HHo0s

In addition, the FFM examined:• The strains placed on hospitals in Gaza during the attacks;• Problems with referral and evacuation of patients from Gaza hospitals tohospitals outside;• Long-term internal displacement in Gaza as a result of the partial or totaldestruction of about 18,000 homes;• Long-term psychosocial and mental health damage caused by this and previouswars;• An increased need for rehabilitation services and insufficient current resourcesin Gaza to meet them.Conclusions• The attacks were characterised by heavy and unpredictable bombardmentsof civilian neighbourhoods in a manner that failed to discriminate betweenlegitimate targets and protected populations and caused widespread destructionof homes and civilian property. Such indiscriminate attacks, by aircraft, drones,artillery, tanks and gunships, were unlikely to have been the result of decisionsmade by individual soldiers or commanders; they must have entailed approvalfrom top-level decision-makers in the Israeli military and/or government.• The initiators of the attacks, despite giving some prior warnings of these attacks,failed to take the requisite precautions that would effectively enable the safeevacuation of the civilian population, including provision of safe spaces androutes. As a result, there was no guaranteed safe space in the Gaza Strip, norwere there any safe escape routes from it.• In numerous cases double or multiple consecutive strikes on a single location ledto multiple civilian casualties and to injuries and deaths among rescuers.• Coordination of medical evacuation was often denied and many attacks on medicalteams and facilities were reported. It is not clear whether such contravention ofmedical neutrality was the result of a policy established by senior decision-makers,a general permissive atmosphere leading to the flouting of norms, or the result ofindividual choices made on the ground during armed clashes.• In Khuza’a, the reported conduct of specific troops in the area is indicative ofadditional serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law.10