# Attacks on Protected Zones and Civilians in Gaza

Attacks on Protected Zones and Civilians in Gaza have led to the displacement and killing of more Palestinians. Israel has faced accusations of war crimes due to the huge number of civilian casualties and the vast percentage of civilian infrastructure destroyed, including Palestinian refugee camps, schools, hospitals, mosques, churches, and other civilian infrastructure Analysis of satellite data shows that 80% of buildings in northern Gaza have been damaged or ruined. As of January 2024, researchers from Oregon State University and the City University of New York estimated that 50 to 62 percent of all buildings in the Gaza Strip were damaged or destroyed.

## healthcare facilities

The health care system in Gaza has collapsed due to different reasons including the blockade of Gaza, lack of fuel, power cuts, and airstrikes. From the beginning of the war to 30 November 2023, the World Health Organization reported 427 attacks on health care in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. By February 2024, it was reported that "every hospital in Gaza is either damaged, destroyed, or out of service due to lack of fuel." On 24 January 2024, the WHO announced that only seven of 24 hospitals in northern Gaza and seven of 12 hospitals in southern Gaza were operational. On 7 February 2024, the United Nations announced that only 4 of 22 health centers in Gaza remained operational.

### List of attacked healthcare facilities

* Al-Ahli Arab Hospital
* Al-Shifa Hospital siege
* Indonesian Hospital
* Al-Quds Hospital
* Al-Amal Hospital
* Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital
* Jordan Field Hospital
* Al Awda Hospital
* Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani Hospital
* Kamal Adwan hospital
* Yafa Hospital
* Nasser Medical Complex
* European Hospital
* Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital
* Al-Rantisi and Al-Nasr children's hospitals
* Rehabilitation Centre for Visually Impaired
* Palestine Children's Relief Fund
* Kuwaiti Hospital

## School and university

From 7 October 2023 to late March 2024, the United Nations reported multiple airstrikes on more than 200 educational facilities, including universities and schools, by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in the Gaza Strip.

### List of attacked schools and universities

* The Al-Maghazi UNRWA school
* The Osama bin Zaid school
* The Al-Fakhoora school
* The Al-Buraq school
* The Al-Falah School
* The Abu Hussein school
* The An-Nazla school
* The Al-Sardi
* The Nuseirat school
* The Haifa school
* The Israa University
* The Salah Ad-Din School
* The Martyr Assad Safwati School
* The Al-Tabin school

## cultural, historical and religious places

According to international law, cultural heritage, cemeteries, and religious places are considered civilian infrastructure and their destruction can be considered a war crime of “committing outrages upon personal dignity” under the Rome Statute. The protection of cultural heritage in all its forms - as well as the protection of educational infrastructure and journalists - must be guaranteed. According to historians, Gaza is one of the oldest inhabited areas in the world, dating back to at least the 15th century BC. In the South Africa's genocide case against Israel, Israel was accused of targeting Palestinian culture, destroying modern museums and cultural centers, and threatening the "cultural potential" of Gaza by damaging schools as well as teachers and killing journalists and intellectuals. Israel claimed that the targeting of cultural and religious places and cemeteries is due to finding and returning the bodies of Israeli hostages and Hamas using these places for military purposes. CNN's analysis of satellite images and videos showed that the Israeli forces use cemeteries as military outposts. According to CNN's investigation, at least 16 cemeteries in Gaza have been desecrated by IDF, tombstones have been destroyed, the soil has been overturned, and in some cases, bodies have been unearthed. According to The Guardian, more than 200 buildings of cultural and historical importance in Gaza, including mosques, cemeteries, and museums, have been ruined by Israel. UNESCO reported that at least 22 sites, including mosques, churches, historical houses, universities, and archives, were damaged or destroyed as a result of multiple Israeli attacks.

### List of attacked cultural, historical and Library places

* The Rafah Museum
* The Al Qarara Museum
* The Mathaf al-Funduq Museum
* The 13th-century Qasr Al-Basha (Pasha's Palace)
* The Rashad El Shawa Cultural Center
* The Library of the Great Omari Mosque
* The Samir Mansour community bookshop
* The Union of Palestinian artists on Jalaa Street
* The clay pots in the al-Fawakher district
* The Hammam al-Sammara (Samaritan Bathhouse)
* The fortified city of Tell el-Ajjul (Calves Hill)
* The Church of Saint Porphyrius
* The Holy Family Church
* The Byzantine Church of Jabalia
* The Saint Hilarion Monastery
* The historic old city
* The archaeological site of Anthedon Harbour

### List of attacked Cemetery

* The Gaza War Cemetery
* The Bani Suheila cemetery
* The rd-al-Moharbeen (the Roman Necropolis)
* The Al Falouja cemetery
* The Shajaiya cemetery
* The Al-Tuffah cemetery
* The Islamic cemetery in southern Gaza
* The New Bureij cemetery
* The Sheikh Radwan cemetery
* The Beit Lahia cemetery

### List of attacked Mosque

* The Gaza's medieval Omari Mosque
* The ancient Othman bin Qashqar Mosque
* The Sayed al-Hashim Mosque
* The Katib al-Waliya Mosque
* The Al-Bukhari Mosque
* The Khalid Bin Al-Waleed mosque
* The Khalil Al-Rahman mosque
* The Al-Ansar Mosque

## Shelters and Camps

In the Israel-Hamas war, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have carried out numerous airstrikes on densely populated Palestinian refugee camps in the Gaza Strip and West Bank, as part of the bombardment and invasion of Gaza.

### List of attacked Shelters and Camps

* The Jabalia refugee camp
* The Al-Shati refugee camp
* The Al-Mawasi refugee camp
* The Maghazi refugee camp
* The Tel al-Sultan refugee camp
* The Al-Bureij refugee camp
* The Nuseirat refugee camp
* The Shaboura refugee camp
* The Jenin refugee camp
* The Nur Shams camp

## Civilians

Since 7 October 2023, at least 38,983 Palestinians most of them civilians including more than 15,000 children have been killed, more than 89,727 people Injured and more than 10,000 people missing in Israel's war on Gaza. In March 2024, Al Jazeera reported that Israeli forces made a pattern of killing entire families by targeting homes where they had taken shelter. On 29 February 2024, Gaza's Ministry of Health reported that 44% of the fatalities were children.

## Other Protected and Safe Zones

Amnesty International's investigation into 9 airstrikes found that Israel violated international humanitarian law by failing to take all possible precautions to save civilians, or by taking out indiscriminate strikes that were unable to distinguish between civilian and military targets, or by Attacks that may have been taken out against civilian objects. BBC reported that since the beginning of December, the bombardment of southern and central Gaza has intensified, and the city of Khan Yunis bears the brunt of Israel's military attacks while Israel has repeatedly encouraged the people of Gaza to move south for their safety. Also, an NBC news investigation found Palestinians were killed in airstrikes in seven areas that the military had designated as safe zones.
New York Times's analysis of the Israeli military's actions shows that since November, Israeli-controlled demolitions have destroyed hundreds of buildings, including mosques, schools, and entire sections of residential neighborhoods. The spokesperson of the Israeli army stated the reason for these controlled demolitions is the location and destruction of terrorist infrastructures embedded inside buildings" in civilian areas, adding that sometimes entire neighborhoods serve as "combat complexes" for Hamas. Also, some Israeli officials said to The New York Times that Israel is demolishing Palestinian buildings near the border as part of efforts to create a security "Buffer zone" inside Gaza Making it harder for fighters to carry out cross-border attacks. but most of the destruction sites identified by The Times occurred well outside the so-called buffer zone.
International legal experts call the destruction and bombing of more than half of the homes in Gaza under the pretext of identifying and destroying Hamas by Israel "Domicide" which means mass destruction of homes to make this land uninhabitable. According to The Guardian, the main Palestinian court in Gaza, known as the Palace of Justice, the Palestinian Legislative Council, 339 educational centers, and 167 places of worship, 26 of Gaza's 35 hospitals are among the destroyed buildings. Hugh Lovatt, a member of the European Council on Foreign Relations, claimed that Israel is "deliberately and methodically destroying the civil societies and infrastructure needed to govern and stabilize Gaza after the war”. In late October, a document was leaked to the Israeli press by the Israeli Ministry of Intelligence, detailing the forced and permanent transfer of 2.3 million Palestinians living in Gaza to Egypt's Sinai Peninsula. The document exposes an organization called the Settlement Unit - Gaza Strip, which aims to recolonize the Gaza Strip, 18 years after the withdrawal of Israeli forces and settlers from it. Aljazeera said Israel wants to make the Gaza Strip uninhabitable by dropping tens of thousands of tons of bombs and targeting civilian infrastructure including schools, universities, hospitals, bakeries, shops, farmland and greenhouses, water stations, sewage systems, power plants, solar panels, and generators.