doctors Against Genocide, told Common Dreams on Monday.
“Put all kinds of pressure to ensure his release so he can return to his patients, who need him desperately, and to his family, who cannot endure this pain,” Kuemmerle added. “We demand a reality that respects life, respects human rights, and respects every man, woman, and child for humanity’s sake.”
Doctors for Humanity—a coalition of groups including Global Health Coalition, Doctors Against Genocide, and Union of Medical Care and Relief Organizations—said in a statement Monday, “We the medical community demand the immediate release of Dr. Abu Safiya and an immediate end to the bombing of hospitals and targeted kidnapping and killing of healthcare workers in Gaza.”
“Bombing of hospitals and kidnapping, torturing and killing doctors and healthcare workers is illegal and immoral and a crime according to the Genocide Convention,” Doctors for Humanity added.
Dr. Zaher Sahloul, president and co-founder the Illinois-based NGO MedGlobal, for whom Safiya works as lead Gaza physician, said over the weekend that “Dr. Abu Safiya has dedicated his life to protecting the health and lives of children in Gaza, providing care under conditions no medical professional should have to endure.”
“His arrest is not only unjust—it is a violation of international humanitarian law, which upholds the protection of medical personnel in conflict zones,” the group added. “We urgently call for the immediate and unconditional release of Dr. Abu Safiya.”
Dr. Yipeng Ge—who in November 2023 was suspended from his medical residency at the University of Ottawa for social media posts critical of Israel’s “settler-colonialism” and “apartheid upon Palestinian people”—called for Abu Safiya’s “immediate release,” as well as “protection of hospitals and medical workers in Gaza” and “an end to the genocide” there.
Amnesty International secretary-general Agnès Callamard hailed Abu Safiya as “the voice of Gaza’s decimated health sector,” who pleaded “for the protection of his hospital” while “working under inhumane conditions, including following the killing of his son” by an Israeli drone strike at the hospital gates earlier this year.
“We at Amnesty are extremely concerned over the fate and well-being of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya,” Callamard said. “He must be released immediately and unconditionally.”
Recently released former detainees at the Sde Teiman prison in Israel’s Negev Desert said Abu Safiya is being held there, and that the Israeli security forces working there—some of whom stand accused of gang-raping a prisoner—are treating captured Palestinian doctors “really badly.”
Idrees Abu Safiya, Abu Safiya’s son, toldThe Guardian on Monday that his father’s leg was badly injured during the Israeli raid on the hospital.
“We are so worried, we haven’t been able to sleep for three days because we didn’t know until today where he is,” Idrees told the British newspaper.
Relatives of Abu Safiya toldCNN that “Sde Teiman is known for brutality and torture, we can’t imagine what our father is going through in that place and if he is well or not, warm or cold… hungry or in pain.”
The last photo of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, detained after refusing to abandon his colleagues and patients.In just one image, we see both the power of Palestinian humanity and the moral weakness of all those complicit in genocide.End all arms sales to Israel, now.
Kuemmerle told Common Dreams: “What is striking about Dr. Abu Safiya is his extraordinary composure, kindness, and unwavering dedication, even in the face of unimaginable hardships. We have come to know his bravery, dedication, humane professionalism, and gentle manners. We are terrified for his fate, knowing all too well as Palestinians the horrors that await our doctors in these torture camps.”
Israel claims that Abu Safiya—who, despite the killing of his son and an injury caused by shrapnel from a November 23 Israeli attack on Kamal Adwan, refused to stop working at the hospital—is a suspected Hamas terrorist. That’s a common allegation made by Israeli officials, who also often claim that hospitals are used as Hamas command-and-control centers. These officials usually offer very little if any evidence to support their assertions.
“The lies that are being spread right now that [Abu Safiya] is really a Hamas colonel are lies to prevent what is happening right now, which is a global wave of outrage, and that global wave of outrage must grow so we, the global medical community, can stop the relentless attacks on healthcare workers and healthcare infrastructure,” Dr. Rupa Marya, a University of California, San Francisco professor of medicine who’s currently on paid suspension after questioning whether an Israeli student and likely Israel Defense Forces (IDF) veteran may have committed war crimes, told Common Dreams.
According to the Gaza Health Ministry, hundreds of healthcare workers have been detained and more than 1,000 have been killed since the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel. Critics accuse Israel of deliberately killing and wounding health workers.
The Geneva-based Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor on Saturday published the testimonies of witnesses to alleged IDF war crimes during the Kamal Adwan raid, including “deliberate killings, field executions, as well as sexual and physical assaults on women and girls from medical teams and displaced women in the area.”
Responding to Israeli attacks on hospitals and Abu Safiya’s detention, Rohan Talbot, director of advocacy and campaigns at London-based Medical Aid for Palestinians, said on the Bluesky social media platform Saturday that “our leaders must demand the immediate and safe release of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya and all detained Gaza health workers.”
“Health workers are not a target,” he added, “and impunity for Israel’s destruction of Palestinian healthcare must end.”
A view of destruction following the Israeli attack on the courtyard of Kamal Adwan Hospital and its surrounding buildings in Beit Lahia, Gaza on December 25, 2024. (Photo: Khalil Ramzi Alkahlut/Anadolu via Getty Images)
The hospital’s director was detained by Israeli forces and his whereabouts are unknown.
The World Health Organization on Saturday demanded the protection of healthcare facilities in Gaza as it announced that Friday’s Israeli raid on Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza put the facility entirely out of service—leaving the besieged region without any major health centers in operation.
WHO said parts of the hospital were badly burned and damaged, including a laboratory and surgical units.
On Saturday, 12 patients and a healthcare worker were reportedly forced to evacuate to Indonesian Hospital, which is not functioning, and “some people were reportedly stripped and forced to walk toward southern Gaza,” said WHO.
Fifteen patients who had been in critical care were forced to transfer to Indonesian Hospital on Friday, leaving medical experts concerned about their health conditions at the damaged facility.
“The movement and treatment of these critical patients under such conditions pose grave risks to their survival,” said the agency. “WHO is deeply concerned for their wellbeing, as well as for the Kamal Adwan Hospital director who has been reportedly detained during the raid. WHO lost contact with him since the raid began.”
Gaza health officials said Saturday that Hussam Abu Safia, the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, had been taken by Israeli forces to “a detention center for interrogation” along with dozens of other hospital staff.
“With Kamal Adwan and Indonesian hospitals entirely out of service, and Al-Awda Hospital barely able to function, and severely damaged due to recent airstrikes, the healthcare lifeline for those in North Gaza is reaching a breaking point.”
Israelraided Kamal Adwan claiming that the hospital served as a “Hamas terrorist stronghold,” but did not provide evidence for the allegation. Health authorities in Gaza strenuously denied the claim.
The U.S.-backed Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed Saturday that Abu Safia was among those who had been detained but did not say where he’d been taken.
“With Kamal Adwan and Indonesian hospitals entirely out of service, and Al-Awda Hospital barely able to function, and severely damaged due to recent airstrikes, the healthcare lifeline for those in North Gaza is reaching a breaking point,” said WHO. “WHO calls for urgently ensuring that hospitals in North Gaza can be supported to become functional again. Hospitals have once again become battlegrounds, reminiscent of the destruction of the health system in Gaza City earlier this year.”
The Council on American Islamic Relations called on the Biden administration to demand the release of Abu Safia, who was reportedly beaten before he was detained.
“Israel’s ongoing genocidal assault on medical personnel, patients, and hospitals must be condemned by all people of conscience who value international laws and norms,” said Nihad Awad, national executive director of the group. “The Biden administration, which is complicit with Israel’s genocide, must call for an end to Israeli attacks on medical facilities throughout Gaza and must demand the release of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya.”
Scenes from Israel’s siege on Kamal Adwan Hospital. On the left, the last photo of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya as he walks towards Israeli tanks. On the right, IOF forced health workers and patients to strip and evacuate the hospital. Photo: Screenshots
As part of its ethnic cleansing policies, Israel continues to systematically target medical facilities and health workers across the Gaza strip.
The Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) set Kamal Adwan Hospital on fire on Friday, December 27, putting the largest medical facility in the northern part of the besieged enclave out of service. Kamal Adwan is located in Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip and was one of the last functioning hospitals in the area.
According to the Director of Gaza’s Health Ministry, Munir al-Bursh, the IOF ordered 350 people including 75 patients and their escorts along with 185 medical staff to evacuate the hospital, and move to a nearby school sheltering displaced people.
Gaza’s Health Ministry stated that it has completely lost contact with medics inside the Kamal Adwan Hospital since the IOF stormed the facility.
The whereabouts of the hospital director, Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, are currently unknown. Dr. Safiya had been providing constant updates on Israel’s siege of the hospital for the last several months and pleading for international institutions to take action to stop Israel’s attacks. On December 2, 2024, he penned a column in the New York Times titled, “I’m One of the Last Doctors in This Hospital in Gaza. I’m Begging the World for Help.” In the essay, he wrote, “We feel as if the rest of the world is wrapped up in a different world from the one we are in. We are suffering and paying the price of the genocide that is happening to our people here in the northern Gaza Strip.”
Notably, in its report on Israel’s final siege on the hospital, the Times depicts the travesty at Kamal Adwan as collateral damage in Israel’s “offensive against Hamas militants” uncritically repeating Israel’s allegation that “the hospital was a stronghold for Hamas and that it was carrying out ‘targeted operations’ in the area.”
In a statement published on Friday, the World Health Organization (WHO) slammed Israel’s arson attack on the hospital, which used to serve over 400,000 Palestinian citizens. “This morning’s raid on Kamal Adwan Hospital has put this last major health facility in north Gaza out of service. Initial reports indicate that some key departments were severely burnt and destroyed during the raid,” the statement reads.
“60 health workers and 25 patients in critical condition, including those on ventilators, reportedly remain in the hospital. The patients in moderate to severe condition were forced to evacuate to the destroyed and non-functional Indonesian Hospital. WHO is deeply concerned for their safety,” the statement continues.
The WHO clarified that the raid on Kamal Adwan Hospital followed Israel’s escalating restrictions on the organization and its partners to access the hospital. The raid also came after repeated attacks on the hospital and its vicinity since early October. The organization considered the assault on the hospital as part of the systematic dismantling of the health system in Gaza, labeling it as a “death sentence for tens of thousands of Palestinians in need of health care.”
For its part, the Palestinian Presidency slammed the attack considering it as “part of Israel’s ongoing campaign of genocide and displacement against the Palestinian people”, and a “serious and blatant violation of international law and international agreements and conventions that protect medical facilities and personnel during armed conflicts.”
The Palestinian Presidency urged global health organizations, including WHO, Doctors Without Borders (MSF), and other international humanitarian bodies “to fulfill their responsibilities toward stopping this crime against the Palestinian healthcare sector.”
The Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) condemned the attack calling it a “war crime” committed amid “international inaction and full complicity from the US administration.”
In an Al Jazeerainterview on Friday, Hamas official Osama Hamdan refuted Israeli claims that there were Palestinian fighters in the hospital and stated that Kamal Adwan Hospital has been subjected to a massacre for 75 days. Hamdan added that the attack on the hospital is part of an attempt by Israel “to end all manifestations of civilian steadfastness in northern Gaza.”
One day prior to setting the facility to fire, Israeli fighter jets launched an airstrike on a building opposite of Kamal Adwan Hospital. At least 50 people were killed in the attack, including three health workers. Earlier in the month, IOF placed booby trapped devices around the hospital, and eyewitnesses said they saw explosive robots and hidden bombs deployed around the facility.
Kamal Adwan was not the only major medical facility to be targeted by IOF in Gaza during the past two weeks. Israel also intensified its attacks on the Indonesian Hospital in Beit Lahiya, and the Al-Awda Hospital in Jabalia refugee camp north of Gaza city, which has prompted doctors and authorities in Gaza to request immediate intervention by the international community.
Yet, despite the numerous cries for help and warnings of dangerous escalation by Gaza’s health workers, Israel has been able to proceed with the destruction of healthcare and its genocide of the Palestinian people thanks to the full backing it enjoys by the United States government.
Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpAUK Foreign Minister David Lammy confirms that UK government and military are active participants in Israel’s genocides and that the F-35 parts that they suspended from supplying to Israel are instead simply diverted via the United States. He says see https://youtu.be/QILgUHrdWRE
