Blood in the clinic: Israel expands war on Gaza’s health system

Despite mounting international pressure and ongoing efforts by mediators to broker a ceasefire after nearly two years of war and siege, the Israeli regime continues its campaign of mass killings.

In the latest round of relentless attacks across the Gaza Strip, the Israeli military targeted the Al-Rimal Clinic, located in western Gaza City.

In the early hours of Monday, July 7, 2025, the Israeli army carried out a deliberate strike on a section of the clinic.

This clinic, which also housed several Palestinian refugees, became the site of a horrific crime. According to Gaza’s Al-Shifa Medical Complex, at least six people were martyred, including a five-month-old infant. Another 15 Palestinians were injured in the criminal attack.

A video clip showed Palestinian medics carrying the five-month-old baby—bloodied from the airstrike—as they tried to pull her from the rubble where she had been trapped alongside her family.

Reports indicate that several individuals are still under the rubble, with rescue teams working urgently to save lives.

A witness who lives near the clinic said: “When we heard the explosion, we rushed into the street. Smoke was rising from the clinic. People were screaming, ambulances began to arrive one after another. I saw people trying to pull the wounded from beneath the debris. There were children and women among the victims, and cries of anguish filled the air.”

Despite a long record of attacks on Gaza’s hospitals, clinics, and medical personnel, the Israeli army has yet to provide any explanation for its strike on the Al-Rimal Clinic, which had served as a refuge for Palestinians displaced from other parts of Gaza.

Tlaleng Mofokeng, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health, coined a new term to describe Israel’s systematic assault on Gaza’s healthcare infrastructure: "Medicide".

In describing the Israeli attacks, Mofokeng said: “There has never been a military conflict where healthcare workers were attacked like they are in Gaza. ‘Medicide’ is the term we are now using to describe the unprecedented destruction of healthcare systems and attacks on healthcare workers. This level of violence sets a dangerous precedent—stripping medical workers of protection and subjecting them to impunity for war crimes.”

She warned: “We are witnessing new levels of criminality, levels of genocidal acts that cannot be undone.”

Over the past two years, the Israeli regime has carried out a systematic campaign to destroy Gaza’s healthcare infrastructure. This began with restrictions on medicine imports and patient transfers, but escalated to far more violent crimes.

Israel has bombed hospitals, massacred patients, arrested and tortured medical staff, and destroyed entire healthcare facilities. The frequency and brutality of these attacks have turned many of Gaza’s hospitals into mass graves.