Hospitals in Gaza remain among the main targets of Israeli assaults. Several facilities were forced to close last week due to attacks and shortages. On September 30, the Ministry of Health in Gaza warned of the “disastrous challenges faced by medical teams due to the shortage of medicines and consumables,” stressing that Israel’s actions are having devastating consequences for those injured.

Doctors Against Genocide (DAG) recently also sounded the alarm, emphasizing that renewed sieges and strikes had led to the full or partial suspension of services in several healthcare institutions, including Al-Rantisi Children’s Hospital and the specialist ophthalmology hospital. “Each shutdown denies thousands access to life-saving care and forces civilians into mass displacement,” said Dr. Nidal Jboor of DAG.

Designed to inflict maximum damage

Civilians in Gaza continue to shoulder the heaviest burden of direct injury as well as healthcare collapse. Since the start of Israel’s genocide, local and international medical staff have warned that the pattern of injuries inflicted on Gaza’s population is deliberate and systematic. A recent article in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) provides additional backing to these warnings.

The study, written by international health workers who volunteered in Gaza, is based on records from 78 medics who collectively encountered more than 23,000 traumatic injuries during their deployment. Their professional diaries and notes detail hundreds of gunshot wounds to the head and chest, thousands of shrapnel injuries in the same regions, and extensive burns across multiple body parts. Regularly, patients – those who were able to reach hospitals in the first place – had suffered multiple types of trauma.

Read more: Israeli destruction of Gaza’s healthcare is a blueprint for future imperialist wars

“The resulting injury profiles resembled those reported in combat settings among trained military personnel, highlighting the burden of trauma among civilians in Gaza,” the study states. “Explosive injuries made up 67% of the cases in our cohort, aligning with US military data from Iraq and Afghanistan, and more than double the 31% of explosive injuries reported among civilian populations in contemporary conflicts.”

From these patterns, health workers were also able to deduce the kinds of weapons deployed. “The distribution of injuries aligns with the use of thermobaric, incendiary, and area-effect munitions designed for maximum tissue destruction,” the authors wrote. In other words, the bombs and ammunition used by the Israeli occupation in Gaza are designed to inflict maximum damage to the human body.

Suicidal children are more than a “war mishap”

The study also notes that physical trauma is compounded by other consequences of the genocide, particularly hunger and malnutrition, which have already killed at least 150 children and dozens of others overall. About 60% of the health workers who contributed data to the study reported observing emotional and mental health issues, with a significant share involving suicidal ideation – suicidal thoughts – including among children.

The healthcare collapse and its consequences are not a “war mishap” as some still try to argue, says an open letter by Jewish health professionals. With nearly 1,000 endorsements, the letter insists: “These are the foreseeable and intentional outcomes of a military strategy targeting civilians and life-sustaining infrastructure, and the consequences of a brutal, long-lasting dispossession and occupation lasting decades.”

Read more: Pharmacist on board the Global Sumud Flotilla: “Health workers’ solidarity with Palestine must be practiced on the ground”

Health workers’ solidarity with Gaza continues on other fronts as well. Many pharmacists, nurses, and physicians remain on board the Global Sumud Flotilla, now approaching a critical stage in its mission to break the illegal sea blockade of Gaza. As the boats near Palestinian waters, the crew anticipates renewed attacks by Israel. Among them is Moroccan pharmacist Aziz Rhali, a member of the People’s Health Movement (PHM), who recently announced he would go on hunger strike if Israel intercepts or assaults the civilian fleet – reaffirming the commitment of health workers to ending the genocide in Gaza and supporting a free Palestine.

People’s Health Dispatch is a fortnightly bulletin published by the People’s Health Movement and Peoples Dispatch*. For more articles and to subscribe to People’s Health Dispatch, click* here.

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