Israeli military assaults to the hospitals of the Gaza Strip have risen in recent weeks to the highest level so far this year, carrying a health system already weakened for 19 months of war to a break point. NBC News has analyzed 27 Videos and images of the last two months taken by civilians and our own journalists on the field to rebuild an image of the entire extension of the destruction of a health system wrapped in the war.
In images of a surveillance chamber, you could see men, women and children crossing the entrance to the European hospital of Khan Younis moments before a missile blow, throwing people into the air while others dispersed in panic. Another video, published on social networks and verified by NBC News, showed the burning consequences of an explosion in a medical warehouse near the Al-Awda hospital, in northern Gaza, which has been repeatedly attacked, even on May 22 on May 24.
“Almost all hospitals in Gaza are now damaged or destroyed, and half of them are no longer operational,” Jens Laerke, spokesman for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, or Och, told NBC. During the war, Gaza hospitals have delayed services, just to be beaten or repeatedly besieged.
Hospitals are protected by international humanitarian law, but Israel has argued that Hamas uses hospitals and medical centers for military activities, opening them to attack. Hamas has denied doing it. The humanitarian groups, including the United Nations, have He said that Israel has not provided sufficient information to corroborate many of its claims and has asked for independent investigations of Israel’s attacks and the supposed misuse of Hamas of the facilities.
Earlier this week, however, the Israeli army gave a small group of journalists a tour of a tunnel that was discovered under the European hospital, where he said he had recovered the body of the Military Chief of Hamas, Mohammed Sinwar.
“We cannot emphasize this enough: hospitals should never be militarized or attacked. If they are, it can constitute a war crime,” said Laerke.
Of the 36 hospitals of Gaza, none works completely; 17 are providing partial services, and 19 do not work at all, according to data from the World Health Organization of Monday. The broader health system, which includes ambulances, hospitals and field clinics, has been attacked more than 700 times since the beginning of the war, killing at least 900 people and wounding more than 1,000. (The death toll through Gaza is more than 55,000, according to the Ministry of Health).
After a fire was called a fire in January, Israeli military attacks against Gaza’s health system had decreased. The truce collapsed in March, and WHO data shows a reduction in attacks in recent weeks. Although the organization counted five attacks against the Gaza Health System in April, after the first three weeks of May, the number of attacks had quadrupled 21, with at least three more attacks since then, even in the neighborhood of a dialysis center at the Indonesian hospital on June 1 and the strikes in Al-Aqsa and the hospitals of Al-Ahli on June 4 and 5. In addition, the hostilities near Al-Jamal has the Al-Jamal hospital. Who said Monday.
The first attack registered by NBC News during that period of two months was on April 2, when an Israeli air attack hit a UNRWA clinic in Jabalia, north of the city of Gaza, which was people displaced in housing. The video captured by NBC News on the Ground documented the chaotic consequences: the walls crushed to the debris, carbonized mattresses, blown furniture in fragments. The small body covered with a child was charged in a donkey car to be taken to the morgue.
In another case, Israel’s defense forces hit two hospitals on the same day, May 13, both in Khan Younis. The video verified by NBC News shows several large columns of smoke that rise from the land of the European hospital. Palestinian health officials said at least 16 people were killed and dozen more injured. WHO said the installation had been forced to suspend services.
Nasser’s medical complex also hit that day. The video published by the UN showed scattered debris, twisted hospital beds and damaged equipment. It was the fourth time that Nasser had been beaten during the war, according to the UN, with the last strike killing two people and hurting a dozen others.
In a statement in response to these attacks, IDF said their forces had signed up for a command and control center located at the Nasser hospital and “a underground terrorist infrastructure site of Hamas” under the European hospital.
The IDF provided evidence of what he said it was a Hamas tunnel under the European hospital. However, he did not provide evidence from the Nasser Command and Control Center, or for the following cases, but in general he said: “Hamas’ terrorist organization continues to use hospitals in the Gaza Strip for terrorist activity.” NBC News cannot independently verify the FDI statements.
