The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) condemns in the strongest terms the heinous crime committed by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) today, 13 April 2025, in the early morning when the latter directly bombed al-Ahli Arab Hospital “Baptist” in Gaza City. This healthcare facility is the last standing one providing health services, at very limited capacity, to more than one million Palestinians in Gaza City and northern Gaza amid a total collapse of the healthcare system due to the ongoing genocide against the Gaza Strip population.

According to PCHR’s field documentation, at around 02:08 on Sunday, 13 April 2025, Israeli warplanes targeted the ambulance department building at al-Ahli Arab Hospital “Baptist” only half an hour after IOF ordered the hospital evacuation, forcing hundreds of persons wounded and sick to leave.  In a harrowing scene, patients were left on the street with no medical care, leading to the death of a child namely Hatem Taha Ghazi al-Nabih (13) due to the interrupted medical care during the forced evacuation. The Israeli warplanes launched two missiles at the building destroying it and inflicting severe damage to the reception and emergency department, the pharmacy and the laboratory in addition to other surrounding buildings, including the church within the hospital. This attack is a blatant violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the protection of civilian persons in time of war, which prohibits targeting hospitals in any circumstances. It also constitutes a war crime under Article 8 of the International Criminal Court’s Rome Statute and within a broader context it is part of a crime of genocide committed against the people of the Gaza Strip.

PCHR reiterates that al-Ahli Arab Hospital, despite its limited resources and small size compared to larger hospitals destroyed by IOF, had been up to the moment it was targeted the last standing main medical facility in Gaza City and northern Gaza amid almost-complete collapse of the healthcare system.  Thus, targeting it is a crime and reflects a systematic policy adopted by Israel since the beginning of its aggression on the Gaza Strip, where its forces have so far destroyed and rendered out of service 36 hospitals. The Baptist Hospital has been a witness to this policy as it had been bombed and targeted several times during the ongoing genocide against civilians in the Gaza Strip.

PCHR emphasizes that prior warning by IOF before bombing one of the main hospital’s buildings does not justify the crime but further proves that the aim was to destroy. This also reflects Israel’s persistence to deliberately exterminate the remaining glimmer of hope for patients and the injured to survive in Gaza city and northern Gaza as this hospital is considered the last central one after al-Shifa medical complex had been destroyed. By this, Israel deliberately terminates civilians’ right to life and medical treatment, marking a stark manifestation of a comprehensive genocidal strategy aimed at destroying the essential means of survival for the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip.

PCHR believes that this atrocious crime further proves that the international community’s silence and complicity have fueled Israel’s impunity through obstructing international accountability and deterrence mechanisms. By this, the international community has encouraged Israel to continue its systematic and repeated attacks on civilians and medical facilities, in a blatant violation of all international laws and norms.

In light of the above, PCHR reiterates its call on the international community, particularly the High Contracting Parties to the Geneva Conventions and the United Nations, to take an immediate and serious action to stop the ongoing genocide against the people in the Gaza Strip, activate international accountability mechanisms and ensure effective protection for civilians and medical facilities, in compliance with the international humanitarian law and principles of justice to end of the ongoing impunity.