THE Anglican-run Al-Ahli Hospital, in Gaza, was shelled by the Israeli army on 29 December, a statement from the diocese of Jerusalem says.

Two days later, a report by the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) concluded that military action by Israeli forces had pushed the healthcare system in Gaza “to the point of almost complete collapse”.

The report, which covers the period from 7 October 2023 to 30 June 2024, suggests that there have been at least 136 strikes on at least 27 hospitals and 12 other medical facilities.

The diocese’s statement about Al-Ahli says that an Israeli artillery shell “resulted in the destruction of a doctor’s clinic on the top floor of the diagnostic centre building at the west end, near the hospital compound”. The affected building is functioning as the chemotherapy treatment centre, reopened despite a shortage of staff and supplies (News, 13 December 2024).

The statement continues: “The diocese of Jerusalem, owner and manager of Ahli Arab Hospital, condemns this attack and other attacks on the healthcare system in the Gaza Strip, especially in the North. We call upon all warring parties to reach a ceasefire immediately and come to an agreement for the sake of all innocent victims of this war.”

Al-Ahli Hospital, in the south of Gaza City, has been “overrun with the influx of hundreds of sorely wounded patients from the besieged north”, Canon Dom Binder, the chaplain to the Archbishop in Jerusalem, Dr Hosam Naoum, said last month. In July, the diocese said that the hospital had been forced to close by the Israeli army, amid fighting in Gaza City (News, 12 July 2024).

The OHCHR report, Attacks on Hospitals during the Escalation of Hostilities in Gaza, lists an explosion at the hospital on 17 October 2023 as “the single incident that resulted in the largest number of reported fatalities” (News, 20 October 2023). It says: “Despite a thorough open-source investigation and consultation with military experts, though with no cooperation or access to the hospital to conduct such an investigation, OHCHR was unable to attribute responsibility. . . The circumstances of this strike must be independently investigated and those responsible for unlawful conduct held to account.”

A response to the report by the Israeli representative to the UN refers to this conclusion as “particularly indicative of [OHCHR’s] selective approach when assessing information sources, and presenting its findings. In this case, echoing misinformation that was clearly debunked over a year ago amounts to blood libel.”

There is, the response says, an “abundance of publicly-available evidence regarding the abuse of health facilities by terrorist organizations”. Meanwhile, the IDF, it says, takes “extensive measures . . . to mitigate civilian harm and minimize disruption to medical services during its precise operations, even at the cost of its own military advantage and forces”.

The report refers to “repeated attacks on hospitals and operations within and in the vicinity of hospitals, leading to sustained combat in and around many hospitals”, resulting in “the destruction of most hospitals in Gaza, pushing the healthcare system to the point of almost complete collapse”.

It says that the Israeli military “has not provided sufficient information to enable independent substantiation of its statements, when made, that the hospitals, ambulances, and personnel attacked had lost their special protection and constituted military objectives”. Even where immunity is lost, it says, any attack must “comply with the fundamental principles of distinction, proportionality and precautions”.

The UN Security Council held an emergency meeting on health services in Gaza, on Friday last week. Dr Rik Peeperkorn, a World Health Organization representative for the West Bank and Gaza, reported that the sector was being “systematically dismantled”. He described hospitals as “battlegrounds” and referred to a lack of medical supplies, equipment, and personnel. Only 16 of the region’s 36 hospitals remained partially operational. More than 12,000 people remained on waiting lists for urgent treatment abroad.

The Deputy Permanent Representative of Israel to the UN, Brett Jonathan Miller, told the UN Security Council on Friday of last week that Hamas had “transformed” hospitals “into tools for terror, exploiting their sanctity to shield its murderous aims and wage war against civilians”.

Amid calls for the release of the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, detained during a raid on 27 December, Mr Miller said that the hospital had been turned into a “command centre for terror”, and that the operation had led to the apprehension of more than 240 terrorists,

Two special rapporteurs appointed by the UN Human Rights Council — Dr Tlaleng Mofokeng and Francesca Albanese — have described Dr Safiya as “yet another doctor to be harassed, kidnapped and arbitrarily detained by the occupation forces, in his case for defying evacuation orders to leave his patients and colleagues behind.” His son had been killed in front of him, they said.