Published On 26/10/2025
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Last update: 11:53 (Mecca time)
Palestinian activist and researcher Hala Shoman said that the Israeli aggression against the health infrastructure in the Gaza Strip targets mothers, children, families, and thus entire generations, and constitutes an extension of the process of genocide.
This came in a statement she made to Anadolu, on the sidelines of a session of the Gaza Court in Istanbul, where Shoman referred to the problems faced by mothers, children, and families in Gaza due to Israeli attacks.
The Gaza Court is an independent international initiative, founded in the British capital, London, in November 2024, by academics, intellectuals, human rights defenders, and representatives of civil organizations, due to the international community’s complete failure to implement international law in the Gaza Strip.
The closing sessions will be held in Cemil Bircel Hall at Istanbul University, during which the court will hear testimonies about war crimes and gross human rights violations committed by the Israeli army in Gaza, as well as evaluations by experts in international law.
During the sessions, testimonies, documents and analyzes documenting the human tragedy in the Gaza Strip will be presented, with the court announcing its final decision on Sunday.
Shoman explained that Israel is systematically targeting the health system in the Gaza Strip, including hospitals, maternity clinics, obstetricians and midwives, stressing that attacks on civilian infrastructure supporting the protection of reproductive health are considered an extension of genocide. She pointed out that since Israel began its war on Gaza, the Palestinian people in Gaza have been exposed to physical and sexual violence, pregnant women have given birth in difficult conditions, and mothers and children have lost their lives during and after childbirth, due to lack of health care.
Shoman added that the Israeli authorities have repeatedly admitted to specifically targeting pregnant women, saying: Families are systematically targeted and attacked, turning pregnancy into an extremely frightening and painful experience.
Israel is annihilating families
Shoman pointed out that more than 60,000 Palestinians have been martyred since the beginning of the Israeli genocidal war against the Palestinian people in Gaza, in addition to the extermination of thousands of families.
She said: All these families were exterminated. Gaza society will never be the same after this genocide, nor will the families whose names were erased forever.
Shoman pointed out that the thousands of children killed by Israel are the last surviving members of their families, noting that this situation hinders the continuation of generations in Gaza.
She said this is all part of the ideology of settler colonialism, because you want to settle in those lands and displace people from their lands, so you kill them, displace them, and bring in foreign settlers.
In a statement to Anatolia, two years after the Israeli genocide in Gaza on October 7, the Director-General of the Ministry of Health in Gaza, Munir Al-Bursh, told Anatolia that the number of public and private hospitals in the Strip is 38, all of which were directly targeted.
He confirmed that the Israeli attacks resulted in the killing of 1,671 health personnel and medical professionals and the arrest of 362 others.
He added that the current capacity does not exceed 2,000 beds, after it was 6,000 beds before the war.