Gaza: the record ·
Gaza's hospitals: al-Shifa, Nasser, Kamal Adwan
Gaza's largest hospitals were besieged, raided and left in ruins. Mass graves were found in their grounds. The UN human rights chief called for an independent investigation.
Al-Shifa
Al-Shifa, Gaza's largest hospital, was raided by Israeli forces in November 2023 and again in a two-week siege in March and April 2024. When the troops withdrew, the complex was in ruins.
Mass graves at Nasser
In April 2024, Palestinian civil defence teams exhumed 283 bodies from mass graves in the grounds of Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, some with their hands tied. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said he was "horrified", reminded that "the intentional killing of civilians, detainees and others who are hors de combat is a war crime", and called for independent investigations.
Kamal Adwan
On 27 December 2024, Israeli forces stormed Kamal Adwan Hospital, one of the last functioning hospitals in northern Gaza. Staff and patients were forced outside and made to strip in the winter cold. The hospital's director, Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, was detained and taken to Sde Teiman.
Medicine as a target
Attacks on hospitals, ambulances and health workers are prohibited under international humanitarian law. In Gaza they became a pattern, documented by the UN, the World Health Organization and medical organizations working on the ground.
Watch NAZA
NAZA is Israeli military slang for collateral damage: the number of civilians an officer is allowed to kill in a strike. In this documentary, 24 Israeli intelligence officers and soldiers, many from the army's most prestigious units, explain how that number was set, approved and exceeded in Gaza. What they describe is not a tragic accident of war but a system: targets tracked to their family homes, families watched for days, strikes approved knowing children were inside.
In cinemas now, and free worldwide on theguardian.com after the cinema run.
