The Institute for Palestine Studies has launched a digital project, supervised by Dr. Ghassan Abu-Sittah, Documenting the Targeting and Destruction of the Health Sector in the Gaza Strip. The project includes a database detailing the targeting of healthcare facilities as well as medical personnel who were killed, kidnapped, or disappeared by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF). It also includes analyses and interviews by researchers and authors, addressing various aspects of the targeting of the health sector and placing these crimes in a historical and political context. Additionally, statements issued during the genocide by international organizations, the Gaza health ministry, and relevant parties are included.
The project also aims to document Israel’s plan to expel Gaza’s population by creating a war biosphere that eradicates all forms of life, rendering the Gaza Strip uninhabitable. The IOF has used hospitals in Gaza to demonstrate its power by committing crimes against humanity.
This documentation project offers a historical framework for healthcare facilities and the healthcare system in Gaza. Within this framework, we can observe how the Israeli regime has asserted its absolute sovereignty over both Palestinian bodies and international law. Despite this, the healthcare structure — historically and in the present — has resisted the death and destruction imposed by the colonizing power.
Comprehensive information about Israeli crimes committed against the health sector will be made available. Such information can be used by researchers, legal scholars, or members of the general public. The materials provided by the project constitute an important contribution to the Palestinian archive, as the genocide in Gaza represents a turning point in the history of the Palestinian struggle.
The digital project is currently available in Arabic and English.
