GAZA (Palestine Foundation Information Center)The Government Media Office (GMO) in Gaza stated on Thursday that the Israeli occupation’s policy of forcibly evacuating hospitals and medical centers constitutes a systematic crime aimed at completing the destruction of the healthcare system and furthering the ongoing genocide in Gaza. The number of hospitals targeted has now risen to 38.
In its statement, the GMO said: “As part of the continued systematic violations committed by the Israeli military against the health system in the Gaza Strip, occupation forces repeatedly issue evacuation notices to hospitals, clinics, and medical centers — the most recent being Sheikh Radwan Clinic.”
The GMO stressed that these evacuations reflect a clear policy aimed at stripping Gaza of its means of survival and destroying its health infrastructure, in blatant violation of international laws and conventions.
It added that the forced evacuation of medical facilities came just hours after the bombing and destruction of the European Hospital in Khan Yunis, one of the last functioning medical facilities serving the southern region of Gaza.
The GMO also noted that the total number of hospitals now targeted by direct bombing, destruction, arson, or forced closure has reached 38, in addition to dozens of other health centers affected by ongoing attacks.
It asserted that the deliberate and systematic targeting of healthcare facilities — including hospitals, clinics, and medical staff — constitutes a war crime and a crime against humanity under the Fourth Geneva Convention, international humanitarian law, and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
The statement emphasized that what is happening to Gaza’s hospitals reflects an intent to deepen the humanitarian catastrophe and to enforce policies of mass displacement and forced evacuation upon the civilian population.
The Office further warned that international silence and failure to take concrete measures have given Israel a green light to continue committing genocide against over 2.4 million besieged Palestinian civilians in Gaza, pushing the health system to the brink of total collapse.
The statement held Israel, as well as the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, and France, fully responsible for these repeated and systematic crimes.
It called on the international community to urgently intervene to protect what remains of Gaza’s health sector, deploy UN investigation teams to document and report on these violations, prosecute Israeli leaders at international courts as war criminals, ensure safe humanitarian corridors for medical aid, and evacuate wounded and critically ill patients for treatment outside Gaza
Finally, the statement warned that the continued targeting of hospitals and clinics poses an existential threat to hundreds of thousands of civilians, placing the international community before a critical moral and legal test that demands urgent action, not delay or denial of responsibility.
