As Trump Talks ‘Peace’ Netanyahu Bombs Hospitals!

The violent aerial assaults carried out by Israeli warplanes on the grounds of the European Gaza Hospital and its surrounding areas in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, forced the hospital out of service and resulted in the deaths and injuries of dozens of civilians. These attacks came shortly after the bombing of the Nasser Medical Complex, representing yet another episode in a systematic campaign to eliminate spaces of survival and destroy what little remains of safe havens for Gaza’s population, within the broader framework of the ongoing genocide in the Strip.

These attacks are not merely aimed at physical infrastructure or health facilities alone. Rather, they appear designed to engineer slow death, pushing Gaza toward total collapse by depriving civilians of even the most basic means of survival—and stripping them of any chance at life. This is part of a deliberate strategy to uproot Palestinian existence in Gaza from its foundations.

On the evening of Tuesday, 13 May 2025, Israeli aircraft launched a sudden and unannounced series of intense airstrikes on the European Gaza Hospital, including the entrance to the emergency and reception departments, as well as areas around the hospital buildings, surrounding roads, and adjacent lands. A large number of high-explosive missiles were used.

The strikes killed more than 35 Palestinians, including entire families wiped out in their homes or on the streets. Dozens more were injured, including four journalists.

Israeli forces reportedly blocked civil defence teams from rescuing or evacuating victims by deliberately targeting them, injuring several. Airstrikes continued into Wednesday morning, including one on a bulldozer operating in the hospital’s courtyard. Further attacks killed and wounded more civilians, including a journalist who had been covering the aftermath of the earlier bombing.

The hospital administration announced a sudden shutdown of electricity and oxygen systems, posing a critical threat to the lives of patients. Medical teams were unable to perform surgeries on the wounded from the renewed attacks, forcing them to transfer patients to Nasser Hospital. The hospital’s operating theatres went out of service, and its buildings sustained serious structural damage.

Israeli claims of underground militant infrastructure in or around the hospital follow a pattern of unverified allegations used to justify attacks on medical facilities throughout the war—none of which have ever been substantiated.

These claims are part of a familiar tactic to justify war crimes. Similar narratives were used in previous attacks on Al-Shifa Medical Complex in Gaza City and Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis, where no military targets were found.

The bombing of the European Gaza Hospital came just hours after a deadly airstrike targeted the surgical unit of Nasser Medical Complex earlier that day. That attack killed injured journalist Hassan Abdel Fattah Asleeh (37), along with Narcotics Police Director Ahmed Al-Qudra, and wounded 12 other patients who were receiving treatment.

The attack on Nasser Medical Complex constitutes multiple violations of international law, including targeting a medical facility fully protected under international humanitarian law, and killing a wounded journalist who had already survived a prior attack near the same hospital on 7 April.

Israeli forces justified both attacks by alleging that the journalist belonged to an armed faction and had participated in covering the events of 7 October 2023—claims that have not been supported by any credible evidence and remain legally and ethically indefensible.

Media work, including coverage of military operations, does not in itself constitute direct participation in hostilities, and therefore does not strip journalists of the protection granted to them under Article 79 of Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions. As such, targeting journalists constitutes a violation of international law and may amount to a war crime. Similarly, police officers not directly engaged in hostilities, including those in criminal investigation units, remain protected under international humanitarian law, making attacks on them unlawful and criminal under international legal standards.

Even if military objectives were present, which has yet to be proven, Israel remains legally bound under international law, particularly international humanitarian law, to uphold and implement the principles of humanity, distinction, military necessity, proportionality, and the duty to take all feasible precautions. This obligation is absolute and applies to every military operation, in both planning and execution. It includes the choice of attack method, weapons used, and operational conduct, all of which must seek to minimisecivilian harm and damage to the greatest extent possible.

Israel’s recurring claims of “military use” of hospitals reflect a pre-scripted narrative used to retroactively justify systematic killings and destruction. These allegations, however, collapse under scrutiny due to the complete lack of credible evidence. Viewed in a broader context, they reveal a deliberate policy of targeting civilian infrastructure, particularly hospitals, which have consistently been central targets, without any legal justification and in direct violation of the protections afforded to medical facilities under international humanitarian law.

The attack on the Gaza European Hospital cannot be justified under any circumstances. The extensive destruction caused by the Israeli military’s fire belt operation and the severe physical and psychological trauma inflicted on patients, medical staff, and civilians sheltering in the facility clearly exceed any alleged military necessity, constituting a grave breach of international humanitarian law and an international crime warranting accountability and prosecution.

The repeated targeting of hospitals, which has led to 36 medical facilities being rendered non-operational at various times, is part of a systematic campaign to dismantle the health system in Gaza.

In recent weeks, Israeli forces have attacked Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City, destroyed the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital in southern Gaza—which served over 12,000 cancer patients—and previously levelled hospitals in Rafah, northern Gaza, and central Gaza City.

The ongoing destruction of hospitals and health infrastructure in Gaza constitutes a war crime and a crime against humanity. It exposes the systematic nature of the aggression, which appears aimed at dismantling the means of civilian survival—chief among them, the health system, which remains the last lifeline for Gaza’s civilian population.

This escalation marks a dangerous phase in a systematic strategy to eliminate “last refuge” spaces—including hospitals where civilians, especially the sick and wounded, seek protection and care. These facilities, and the medical teams operating under catastrophic conditions, should be protected at all times. Attacks on hospitals sheltering critically ill patients are direct assaults on the right to life, and within the broader context, represent a continuing chapter in the genocide being perpetrated against the Palestinian people in Gaza.

Since the beginning of March, Israel has completely barred the entry of medicines, medical supplies, and fuel into the Gaza Strip, despite a severe shortage of these essentials and the escalating intensity of Israeli attacks, which continue to cause a rising number of casualties.

All states, individually and collectively, must assume their legal responsibilities and take urgent action, using all available means, to halt the ongoing crime of genocide in Gaza. Immediate and effective measures must be taken to protect Palestinian civilians, including medical facilities, health workers, the wounded, and the sick, and to put an end to the ongoing policy of collective extermination targeting Palestinians in the Strip.

The international community must also ensure that Israel complies with international law and the rulings of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), and that it is held accountable for its crimes against Palestinians. Furthermore, the international community must support the execution of arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) against the Israeli Prime Minister and Defence Minister, ensuring they are brought to justice without delay.

There must be serious economic, diplomatic, and military sanctions imposed on Israel in response to its systematic and grave violations of international law. These should include a full arms embargo, bans on dual-use goods, suspension of all political, financial, and military support, freezing the assets of officials involved in crimes against Palestinians, travel bans, and suspension of trade privileges and bilateral agreements that afford Israel economic advantages used to sustain its continued commission of international crimes.

The international community must also ensure that independent international and UN fact-finding missions are granted immediate access to Gaza to prevent the destruction of evidence related to crimes committed by Israel. This includes enabling access for the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel, as well as ICC investigative teams, to allow them to fulfil their mandate in gathering evidence and holding perpetrators accountable.

States and relevant entities must also pursueaccountability of countries complicit in or supportive of Israel’s crimes, most notably the United States, along with other governments that provide Israel with any form of assistance connected to these violations. This includes military, intelligence, political, legal, financial, and media support, as well as any contractual engagements that contribute to the continuation of these crimes.

The international community must immediately launch a comprehensive reconstruction process in the Gaza Strip, prioritising the repair and rebuilding of critical infrastructure, with particular urgency given to the devastated health sector. The provision of medicines, medical equipment, surgical and intensive care supplies, and power generators is now a humanitarian necessity that cannot be delayed, in light of the total collapse of the health system and the inability of hospitals to provide even the most basic care.

Finally, Israel must lift all restrictions on the entry of construction materials and humanitarian aid into Gaza, in accordance with its binding legal obligations under international humanitarian law. These cannot be made conditional upon political considerations, nor subject to Israeli approval—as Israel, as the occupying power, has no legitimate authority over the administration of the affairs of the Palestinian civilian population.

EuroMed Human Rights Monitor

  • CrossFireArabia

    CrossFireArabia

    Dr. Marwan Asmar holds a PhD from Leeds University and is a freelance writer specializing on the Middle East. He has worked as a journalist since the early 1990s in Jordan and the Gulf countries, and been widely published, including at Albawaba, Gulf News, Al Ghad, World Press Review and others.

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    Hiding The Evidence: Israel Removes Mass Debris Via 100 Trucks Daily

    Euromed stated that Israel is seeking to hide the evidence of genocide in Gaza Strip by removing the rubble and wreckage of destroyed buildings and the remains of missing persons underneath them through transport via 100 trucks daily.

    In a press statement reported by the Sanad News Agency, Monday, the European-Mediternean human rights organization explained that the Israeli occupation is unilaterally carrying out a systematic operation to remove the rubble in areas under its military control and is transport it out of the Gaza Strip to obliterate evidence the criminal evidence it carried out in Gaza since 7 October, 2023.

    Euromed,  officially named he Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, has indicated that initial estimates suggest Israel wants to remove about 10 million tons of rubble in the so-called Yellow Line areas which is under Israeli military control.

    Euromed emphasized that its estimates that are 400 Israeli vehicles involved the removal of the rubble, besides the 100 trucks who are transporting the debris to unknown locations inside Israel.

    It pointed out that the rubble that is being removed and transported focuses on sites where murders have taken places and where mass graves exist. It warned that “removing it separates physical evidence from its spatial context.”

    Euromed added: The remains of some 8,500 missing persons are being crushed and mixed with rubble due to the use of crushers without forensic investigation. Meanwhile, the removed rubble contains property and essential building materials, and removing it without compensating its owners constitutes confiscation and looting, which is prohibited under international law.

    The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor called on the international community to intervene urgently, halt the rubble removal, and send international investigation teams to inspect and document the sites of destruction.

    The amount of rubble and debris accumulated in the Gaza Strip by the first half of 2026 is estimated at approximately 60 million tons (other UN estimates put the figure at 68 million tons), following the complete or partial destruction of more than 80% of buildings and infrastructure.

    Official statistics issued by the Government Media Office in Gaza indicate that more than 80% of buildings in the Gaza Strip have been destroyed or damaged, while the area is covered by approximately 60 to 70 million tons of rubble.

    See Full Report Below:

    The Israeli forces, along with Israeli civilian contractors, are conducting a wide and organised operation to process and clear the rubble from neighbourhoods and facilities they have destroyed in the Gaza Strip and relocate it from areas under their military control to outside the Strip.

    This is occurring without any official record of the quantities removed or independent oversight, and before international and local investigative committees have had the chance to survey, examine, and document the sites. This risks destroying crucial evidence of genocide and the remains of victims still unaccounted for under the rubble.

    These operations are not part of organised humanitarian efforts to rescue the missing, open roads, or prepare for reconstruction. Instead, Israel is acting unilaterally within closed areas under its military control by demolishing remaining buildings and then crushing, mixing, and transporting the rubble before forensic teams, evidence experts, and unexploded ordnance specialists can examine, document, and preserve the sites, along with the evidence and human remains.

    The Gaza Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment, published jointly by the World Bank, the United Nations, and the European Union in April 2026, estimated that approximately 68 million tonnes of rubble are spread across the Gaza Strip, based on damage reports up to October 2025. This figure does not necessarily account for damage caused by later demolition and destruction operations.

    According to its initial field data, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor estimates that at least 10 million tonnes of rubble have been removed, crushed, or moved from their original sites within the areas under Israel’s unlawful military control, which encompass about 66 per cent of the Gaza Strip.

    Approximately 400 heavy pieces of excavation, demolition, crushing, and transport machinery, operated by Israeli civilian companies under military protection, are active across eastern and southern Gaza. They demolish remaining structures, crush rubble from destroyed neighbourhoods, and load the debris onto trucks for transportation away from the original sites.

    In recent weeks, Euro-Med Monitor tracked nearly 100 Israeli trucks daily leaving the Gaza Strip with debris. These trucks carry rubble to undisclosed sites within Israel and further south of the occupied West Bank. The Israeli authorities have not provided details on the quantities removed, the routes taken, the destination sites, or how the material is utilised. They also have not permitted independent oversight of the sorting, weighing, or transport processes. This lack of transparency makes it very difficult to trace the transported material, identify evidence, or recover any human remains that might be present.

    The systematic removal of rubble at this pace conceals the evidence of appalling crimes Israel committed in Gaza, especially those related to genocide, such as summary executions and killing unarmed civilians. These sites need careful examination and thorough criminal investigation before any intervention that might change or erase their features.

    The debris scattered throughout the Gaza Strip includes possible locations of unlawful killings and bombings that targeted entire families, as well as sites believed to contain mass graves or bodies buried within destroyed homes, hospitals, shelters, and civilian facilities.

    These sites hold evidence critical for identifying the weapon, attack sequence, victim and attacker positions, firing ranges, cause and manner of death, as well as fragments, projectiles, spent cartridges, biological traces, and personal belongings.

    Crushing, mixing, and transporting rubble can erase evidence, location details, and connections within the crime scene. This process also disrupts the chain of custody, potentially making it impossible to trace where evidence was collected or to link it to a particular incident or victim. This damage cannot be reversed by aerial photographs or subsequent testimony, as investigating international crimes also requires tangible evidence that can be examined, compared, and legally verified.

    These operations pose a direct risk to the remains of thousands of missing persons, estimated by Gaza’s Civil Defence to be around 8,500 in July 2026. Using crushers and heavy machinery without prior forensic and humanitarian surveys could crush or scatter the remains, mix them with rubble, and separate them from belongings and documents vital for victim identification. This process may also lead to transporting the remains to unknown locations that may become impossible to access later.

    This conduct infringes on the families’ right to know the fate of their missing relatives and to recover and bury their remains with dignity. It also contradicts international standards that call for searching for the deceased, collecting and safeguarding information about them, and ensuring proper identification and recording. Additionally, removing sites before investigation breaches the guidelines outlined in the Minnesota Protocol on the Investigation of Potentially Unlawful Death. This protocol emphasises securing and documenting the scene, gathering evidence while preserving its chain of custody, and recovering and examining remains with scientific methods that uphold the victims’ dignity and their family’s rights.

    The debris in the Gaza Strip comprises more than just rubble; it includes private and public property, essential building materials like steel, stone, and concrete that can be recycled and reused, as well as other valuable assets necessary for Palestinians to reconstruct their homes, roads, and infrastructure. It may also contain property documents, official records, and personal belongings that are part of individuals’ and families’ rights and memories.

    Removing rubble from the Gaza Strip and commercially exploiting it without the owners’ consent or compensation may, depending on the circumstances and intent of the seizure, constitute unlawful confiscation or pillage. Such acts are prohibited under international humanitarian law, especially Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention and the relevant provisions of the Rome Statute.

    These actions are part of a broader pattern that has involved bulldozing sites believed to contain mass graves, storming and damaging hospitals and medical facilities after they were suspected of being sites of grave crimes, ongoing demolition of buildings in military-controlled zones, and targeting Palestinian journalists. Additionally, international investigators and independent media have been prevented from accessing the most heavily destroyed areas.

    This deliberate removal of evidence occurs when the International Criminal Court (ICC) is still investigating crimes in Palestine, alongside other cases under universal jurisdiction in national courts. Destroying crime scenes before investigations are finished hampers legal accountability and complicates efforts by international investigators and prosecutors to establish facts, as vital evidence may be lost once removed from the Gaza Strip.

    Moreover, Article 70(1)(c) of the Rome Statute considers “destroying, tampering with or interfering with the collection of evidence” as criminal acts that hinder the ICC’s justice mission when done deliberately. The ICC Prosecutor should investigate these actions as deliberate interference with evidence collection related to the ongoing investigation into the Situation in the State of Palestine, which also includes unlawful destruction, seizure, or pillage of property.

    The large-scale crushing and removal of rubble not only destroys evidence but also erases land boundaries, house foundations, street networks, and neighbourhood features. This process strips Palestinians of the physical markers of ownership and their connection to the land, making it more difficult for them to return and rebuild their communities as they once were.

    Transforming forcibly depopulated Palestinian towns and neighbourhoods into levelled, open spaces under Israeli control is a concrete act that deepens the displacement and ethnic cleansing. This process is inseparable from Israeli settler colonialism, which involves uprooting Palestinians, erasing signs of their presence, and redefining the land without them. This sets the stage for Israel’s efforts to re-establish settlements in Gaza and displace Palestinian residents, advancing a new phase of colonisation and the ongoing denial of land and the right of return.

    The international community, including the Security Council, the UN General Assembly, and states parties to the Rome Statute, must urgently intervene to halt the systematic removal and transport of rubble from the Gaza Strip. They should also advocate for independent international forensic and criminal investigation teams to be granted access to assess and document the destruction sites before any further removal or transport occurs, ensuring that physical evidence is preserved to hold those responsible for genocide accountable.

    Euro-Med Monitor urges the international community to push Israel to immediately and fully stop all rubble removal and transport activities. This includes requiring detailed disclosures of transported materials, weighing logs, truck routes, ultimate destinations, company and contractor names, beneficiary parties, payment information, machinery and truck registration numbers, and tracking data, as well as transparency regarding any sale, recycling, or commercial use of materials extracted from Gaza.

    Furthermore, removing rubble or recyclable materials from the Gaza Strip should be prohibited until a transparent Palestinian and international system for managing these materials is put in place. This system should ensure that any unlawfully transported materials are either returned or their full value is compensated to the owners. Additionally, rubble suitable for reuse should be allocated to local reconstruction projects that benefit the Palestinian population and protect individual and public property rights.

    States where the implicated companies or machinery manufacturers are based should mandate a halt to any actions that could lead to property demolition, evidence removal, or rubble seizure. They must also preserve all relevant contracts, correspondence, and operational data, and carry out independent investigations into the accountability of their directors and staff. Euro-Med Monitor urges targeted measures against individuals and companies found to have known about and taken part in these illegal activities, such as exclusion from public contracts, freezing assets, and criminal prosecution.

    Any efforts to remove rubble or rebuild in the Gaza Strip must be led by Palestinians, involving local residents, property owners, and families of the missing. These initiatives should ensure the protection of evidence, recovery of remains, clearance of unexploded ordnance, sorting of hazardous materials, local reuse of rubble, preservation of property maps and urban fabric, and prevent reconstruction from being used to cement control or alter the enclave’s geographic or demographic makeup.

    Euro-Med Monitor affirms that a ceasefire or political agreements do not erase crimes or their evidence. Reconstruction and rubble removal should happen alongside preserving evidence, discovering the fate of the missing, recovering property, holding perpetrators accountable, and ensuring victims’ rights to truth, justice, and reparation.

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    Israeli Bullet Rips a Child’s Hand in a Gaza Classroom

    CROSSFIREARABIA – A bulled fired by an Israeli soldier pierced through the hand of a pupil in-the-sixth grade and lodged into his wrist. The incident occurred on Monday while the pupil was sitting in class in school in Gaza City according to the Education Ministry. It said the boys name was Khaled Al Ashram from Al Sawafir School in the west of Gaza City. “The bulled pierced the small hand of the child while he was sitting at a school desk holding his open,” a Ministry statement emphasized. In its statement the Ministry included a photo showing the hand of the child pierced by the bullet and covered in blood according to Anadolu.

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