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<h1 class="gmail-single_title">Normalization of Israel’s war crimes in Gaza’s hospitals and dehumanization of Palestinian patients must end</h1>
<div class="gmail-article-author"><h3>By <a href="https://english.palinfo.com/?p=251539"> Anjuman Rahman </a></h3></div>
<p class="gmail-single_date">Sunday 22-December-2024 -<font size="1"> <a href="https://english.palinfo.com/opinion_articles/normalization-of-israels-war-crimes-in-gazas-hospitals-and-dehumanization-of-palestinian-patients-must-end/">https://english.palinfo.com/opinion_articles/normalization-of-israels-war-crimes-in-gazas-hospitals-and-dehumanization-of-palestinian-patients-must-end/</a></font></p>
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<p>The deliberate targeting of hospitals in Gaza has been a sadistic
trend highlighting the normalization of war crimes in an international
system increasingly indifferent to Palestinian suffering.</p>
<p>Since the Israeli military’s strike on Al-Ahli Arab Hospital on 17
October last year, resulting in the immediate loss of over 500
Palestinian patients and medical professionals, the deliberate and
systematic targeting of Gaza’s healthcare system has only intensified,
reflecting a broader pattern of assaults aimed at crippling medical
infrastructure and personnel.</p>
<p>Most recently, the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia town, the last
functioning intensive care unit (ICU) in northern Gaza, was bombarded,
leaving it in flames and out of service. Palestinian patients on
ventilators were evacuated moments before the fire caused by Israel
engulfed the ICU. According to the hospital’s Director, Dr Hussam Abu
Safiya, the attack involved sudden and intense gunfire, with Israeli
forces deliberately targeting the ICU.</p>
<p>“Sudden and crazy gunfire was fired at the hospital with all kinds of
weapons, and the occupation deliberately targeted the intensive care
unit by firing at it clearly,” Abu Safiya said, noting that the fires
were extinguished using only blankets and the limited drinking water
left in the hospital.</p>
<p>The ICU, the only one in northern Gaza, is now completely out of service.</p>
<p>Israel’s violence also stole the life of Dr Said Joudah, the last
remaining orthopedic surgeon in the region. Despite having sustained
injuries himself, Dr Joudah continued to travel between Kamal Adwan and
Al-Awda Hospitals to treat the wounded. Tragically, an Israeli drone
strike fatally targeted him. According to the Palestinian Ministry of
Health, his death brought the total number of healthcare workers
martyred to 1,057 since the onset of Israel’s war on Gaza. The ministry
also reported a devastating toll of 45,000 martyrs and over 106,000
injured since October of last year.</p>
<p>Before bombs are dropped on hospitals or homes, there’s a process of
dehumanization that lays the groundwork, painting Palestinians as
undeserving of dignity or protection. This process makes their suffering
easier to ignore, as they are reduced to mere numbers or dismissed as
“collateral damage” or “human shields”, stripping them of individuality.
Children become “minors”, murdered civilians are referred to as having
“died” and massacres are labelled as “chaotic scenes”. This deliberate
erosion of humanity, perpetuated by media framing and selective
language, anaesthetizes the global psyche, numbing it to Israel’s
ongoing military onslaught.</p>
<p>The media’s systematic misreporting reinforces the invisibility of
Palestinian suffering while amplifying Israeli narratives, legitimizing
the atrocities under the guise of “defense” or “military operations”.</p>
<p>In Gaza, where the highest number of pediatric amputees is recorded,
the scale of devastation has reached unimaginable proportions. Each new
tragedy, a child who loses their limbs, another who dies in an
airstrike, becomes part of an ever-expanding list of horrors. What was
once unthinkable is now seen as routine, as the international
community’s outrage wanes with each passing day.</p>
<p>Israel’s strike on Al-Ahli Arab Hospital shocked the world, and for a
brief moment, there was global condemnation and talk of accountability.
Yet, less than a year later, dozens of other hospitals, United Nations
shelters and universities have been bombed. Kamal Adwan Hospital,
already strained by water shortages after Israeli attacks on its water
tanks, suffered continued shelling and even attacks from exploding
robots and the fire in its ICU, which forced the evacuation of patients
as the hospital struggled to continue its work.</p>
<p>Dr Abu Safiya described the scene as “catastrophic and dangerous”. He
appealed for global intervention, noting that the healthcare system in
Gaza has been pleading for protection for months without any response.
The hospital faces daily attacks, including strikes on its generators,
water tanks and oxygen network, leaving it in a precarious state and
unable to serve the growing number of wounded arriving each day.</p>
<p>These attacks on medical facilities are a blatant violation of
international law, which protects hospitals and medical personnel under
the Geneva Conventions. Yet, these war crimes have gone unpunished.
Israel continues to justify its actions under the banner of
“self-defense,” while the global community, particularly Western powers,
remains complicit through inaction.</p>
<p>Israel’s actions are shielded by an exceptionalism narrative that
grants the state immunity from accountability. While it demands global
recognition of its “right to self-defense”, it simultaneously denies
Palestinians the right to a body, a home, a life. This duality extends
to its self-investigative mechanisms, which consistently exonerate the
military from allegations of wrongdoing.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the international response to Palestinian resistance,
whether violent or non-violent, is delegitimized. Boycotts are branded
offensive; peaceful protests are vilified. Even pleas for medical
evacuations for injured children, such as Ahmed, the four-year-old
amputee now receiving care in Italy after being denied entry to the UK,
are dismissed.</p>
<p>The relentless assault on Gaza’s healthcare system is not just a
Palestinian crisis, it is a global one. Targeting hospitals and
civilians constitutes a rupture of international law, a breakdown of the
principles that underpin any semblance of world order. As such
violations have been going unchallenged, they’ve set a precedent for
impunity, eroding the very foundation of human rights and justice.</p>
<p>The cost of dehumanization is not borne solely by its victims. While
Palestinians endure the unimaginable – burying their children, losing
their homes and surviving under perpetual siege – those who engage in or
enable dehumanization suffer the slow erosion of their own humanity.</p>
<p>As Gaza’s hospitals burn and its children clutch their dolls beneath
the rubble, the world’s silence grows louder. Culprits of genocide like
Benjamin Netanyahu receive standing ovations from Western parliaments,
while war crimes mount unchecked. Each passing day narrows the window
for accountability and with it, the chance to reclaim a moral compass
recognizing every human life as sacred.</p>
<p>The normalization of Israel’s attacks on hospitals in Gaza must end. The global community cannot afford to look away.</p>
<p><em>-Anjuman Rahman is an experienced journalist with a demonstrated
history of working in the information technology and humanitarian
industry. Strong media and communication professional graduated from
University of the Arts London. Her article appeared in MEMO.</em></p>
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