Israel has bombed 516 hospitals and healthcare facilities in Gaza since 2023, killing at least 765 patients and medical staff, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
These attacks have once again come to the fore after an Iranian missile struck the Soroka hospital in southern Israel during the evening of June 18/19, 2025.
In response to that event, Israel’s defence minister, Israel Katz, was quoted by Agence France-Presse (AFP) that Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei “he personally gives the order to fire on hospitals.”
There is, of course, no evidence that anyone in Iran gave the order to fire upon hospitals, and the explosion is the unfortunate result of Israel’s unilateral and illegal attack upon Iran, which sparked off the current war.
More significant is however the fact that the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) and their commanders, did specifically give the orders to bomb the 516 hospitals and healthcare facilities in Gaza—exactly that which Katz accused Iran of doing.
The 516 Israeli attacks included the deliberate bombing of 15 major hospitals in Gaza:
- Al Ahli Arab Hospital – struck multiple times, including deadly airstrikes in October 2023 and April 2025, severely damaging its emergency department, blood bank, and other critical services.
- Al Shifa Hospital – repeatedly raided and bombed; one of Gaza’s largest facilities and effectively rendered non-operational.
- Nasser Medical Complex (Khan Younis) – surrounded, shelled, and air struck numerous times (January–February 2024), leading to power cuts and at least five deaths inside the wards.
- Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Hospital (Deir al Balah) – hit by airstrikes in March 2024, with civilian casualties and significant damage.
- Al Amal Hospital – endured sustained shelling by tanks, snipers, and airstrikes over several weeks (Jan–Mar 2024), leading to severe damage and interruptions in medical services.
- Al Awda Hospital (northern Gaza) – encircled, shelled, raided, and sniped at repeatedly from December 2023 onward; at least five civilians killed in January 2024 shelling.
- Turkish Palestinian Friendship Hospital – hit in October 2023, shut down by November, then demolished entirely by Israeli forces in March 2025.
- Jordan Field Hospital (Khan Younis) – subjected to tank blockage and direct fire in January 2024.
- Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al Thani Rehabilitation Hospital – damaged by bombardment in May 2025.
- Yafa Hospital – hit by airstrike in December 2023.
- Al Rantisi & Al Nasr Children’s Hospitals – heavily damaged across late 2023 and into 2024, leading to collapse of paediatric services.
- European Hospital (Khan Younis) – struck in May 2025, killing at least 28 people.
- Indonesian Hospital (northern Gaza) – persistently targeted, generators and dialysis center destroyed, forced out of service by May 2025.
In his reaction to the Iranian missile strike, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said only a “criminal regime” would attack a hospital.
