World leaders’ outrage over Israel’s conduct in its war with Gaza is justified: the Israeli government has repeatedly violated international humanitarian law, particularly in its systematic attacks on Gaza’s healthcare system.
The rules of war are clear: hospitals are to be protected. The Geneva Convention IV, to which Israel is a party, stipulates that “civilian hospitals organised to give care to the wounded and sick, the infirm and maternity cases, may in no circumstances be the object of attack, but shall at all times be respected and protected by the Parties to the conflict.” There are similar protections for vehicles and other conveyances transporting civilian patients.
But over the last two years, Israel has targeted healthcare infrastructure in Gaza, and to a lesser extent in the West Bank. Many of Israel’s attacks were clustered around three of Gaza’s largest hospitals: Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, and Al-Awda Hospital in Jabalia.
The consequences have been devastating. Fewer than half of Gaza’s hospitals are functional (all of them only partially), more than 2,000 people have been killed or injured in Israel’s attacks on healthcare infrastructure, and Israeli forces have unlawfully detained at least 405 Palestinian healthcare workers, some of whom have been reportedly tortured. Now that a ceasefire has taken effect, it will take decades to rebuild Gaza’s healthcare system.
There is no hierarchy of suffering. International law is explicit in protecting hospitals and medical personnel because they are essential to preserving life. To accept their deaths and injury as collateral damage is to call into question our own humanity.
World leaders must reaffirm their commitment to international humanitarian law. The UN Security Council could refer Israel’s attacks on Gaza’s healthcare system to the ICC, empowering the court to investigate and prosecute. A Security Council referral is one of the few ways the court gains jurisdiction over non-member states like Israel, as was the case for Darfur in 2005 and Libya in 2011.
A resolution that denounces attacks on healthcare globally could break the political gridlock and go a long way toward affirming international law. The last Security Council resolution addressing this issue passed in 2016. Since then, military technologies have evolved and attacks on healthcare have intensified, including recent cases in Ukraine, Sudan, and Syria. Civilian casualties are actively tracked and verified by organisations such as Insecurity Insight and the World Health Organisation. Peer-reviewed research, satellite imagery analysis, and frontline testimony from physicians further underscore the need for a resolution that reflects the current realities of conflict zones.
The evidence is irrefutable: healthcare workers in Gaza and beyond are under fire. Just as doctors are ethically obliged to provide impartial medical care, world leaders are obliged to uphold the rules of war. When healthcare is attacked, suffering persists long after the guns fall silent. - Project Syndicate