DaysOfPal – Israel is intensifying an official and media incitement campaign against hospitals in the Gaza Strip, using unsubstantiated allegations of military activity to pave the way for renewed attacks on the territory’s remaining healthcare facilities, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor warned.
The Geneva-based human rights organisation said the campaign threatens to deprive Palestinians of their remaining means of survival after three years of systematic destruction of Gaza’s healthcare system.
According to Euro-Med Monitor, Israel’s renewed threats are not isolated military statements but part of a broader pattern of attacks on medical infrastructure, restrictions on essential supplies and measures that expose civilians to living conditions threatening their survival.
The organisation warned that the continued threats to hospitals, despite Israeli authorities’ knowledge that depriving civilians of medical treatment causes deaths, indicate the specific intent required for genocide.
It said the campaign seeks to prevent the restoration of services essential to Palestinians’ survival and eliminate the capacity to save wounded people and treat patients.
Israeli Army Accused of Manufacturing Pretexts to Attack Hospitals
Euro-Med Monitor expressed grave concern over threats issued by the Israeli military on October 6, when the army released a video statement accusing Hamas of exploiting civilian infrastructure, particularly hospitals and medical facilities, for military purposes.
The organisation said the Israeli military provided no evidence to support the allegations.
It warned that the statements repeated an approach followed since the beginning of Israel’s military offensive on Gaza: making undocumented accusations linking hospitals to armed activity before using those claims as a pretext to bomb, raid and disable healthcare facilities.
According to Euro-Med Monitor, this approach presents the systematic destruction of healthcare as military operations against legitimate targets, despite the fact that Gaza’s healthcare system can no longer withstand further attacks or disruption.
The organisation said the campaign portrays hospitals and rescue facilities as combat sites, creating a narrative of military necessity that could be used to justify further attacks.
It warned that such allegations cannot replace the verification required under international humanitarian law.
Euro-Med Challenges Israeli Video Allegedly Linking Kamal Adwan Hospital to Explosives
Over two days, the Israeli military published six messages targeting hospitals and medical centres in Gaza, including a video allegedly showing two individuals affiliated with Hamas leaving Kamal Adwan Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip.
The army claimed that one of the individuals transferred explosive devices from inside the hospital and planted them near the Yellow Line to target Israeli forces.
Euro-Med Monitor challenged the account, saying the footage failed to establish the claims made by the military.
According to the organisation, the video does not identify the location of the person shown near rubble or establish any connection between that individual and Kamal Adwan Hospital.
It also does not show anyone leaving the hospital or carrying explosive devices out of the facility.
The poor image quality, Euro-Med Monitor said, makes it impossible to verify what the individual is handling or determine whether an explosive device is being planted.
The footage then cuts to a daytime shot of an unidentified destroyed building without establishing its location or any connection to the preceding scene.
The organisation said these spatial and temporal gaps undermine the video’s evidentiary value.
It argued that the Israeli military’s accusation relies on a series of unsupported conclusions: interpreting the individual’s movements as planting an explosive device, claiming the device originated inside the hospital and then using that claim to accuse the medical facility of military activity.
Each conclusion requires independent evidence, the organisation stressed.
Even if a person were proven to have carried out a military act outside a hospital, that alone would not establish that the medical facility was used beyond its humanitarian function to commit acts harmful to the enemy or automatically make it a legitimate military target.
Threats Alone Could Cost Palestinian Lives
Euro-Med Monitor warned that Israel’s incitement campaign could disrupt Gaza’s remaining healthcare facilities even before any attack occurs.
Threats against hospitals could prevent patients and wounded civilians from seeking medical assistance, restrict the movement of ambulances and healthcare workers, interrupt the delivery of essential supplies and force medical facilities to suspend services out of fear of being targeted.
The organisation warned that these consequences could delay lifesaving interventions, increase preventable deaths and further deprive Palestinians of treatment essential to their survival.
It stressed that the dangers extend beyond the physical destruction of hospitals.
By creating fear around medical facilities and portraying them as potential military targets, the campaign could undermine the ability of healthcare workers to operate and discourage civilians from accessing treatment.
For a population already facing mass displacement, malnutrition, disease and severe restrictions on medical supplies, the organisation warned, further disruption could have catastrophic consequences.
Attacking Protected Hospitals May Constitute War Crimes
Euro-Med Monitor emphasised that international humanitarian law grants special protection to civilian hospitals.
Article 18 of the Fourth Geneva Convention requires civilian hospitals to be respected and protected, while Article 19 establishes strict conditions under which that protection may cease.
A hospital does not lose its protection merely because the Israeli military accuses it of being used for military purposes.
Protection may cease only if a hospital is used, outside its humanitarian duties, to commit acts harmful to the enemy, and only after due warning has been given, with a reasonable time limit where appropriate, and the warning remains unheeded.
The organisation stressed that treating wounded or sick members of armed groups does not constitute an act harmful to the enemy.
Even if a hospital loses its special protection, an attack is not automatically lawful.
The attacking force must still establish that the facility, or the relevant part of it, qualifies as a military objective, comply with the principle of proportionality and take all feasible precautions to protect patients, wounded people and medical personnel.
Euro-Med Monitor said intentionally attacking hospitals that are not military objectives constitutes a war crime under Article 8 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
It added that unsupported allegations or public warnings cannot make unlawful attacks legitimate or shield those responsible from accountability.
Euro-Med Says Campaign Indicates Genocidal Intent
Euro-Med Monitor warned that the deliberate destruction of health services and deprivation of medicine may constitute crimes against humanity when carried out as part of a widespread or systematic attack against civilians, with knowledge of that attack.
Such acts may also constitute extermination under the Rome Statute if conditions are deliberately imposed to destroy part of the population and result in mass killing, including through the deprivation of medical treatment.
The organisation argued that Israel’s continued threats against hospitals, following three years of systematic destruction of the healthcare system, indicate the specific intent required for genocide.
According to Euro-Med Monitor, the threats target what remains of Palestinians’ means of survival and obstruct the restoration of services necessary for their continued existence.
The organisation further argued that the pattern of Israeli conduct and official statements indicates an intent to subject Palestinians to living conditions calculated to bring about their physical destruction, in whole or in part.
It said such conduct falls within Article II(c) of the Genocide Convention, which prohibits deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the physical destruction of a protected group.
More Than 1,700 Healthcare Workers Killed, Hundreds Detained
Euro-Med Monitor accused Israel of deliberately targeting Gaza’s medical infrastructure throughout the past three years.
According to the organisation, Israeli forces have destroyed or disabled more than half of the territory’s major hospitals and medical centres.
It reported that more than 1,700 healthcare workers, including doctors, nurses and other medical personnel, have been killed.
More than 330 healthcare workers have also been detained, with 81 reportedly remaining in Israeli custody.
The organisation said several detained medical workers had died under torture.
Among them was Dr Adnan Al-Bursh, one of Gaza’s most prominent orthopaedic surgeons, who was detained at Al-Awda Hospital in northern Gaza.
Euro-Med Monitor said he was killed in an Israeli prison in April 2024 after four months of torture.
The organisation stressed that Israel, as the occupying power, has obligations under Article 56 of the Fourth Geneva Convention to ensure and maintain medical establishments, hospitals and public health services to the fullest extent of the means available to it.
These obligations include protecting healthcare workers and securing essential medical supplies rather than undermining the ability of hospitals to function.
More Than 2.1 Million Palestinians Confined as Israeli Control Expands
Euro-Med Monitor warned that the threats against hospitals could signal a broader Israeli assault aimed at escalating killings and forced displacement.
According to the organisation, Israeli military operations have continued despite the ceasefire announced in October 2025.
It reported that more than 1,470 Palestinians had been killed and thousands more injured since the ceasefire announcement.
The organisation placed the overall death toll since October 2023 at more than 74,200 Palestinians, with over 175,000 injured.
It also said Israel had expanded its military control to more than 65 per cent of the Gaza Strip.
More than 2.1 million Palestinians, most of them displaced, are entering their fourth year under direct attack and systematic starvation, confined to a narrow area in western Gaza covering no more than 35 per cent of the territory, according to Euro-Med Monitor.
The organisation warned that Israeli officials continue to call for maintaining the blockade and depriving the population of essential necessities, which it described as part of efforts to remove Palestinians from the territory.
UN Agencies Urged to Act Before Hospitals Are Attacked
Euro-Med Monitor called on the United Nations and international humanitarian organisations, particularly the World Health Organization, UNICEF and the International Committee of the Red Cross, to urgently verify Israeli allegations concerning Gaza’s hospitals.
It stressed that these organisations maintain personnel inside medical facilities and possess direct knowledge of their operations.
According to Euro-Med Monitor, their field presence places a heightened responsibility on them to challenge unverified allegations that could be used to justify attacks on hospitals and medical personnel.
The organisation warned against waiting until hospitals are bombed before issuing statements of condemnation.
It said urgent preventive action is necessary to challenge unsupported military claims, protect remaining healthcare facilities and prevent further deaths among civilians dependent on medical services.
Calls for Arms Embargo, Sanctions and International Prosecutions
Euro-Med Monitor urged the international community to take immediate political, diplomatic and economic measures to end Israeli threats and incitement against Gaza’s medical facilities.
It called for pressure on Israel to protect patients, wounded civilians, medical personnel and ambulances, and to halt any orders or operations targeting healthcare facilities in violation of international humanitarian law.
The organisation demanded that Israel open Gaza’s crossings and remove restrictions on medicines, fuel, medical equipment and spare parts necessary to operate hospitals.
It also called for humanitarian and medical personnel to be allowed into Gaza and for the safe evacuation of patients requiring treatment abroad.
Euro-Med Monitor urged compliance with the International Court of Justice’s binding orders, including its March 28, 2024, order requiring the large-scale, unobstructed provision of urgently needed humanitarian supplies, healthcare and essential services.
The organisation called on states to halt weapons, ammunition, equipment and military assistance where there is a clear risk that such support could be used to violate international humanitarian law.
It also demanded targeted sanctions against individuals responsible for attacks on Gaza’s healthcare system.
Euro-Med Monitor stressed that the obligation to prevent genocide requires states to use the means of influence available to them when they know, or should know, that there is a serious risk of genocide, without waiting for a final judicial ruling.
The organisation further urged the International Criminal Court’s Office of the Prosecutor and the Independent International Commission of Inquiry to investigate attacks on medical facilities, including the chain of command, orders issued and responsibility for implementing them.
It called on governments to cooperate with international investigations, execute ICC arrest warrants in accordance with their legal obligations and invoke universal jurisdiction where legally permitted.
Euro-Med Monitor warned that failure to act before further attacks occur could expose hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to additional suffering and preventable deaths.
The organisation stressed that protecting Gaza’s remaining hospitals is essential to preserving the medical services on which the population’s survival depends.
