Israel Accused of Deliberately Attacking Gaza’s Healthcare Infrastructure

An Irish trauma surgeon who has worked in Gaza says a deadly strike on a major hospital this week shows Israel is deliberately dismantling the enclave’s healthcare system — and putting medical staff in the crosshairs.

An Israeli airstrike on southern Gaza’s main hospital yesterday killed at least six Palestinians, including a ⁠surgeon and a teenage boy, medics said.

The strike hit a building containing surgery wards at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis.

Dr Abu Shaaira, a Palestinian surgeon who featured in the documentary ‘American Doctor’, was one of those killed.

In an interview on RTÉ’s Today with David McCullagh, vascular and trauma surgeon Dr Morgan McMonagle said Dr Shaaira was “one of those characters who was always in the hospital”.

Dr McMonagle noted it would not be unusual for Dr Shaaira — married with children — to be on site, saying many doctors’ homes in Gaza have been destroyed and that staff often end up living in the hospitals where they work.

Knowing the victim personally made the loss hit harder, he said, calling Dr Shaaira’s death “more shocking” when it is someone you have met and worked alongside.

Dr McMonagle, who has previously worked in Gaza, said Israel’s ‘yellow zone’ no-go area is “arbitrary” and “shrinking all the time”, and he argued that a growing number of hospitals have either been bombed out of operation or fall inside the yellow zone and are effectively unusable.

Among them, he said, was the European hospital, describing it as one of the biggest facilities close to Nasser Hospital.

According to Dr McMonagle, Nasser Hospital typically serves about two million people on an ordinary day and is now among the last hospitals still standing — though he said it is only partially functioning because of missing equipment.

Dr Morgan McMonagle said some hospitals have been bombed out of commission

He said the hospital has already been hit about six times, and recalled being inside Nasser during a drone bombing in March 2025 that put the entire male ward out of action.

“I believe a much more powerful guided bomb was used on this occasion which penetrated the roof, fourth floor, the third floor … it has completely destroyed all six operating theatres,” he said.

He said the the electricity, piping and oxygen was damaged, and added that medical teams are forced to operate with out-of-date equipment — and gear that can no longer be repaired.

During his last visit, he said staff were running short of paediatric ventilators for newborns, which he described as part of what he believes is an Israeli effort to knock healthcare out of action altogether.

As supplies vanish, he said, black markets quickly take hold, arguing that “there are a lot of people making a lot of money out of people suffering, on an international stage”.

“When you are going through the Israeli checkpoints, there is a large sign that says ‘no medical supplies allowed’. They are physically taken from you,” he said.

Dr McMonagle said that last year he managed to bring in some equipment by hiding it underneath his protective equipment.

“Not only is food reduced and of poor quality, water cannot be sterilised, it has no sanitation or running water and there is no medical supplies as well [in Gaza],” he said.

He added that the average tent in Gaza costs $2,000 to buy, which he said are “either being flooded or bombed”.

Dr McMonagle said two million people are being squashed into a zone that is 30% of what it used to be.

“I think we are going to see the death toll rise, disease rise.

“The world is watching Gaza being sent into its own concentration camp,” he said.

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