The hospitals themselves have come under repeated attack, with several being partially or totally destroyed. A medical team sent to Gaza by three aid groups described the situation in the hospitals as having reached “unimaginable” levels.

To understand the scale of the physical damage to the hospitals in the Gaza Strip, Al Jazeera’s Sanad verification agency analysed satellite images captured between October 22, 2023 and March 27, 2024.

Sanad found that 24 hospitals were damaged, including:

• 6 hospitals in northern Gaza
• 10 hospitals in Gaza City
• 1 hospital in Deir el-Balah
• 7 hospitals in Khan Younis

The analysis covers hospitals that have been destroyed or occupied by Israeli forces.

Perhaps the most well-known is Gaza City’s al-Shifa Hospital.

In March, the Israeli army stormed al-Shifa using tanks and heavy gunfire for 10 days, destroying most of the facility and killing dozens of people. Israeli forces have claimed that the hospital was a Hamas command and control centre, but little verifiable evidence has been produced to back up that claim, and thousands of Palestinians used what was once Gaza’s preeminent medical centre as a shelter.

The hospital has been stormed four times by Israeli forces since October 7, with medical staff and journalists among those arrested, and mass graves found on the grounds.