PHRI: Destruction of Conditions of Life
A Health Analysis of the Gaza Genocide
On the same day that B’Tselem published its “Our Genocide” report which I wrote about here, Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI) released “Destruction of Conditions of Life: A Health Analysis of the Gaza Genocide” (July 2025). Both conclude, independently and with distinct methodologies, that Israel’s campaign in Gaza meets the legal definition of genocide under the 1948 Convention.
PHRI is a veteran Israeli human rights group whose thirty-seven years of work document how occupation and apartheid undermine Palestinian health and dignity. In partnership with Prof. Itamar Mann, PHRI frames its analysis around Article II(c) of the Genocide Convention, “deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part”, while also addressing Articles II(a) (killing) and II(b) (causing serious bodily or mental harm) .
Systematic Collapse of Healthcare Infrastructure
Between October 2023 and June 2025, Israel dismantled Gaza’s health system in a coordinated, multi-phase campaign:
Northern Hospitals Destroyed: Within weeks of the October 7 attack, all major hospitals in northern Gaza, al-Shifa, Indonesian, al-Quds, al-Ahli Arab and al-Awda, were shelled, besieged or evacuated under 24-hour orders, forcing out over 117 000 displaced people and patients .
Fuel and Generator Blockades: By mid-November, 12 of Gaza’s 35 hospitals and 46 of 72 primary clinics had ceased operation due to bomb damage or fuel shortages. The Ministry of Health warned that generators would fail within 48 hours. an outcome that materialised for five premature infants at al-Shifa, who died when power and fuel were cut.
Southern Facilities Overwhelmed: When northern hospitals collapsed, central facilities in Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis. al-Aqsa, al-Nasser, al-Amal. were inundated. Repeated shelling, siege orders and forced evacuations rendered them non-functional by February 2024.
Total Siege and Aid Cuts: In May 2024, Israel closed the Rafah crossing, the last medical evacuation route. leaving 14,000 critically ill Gazans trapped without care. A second total siege in March 2025 halted virtually all humanitarian and medical aid, triggering widespread famine and hospital shutdowns.
Starvation & Aid Weaponisation
PHRI documents how food, water and medicine were leveraged as tools of war:
Rising Malnutrition: From January to May 2025, 16 700 children were admitted for acute malnutrition, 5 000 of them in May alone, a 150 % surge since February .
Lethal Aid Distribution: The US-Israeli “Gaza Humanitarian Foundation” sites forced starving civilians into militarised distribution zones, where at least 674 Palestinians were shot dead while collecting food by mid-July 2025.
Targeted Killing and Torture
Beyond healthcare, PHRI shows deliberate harm to individuals:
Massive Civilian Deaths: Gaza’s Ministry of Health records over 57 000 killed by direct military strike; estimates approach 100,000 when including indirect deaths from hunger and disease.
Healthcare Personnel Killed: More than 1,580 medical workers, including heads of departments at al-Shifa and senior specialists, have been killed, a blow that will take decades to recover from.
Torture in Detention: Over 339 health-care providers have been detained without charge and subjected to torture, degrading treatment, and medical neglect, further eroding Gaza’s capacity to heal.
Legal Conclusion: Genocidal Intent
PHRI’s chronological and thematic accounts demonstrate a sustained policy to destroy Gaza’s life-sustaining structures. Combined with public statements by Israeli officials labelling hospitals “Hamas command centres,” the mental element, specific intent to destroy the group, is inferable from patterns of conduct.
PHRI thus urges all states to fulfil their Article I obligation under the Genocide Convention: to prevent and punish genocide. That means diplomatic rupture, comprehensive sanctions, and referrals to the International Criminal Court, not mere calls for a ceasefire.
Why This Matters
For over seven decades, Gaza’s health and social services have operated under an oppressive regime of occupation and apartheid. From the forced evacuation of hundreds of thousands in 1948 and 1967 to the “Great March of Return” injuries in 2018–19, Palestinians have endured chronic harm. But the post-October 2023 campaign represents a qualitative escalation: the systematic dismantling of every hospital, clinic, pipeline and food supply in Gaza. It is a publicly acknowledged strategy, not collateral fallout.
By foregrounding health, from the collapse of ICU wards to children dying of hunger, PHRI exposes the core of the crime: the deliberate engineering of conditions of life calculated to destroy a people. When an entire medical system is weaponised, when midwives deliver babies amid bombardment and without anaesthesia, and when feeding lines become killing fields, the line between war and genocide vanishes.