The World Health Organization (WHO) said on December 21 that no hospitals were functioning in northern Gaza and injured patients who were unable to be moved were “waiting to die.” According to the WHO, as of January 10, six hospitals in the north were partially functioning.
To provide a window into how Gaza’s hospitals became battlegrounds, CNN took an in-depth look at the deterioration of the strip’s biggest and second biggest medical facilities, Al-Shifa and Al-Quds, up until they ceased operations in November. Al-Shifa has since resumed some services.
Israeli authorities say both hospitals have been used by Hamas for military purposes. The IDF published images of a tunnel shaft and military equipment it said its forces found inside the Al-Shifa complex and video of what appeared to be an armed man outside Al-Quds Hospital. Hamas and hospital officials have denied that the militant group has operated from inside the facilities.
Taken together, the two hospitals reflect the similarities CNN observed in reviewing evidence from the first two months of the war: that what should be protected facilities are being bombed, encircled and shot at by tanks, and that surrounding infrastructure, ambulances and roads are being hit, affecting efforts to treat patients, evacuate facilities and deliver aid.
Several of the hospitals assessed as part of this analysis, including Al-Shifa and Al-Quds, appeared to have been attacked by Israel, according to imagery of munitions fragments, large impact craters, tanks, tank shell holes and tracks from heavily armored vehicles. Experts who reviewed the imagery for CNN said that the aftermath was consistent with damage from high-grade military weaponry used by the IDF.
