ActionAid is outraged by attacks on Kamal Adwan Hospital, one of the only functioning hospitals in the entirety of Gaza, and the reported forced evacuation of medics and patients by Israeli forces during a raid, including arresting key medical staff for refusing to leave their critically ill patients. This follows the killing of five medical staff in a strike on Thursday, yet another grievous breach of international humanitarian law.
The area around Al-Awda Hospital in northern Gaza, which is run by ActionAid’s partner Al-Awda, has also come under intense and sustained attack in recent days, causing damage to the hospital and injuring the acting director of the hospital, Dr Mohammad Salha, and six other medical staff members. These latest attacks form part of Israel’s long and devastating pattern of systematic attacks on Gaza’s healthcare infrastructure.
For years, Israeli forces have targeted hospitals, clinics, and medical staff in Gaza with impunity, in clear violation of international humanitarian law. The protection of healthcare facilities and workers is enshrined in international law, yet these attacks demonstrate a calculated and sustained disregard for the rights of Palestinian civilians.
Destroying healthcare infrastructure is not collateral damage—it is a deliberate act that deepens the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, leaving millions without access to life-saving treatment. These repeated violations are not isolated incidents but part of an enduring strategy that devastates the people of Gaza and cripples their ability to survive under already dire conditions.
ActionAid demands that the international community hold Israel accountable for these atrocities. The world’s failure to act has emboldened such actions to continue unchecked, and we call for an immediate cessation of attacks on hospitals and healthcare workers and for the enforcement of international law to protect civilians in Gaza.
ENDS
Spokespeople are available. For media requests, please email christal.james@actionaid.org or call 7046659743.
About ActionAid
ActionAid is a global federation working with more than 41 million people living in more than 71 of the world’s poorest countries. We want to see a just, fair, and sustainable world, in which everybody enjoys the right to a life of dignity, and freedom from poverty and oppression. We work to achieve social justice and gender equality and to eradicate poverty.