“No More Hospitals Left”: Gaza’s Medical System Collapses Amid Israeli Massacres – Day 648

Gaza City – The Gaza Strip is facing the total collapse of its medical infrastructure as Israeli bombardment and fuel blockades push the enclave’s last remaining hospitals to the brink. In the words of Dr. Mohammed Abu Salmiya, director of the Al-Shifa Medical Complex, “We are no longer talking about a health system. We are talking about survival in ruins.”

The Public Service Hospital has ceased operations entirely, while Al-Shifa and Al-Helou hospitals are expected to shut down within hours due to fuel depletion, a lack of essential medical supplies, and relentless Israeli airstrikes.

Across Gaza, massacres continue unabated. According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, over 100,500 Palestinians have been killed and approximately 377,000 wounded since October 7, 2023, the majority of them women and children. On Wednesday alone, at least 20 Palestinians were killed in Israeli airstrikes, including several children, as reported by Palestinian media.

“There is nowhere safe, and nowhere left to take the wounded,” said Rania Khalil, a nurse in Deir al-Balah. “We’re treating children with burns and shrapnel wounds on the floor, with no medicine, no clean water, and no hope.”

A Genocidal Offensive And The Erasure Of Gaza’s Health System:

Despite repeated calls for a ceasefire by international organisations, including the UN and WHO, Israel has intensified its military campaign, which it claims targets Hamas but increasingly appears to target Gaza’s survival infrastructure itself. Hospitals, displacement camps, schools, water systems, and food distribution points have become frequent targets.

In central Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp, four Palestinians, three of them children, were killed in an airstrike on tents sheltering displaced families. Another child, six-year-old Yousef Abu Amra, died after Israeli shelling hit makeshift shelters near the Tiberias gas station in Khan Younis.

“These are not accidents. These are systematic strikes aimed at eliminating the most vulnerable,” said Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories. “Israel’s economy and military strategy are built to sustain occupation and escalate it into genocide. The world must stop enabling it.”

In Khan Younis, the US- and Israeli-backed Global Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) reported that at least 20 Palestinians were killed at one of its food distribution points, facilities the UN now refers to as “death traps” due to repeated targeting.

Fuel Siege: Infants Die For Lack Of Electricity.

The closure of Gaza’s hospitals isn’t only due to bombings. It is also the result of Israel’s deliberate weaponisation of fuel access, a tactic rights groups say is aimed at forcing societal collapse.

At Al-Helou Hospital, paediatric ward head Dr. Mohammed Tabaja warned that 22 premature infants are at immediate risk of death due to power outages affecting incubators and ventilators.

“The motor shuts down every two hours. When that happens, electricity cuts out and we have to manually restart the ventilators,” he told Middle East Eye. “We’ve been requesting an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) for three months. Nothing has arrived.”

Dr. Tabaja said the ward is operating at over 180% capacity, with 12 incubators for more than 22 babies. Malnutrition and premature births have surged due to the stress, hunger, and trauma faced by pregnant women.

His colleague, Dr. Ziad al-Masry, said: “We are manually ventilating infants. It’s not a substitute. It’s a desperate measure to keep them alive.”

Civilians Pay The Price As Aid Is Blocked:

Gaza’s municipal authorities have announced the complete halt of public services, including water pumping, waste removal, and road clearing, due to a “total interruption of fuel.” Israel allowed a token 75,000-litre fuel delivery last week, the first in over four months, but health officials say it doesn’t cover a single day’s needs.

“We used to receive eight nappies per child per day. Now it’s one or two,” said Dr. Tabaja. “We’re leaving newborns in the same diaper for 24 hours. This is how preventable infections spread, and kill.”

Israel continues to severely restrict life-saving aid. According to Doctors Without Borders, no baby formula, fuel, or medical aid has reached Al-Helou in nearly four months.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation describes Gaza’s healthcare system as “virtually non-existent”: over 70% of hospitals have been bombed or shut down, medical supply chains are severed, and 1.9 million displaced people face starvation and the spread of infectious disease.

“We are witnessing the dismantling of a society,” said Jan Egeland, head of the Norwegian Refugee Council. “No electricity, no water, no food, no healthcare. This is the architecture of annihilation.”

War Crimes and Impunity

In November 2024, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Separately, Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), a case brought by South Africa and backed by dozens of Global South nations.

Despite these legal actions, Israeli military operations have escalated, especially in the so-called “buffer zone,” where Israeli outlet Walla News reports the army is carrying out major “engineering operations” to entrench military bases and expand settler roads, a potential violation of Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits the transfer of populations into occupied territory.

“Israel is not just destroying Gaza. It is carving it up for permanent control,” said Haidar Eid, a Gaza-based academic and activist. “This is textbook ethnic cleansing. The world must decide whether to witness genocide in real time, or stop it.”

A Call For Urgent International Intervention:

The Palestinian Red Crescent, Médecins Sans Frontières, UNRWA, and numerous human rights organisations have issued urgent appeals for a humanitarian ceasefire, unimpeded access for aid, and protection for medical workers. But these calls have largely been met with inaction.

“We are beyond the red line,” said Dr. Ashraf al-Qudra, spokesperson for Gaza’s Health Ministry. “Every minute we wait, another child dies. Another patient bleeds out. Another baby suffocates in an incubator that no longer works.”

In London, Washington, and Brussels, protests have erupted calling for an arms embargo on Israel, citing the ongoing use of US and UK-made weapons in attacks on civilians and hospitals. Yet both governments continue to provide diplomatic cover and military support.

Conclusion: A Systematic Erasure Disguised As War.

What is unfolding in Gaza is not merely a humanitarian catastrophe; it is the systematic erasure of a people, executed through a deliberate strategy of death, dispossession, displacement, and denial. The destruction of Gaza’s hospitals, the targeting of displaced civilians, and the starvation of children are not tragic byproducts of war; they are core features of an intentional policy of annihilation, designed to make Palestinian life in Gaza unsustainable.

This is not a health crisis; it is the collapse of a society under siege, a slow-motion genocide carried out in full view of the world. As incubators fall silent, as newborns gasp for breath in powerless hospitals, and as entire families are obliterated in airstrikes on tents and food lines, the reality becomes impossible to ignore: this is not war, it is elimination.

“This isn’t about military targets, it’s about rendering Gaza unlivable,” said a Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) coordinator. “When you bomb hospitals, block fuel, and deny access to aid, you’re not fighting an enemy. You’re crushing a population.”

The figures are staggering: over 100,000 Palestinians killed, nearly 377,000 injured, and entire sectors of civil life obliterated. According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, the majority of victims are women and children. The few functioning hospitals now serve as death row for the sick and wounded, deprived of electricity, oxygen, and the most basic medical supplies.

Yet, the international response remains paralysed, either mired in cowardice or complicit silence. Arrest warrants from the International Criminal Court and genocide charges at the International Court of Justice have failed to stop the bloodshed. Meanwhile, key allies like the United States and European governments continue to supply arms, provide diplomatic cover, and block meaningful ceasefire resolutions.

“We are not witnessing the breakdown of the system,” noted human rights scholar Noura Erakat. “We are witnessing the system working exactly as it was designed, to protect power, not the powerless.”

The strategy is clear: strip Gaza of its infrastructure, suffocate its hospitals, starve its population, and erase its future. Through precision bombing and institutionalised blockade, Israel is not just destroying buildings, it is dismantling the possibility of Palestinian life itself.

And unless the world acts decisively, not with statements, but with sanctions, embargoes, and prosecutions, this genocide will not only continue, it will become precedent.

Because in Gaza, we are not witnessing the unfortunate consequences of conflict. We are witnessing the elimination of a people.

And history will remember not just who pulled the trigger, but who looked away.