On 18 March 2025, Israel launched a series of airstrikes on Gaza, killing at least 404 Palestinians and injuring 562 more, breaking the already fragile ceasefire. Since then, Israel has continued its genocidal campaign against the Palestinians, devastating every single sector of Palestinian life as it continues to cut off humanitarian aid, fuel, and electricity. Israeli Occupying Forces (IOF) have continued to systematically target hospitals, medical personnel, civil defense teams, and other humanitarian workers as a means to bring about the destruction of the Palestinian people. On World Health Day, Al-Haq recounts the stories of three humanitarian and medical personnel targeted by Israel’s ongoing genocidal campaign in Gaza. In doing so, Al-Haq demonstrates how Israel’s targeting of healthcare personnel represents a pattern in Israel’s deliberate destruction of Gaza’s healthcare system, further evidencing genocidal intent to inflict conditions of life to destroy Palestinians in Gaza.

1. Direct targeting without warning: Yahya Al-Talbani, a member of the Palestinian civil defense

On 27 June 2024, Yahya Mohammad Abdulkareem Al-Talbani, a member of the Palestinian civil defense, was injured in an airstrike on a temporary civil defense center in Nuseirat refugee camp, central Gaza Strip. The strike killed three crew members, Abed Al-Ghaffar As’ad, Ammar Awwad, and Ziad Al-Habbash, and injured several others. Earlier that day, the team members were busy with several rescue missions, including putting out fires. In his affidavit to Al-Haq, Yahya recalled:

“After Maghrib prayers at approximately 8:30 pm, we were all sitting together and without any prior warning we were struck [by a missile]. We were five people and three of my colleagues were killed [officer Abed Al-Ghaffar As’ad, Ammar Awwad, and Ziad Al-Habbash – all fathers in their forties]. My paramedic colleague [Hatem Abu Taqiyeh] and I were injured, in addition to others. The place of the strike was a temporary base for the civil defense team.”

Yahya described how the civil defense team endured repeated displacement, moving from their original location on Salah Al-Din road in Al-Bureij area to several other locations, forced to search for a safe location from which to operate and be close to the people. He expressed:

“We ended up settling in [Nuseirat] as it was close to the people. It was known to be the location of the civil defense. It was closed off, and the civil defense vehicles were present and clearly marked with the specific emblems and sirens/lights [marking it as a clear site for the civil defense].”

Yahya emphasized how the moment of the attack was a complete surprise that occurred without any prior warning:

“it was a surprising moment where I heard the sound of the missile and the explosion. I found myself lying face down on the floor as I heard the screams of my colleagues. We were all shocked at what had happened. I was in and out of consciousness and taken to Al-Awda then to Al-Aqsa hospitals in an ambulance. It was not until approximately 3:00 am that I started to regain consciousness. There was absolutely no threat that could trigger this attack. We were all members of the Palestinian civil defense on the site.”

Yahya stated that the attack was directly targeted at the civil defense site, which was surrounded by displacement tents: “Amongst the five of us, the furthest to the missile was located at a distance of 1.5-2 meters. We were sitting outside the building and could be seen from the air, and were wearing our civil defense uniforms.”

Yahya informed Al-Haq of the type of airstrike and its damage effect. He suggested that the missile was fired from a drone, and produced around 1.5-meter-crater in the ground and shrapnel, which hit him and his colleagues resulting in killings and injuries. As a result, Yahya suffered from fractures and lacerations across his leg and heal, which required a platinum implant. Until the recording of his testimony on 18 August 2024, Yahya was still under medical treatment, and his recovery requires time. The shortage in medicine, medical equipment, and anesthesia has prolonged Yahya’s recovery, particularly as hospitals are forced to prioritize emergency cases over those requiring regular treatment and checkups.

2. The collapse of civil defense in northern Gaza: Khaled Ayoub, a member of the Palestinian civil defense

In another incident, Khaled Hasan Ayoub, a member of the Palestinian civil defense, described the moment the civil defense was attacked and forced to leave Beit Lahiya, north of Jabalia in northern Gaza, under gunfire and direct shelling on 23 October 2024. In his affidavit to Al-Haq, Khaled described the moment of the attack:

“Approximately half an hour before Maghreb prayer, while we [the civil defense crew] were located in Mashrou’ Beit Lahiya market, we were surprised by quadcopters directing their fire at us and military vehicles advancing towards us. We evacuated to a safer location in Beit Lahiya. However, while we were praying Maghreb prayers, the quadcopter hovered over us and threatened [through loudspeakers]: “Medical personnel and civil defense, leave your vehicles and head out from Beit Lahiya road onto Salah Al-Din road. You have ten minutes to leave or we will strike you in your vehicles.” We were between 40 to 45 members of the civil defense. Before the 10 minutes had elapsed, and as we were gathering our belongings, a drone strike hit us. Several members of the civil defense were injured. We evacuated through the Beit Lahia road onto the western roundabout toward the Indonesian Hospital, when [the IOF] struck again right in front of us. We were dispersed then gathered again and continued walking until we reached the Indonesian Hospital [on foot]… With us, we carried an injured man who was bleeding. When we reached the hospital, we attempted to inform an [IOF] officer that there was an injured person. He started insulting and cursing us.”

During that time, the Indonesian Hospital was under Israeli siege and subjected to attacks. Khaled explained how the IOF divided Palestinians into groups of five, through what is called the Hallabah system, i.e., a triage system, where they would be given numbers (1-5), searched and their IDs and fingerprints checked. The IOF would call out Palestinians by their assigned numbers, and arrest some, while sending others away –– ordering them to go to the south and not to come back to the north of Gaza.

Khaled described the scene at the Indonesian Hospital as follows:

“The number of soldiers and military vehicles present was overwhelming and terrifying. Inside [the hospital], we were subjected to an interrogation process, which included the stripping of clothes and indiscriminate beatings by male and female soldiers.”

Khaled mentioned that several members of the civil defense were detained from the Indonesian Hospital:

“In the hospital, four members of my team and I were all separated and taken to interrogation. When I was released from the hospital at dawn along with other residents, I was ordered to leave to the south through Salah Al-Din road. I attempted to look for them, and found out that they all had been arrested.”

Khaled further witnessed the IOF targeting and burning a civil defense vehicle. Moreover, Khaled described the catastrophic situation of northern Gaza where the civil defense has been targeted and attacked to the point of collapse. He emphasised:

“There is no alternative for the civil defense. When homes are on fire [after being struck] and children and those inside plead for help, there is no one [else to rescue them]. We have no more ambulances; those injured are forced to bleed out and die with no one to attend to them.… There is no humanitarian service left that we can provide. All services have collapsed, firefighters, rescue crews, first responders. We are being targeted as civil defense despite providing humanitarian services. There needs to be a solution to this.

Khaled called on the international community to take action: “We call on the world to take action. When civil defense and medical personnel are being directly targeted [how can one make sense of it]”.

3. The siege and burning of Kamal Adwan Hospital: Dr. Rawyah Tanbura

Dr. Rawyah Hussein Amer Tanbura, 32, a doctor and a mother of two children, had been providing medical care for the sick and injured in Kamal Adwan Hospital, in Beit Lahiya northern Gaza, since the beginning of Israel’s genocide in Gaza. She witnessed the multiple IOF sieges and raids of the hospital, had been evacuated from the hospital several times, injured and suffered from lack of food and water. She also witnessed the killing and injury of several medical personnel and the injury and capture of Dr. Hussam Aby Safiya, the hospital’s director, on 27 December 2024, who remains arbitrarily detained in Israeli captivity at the time of writing. 

During the raids on Kamal Adwan Hospital in December 2023, October 2024, and on 27 December 2024, Rawyah confirmed the IOF’s employment of intense force in and around the hospital, including through the use of heavy fire, use of explosive robots, dropping bombs from quadcopters through hospital windows, and setting the hospital on fire rendering it out of service.

During the suffocating siege of northern Gaza in October 2024, the IOF besieged and raided the hospital on 25 October 2024 lasting for 30 hours. Rawyah explained:

“The IOF fired heavy fire directly at the hospital, surrounded the hospital with military vehicles, bulldozed surrounding roads, burned nearby houses, and snipers were positioned on the top of nearby buildings. They ordered medical personnel and the injured to leave the hospital, and they raided the hospital and occupied the surgical department… There were no ambulances or civil defense teams to transfer the injured and killed to the hospital. While trapped inside, we would see bodies lying in front of the hospital’s entrance for days and could not go out and take them inside, as the IOF would fire at anyone. Dogs used to come and eat their corpses. We remained for 30 hours without food or water in fear.”

When they left the building to the hospital’s courtyard, Rawyah along with her two children and around 70 others, were standing among dead bodies left there for days and starting to smell, with snipers and quadcopters shooting near their feet to intimidate them. Rawyah explained that one diabetic child fainted after hours without food or water, and that: “my two children were screaming from the cold as they were wearing summer clothes, in response to which an IOF soldier ordered a tank to turn on the cooling fan, so we all started screaming from the cold.” Rawyah further explained that: “the IOF were holding male medical personnel and patients inside the hospital, subjecting them to beatings, torture and interrogations. They were then taken out stripped from their clothes (in their underwear only), blindfolded and hands tied, and taken away in trucks.”

Before completely burning down Kamal Adwan Hospital on 27 December 2024, the IOF intensified the use of quadcopters and explosive robots, injuring Rawyah and several other medical personnel. The IOF used quadcopters to drop bombs through hospital windows, blowing off doors and windows from their scale and ferocity. Rawyah highlighted that for an entire month, “in December 2024, the hospital was besieged by robots, which were planted and detonated daily in the vicinity of the hospital. From around 11:00 pm until 5:00 am, the IOF would detonate explosive robots every two hours. During that time, we, around 400-500 persons, would sit in hallways away from the windows.” Rawyah described the living conditions while besieged in the hospital: “After dawn we would sleep for 2-3 hours only, had one meal a day, and used medical solutions instead of water, as quadcopters used to fire at water tanks. Each person received 1 liter of water per day.” They were repeatedly ordered to evacuate the hospital by the IOF.

Rawyah described the burning of Kamal Adwan Hospital on 27 December 2024 as akin to judgment day. Female patients and medical staff members were taken to the Indonesian Hospital, which was also destroyed and unfit for human living. While male patients and healthcare workers were taken away and arrested, including Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya. Rawyah refused to evacuate to the south and decided to stay and care for her patients in the Indonesian Hospital. 

General Context

The deliberate targeting of medical and humanitarian workers stands as a systematic practice employed by the IOF that has been documented long before 7 October 2023. Israel has targeted healthcare personnel and medical facilities as a recurring genocidal pattern intended to destroy all institutions that protect and preserve human life, and has continued to relentlessly and viciously do so since it broke the ceasefire on 18 March 2025. On 20 March 2025, the IOF blew up the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital, Gaza’s only cancer hospital. A few days after, on 24 March 2025, the Israeli military attacked the surgical building of the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, the largest hospital in southern Gaza, killing two people and injuring others, while the facility was overwhelmed with injured Palestinians. Israel’s systematic destruction of hospitals and targeting of humanitarian workers further demonstrate its genocidal intent to impose conditions of life calculated to bring about the physical destruction of the Palestinian people in Gaza.

The international community’s lack of concrete measures and unconditional impunity granted to Israel have enabled it to commit “the single most deadly attack on the Red Cross Red Crescent workers anywhere in the world since 2017”. On 23 March 2025, a team of first responders went missing while on duty as they were responding to wounded people in Rafah. After a week-long rescue effort, the bodies of six members of the Palestinian Civil Defense (PCD), eight members of the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS), and one UN staff were recovered from a mass grave in the Tal As-Sultan area in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip. A ninth PRCS worker, Assad Al-Nassasra, remains missing. The IOF had directly attacked them and buried them under the sand, alongside their wrecked and clearly marked emergency vehicles. On 7 April 2025, PRCS President confirmed that the IOF executed the members from “very close range”, targeting their upper body parts with the intention to kill. As the video recorded and found on the phone of a killed PRCS worker, the ambulances and fire trucks were visible and clearly marked with their emergency lights on at the time of the attack. Since 7 October 2023, at least 409 aid workers, including 291 UN staff,  have been killed in Gaza.

Similarly, Israel has been systematically obstructing the work of healthcare personnel and access to medical care in the West Bank. In the IOF’s ongoing attack on the northern West Bank, which started on 21 January 2025, Al-Haq has documented similar tactics of targeting and obstructing the provision of life-saving medical assistance to Palestinians as those employed in Gaza. This includes the imposition of full closures to entire cities and villages, besieging hospitals with checkpoints placed at their entrances, denial of movement in and bulldozing roads surrounding hospitals, conducting searches of ambulances and of healthcare personnel and patients IDs, and denying critically injured patients access to care, and similarly ambulances from reaching the wounded, exacerbated by the deliberate destruction of infrastructure and bulldozing of roads. Al-Haq has also documented the IOF targeting and firing at medical staff in the vicinity of Jenin Governmental Hospital and Al-Amal Hospital in Jenin, resulting in the injury of two medical personnel, and at ambulances that acquire prior movement and access coordination to Jenin refugee camp.[1]

Between January and 28 February 2025, 64 attacks on health care were documented across the West Bank, mostly in the Jenin and Tulkarem governorates, resulting in four Palestinians killed, eleven injured, and at least 14 healthcare personnel detained or arrested while on duty, while affecting seven health facilities and 43 ambulances. The establishment of 925 movement obstacles throughout the West Bank,  detention of medical staff at checkpoints, requiring coordination prior to ambulance movement, and the decline in patient permit approval rate have further hindered the Palestinian healthcare system.

Legal analysis

Israel’s continuous and relentless attacks on medical personnel and protected hospital zones deem no safe place for Palestinian survival to the ongoing genocide. It is a direct consequence of the disregard of international humanitarian and human rights law, and prolonged Israeli impunity guaranteed by the international community. The deliberate destruction of healthcare amounts to a form of collective punishment and amounts to a war crime. The IOF’s direct targeting of hospitals, healthcare centers, and humanitarian workers, including their dehumanisation, arrest and detention, forcible disappearance, torture, and killing is clear evidence of Israel’s genocidal intent to inflict conditions of life calculated to bring about the physical destruction of the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip.

Moreover, the targeting of medical and humanitarian personnel and facilities, including the recent execution of 15 first responders, despite their protective status, carried out with an intent to destroy, is a genocidal act punishable under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. Al-Haq requests immediate and urgent investigation by the International Criminal Court and UN Commission of Inquiry to hold the perpetrators accountable.

States have an obligation to intervene and end the ongoing Israeli genocide in Gaza and address the systematic targeting of hospitals, healthcare facilities, medical personnel, and humanitarian workers. The world has failed to prevent Israel from continuing these atrocious crimes against humanitarian and health workers and facilities. The international community must exercise unyielding pressure against Israel, including through the imposition of sanctions and a two-way arms embargo, as famine continues to spread across Gaza particularly in light of the ongoing Israeli blockade of humanitarian aid, including medical supplies and medicines, since 2 March 2025.