ArticlePLOS global public health2024
Are hospitals collateral damage? Assessing geospatial proximity of 2000 lb bomb detonations to hospital facilities in the Gaza Strip from October 7 to November 17, 2023.
Article in PLOS global public health, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers.
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Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed.
- The Credibility of Bioethics After the Gaza Genocide.Bioethics · 2026Article
- Maternal and neonatal outcomes in Gaza amid armed hostilities in 2025.International journal of gynaecology and obstetrics: the official organ of the International Federation of Gynaecology and Obstetrics · 2026Observational
- Maternal and neonatal outcomes in a cohort of pregnant women during conflict, Gaza Strip.Bulletin of the World Health Organization · 2026Article
- Hospital functionality in the Gaza Strip: analysis of the World Health Organization health resources and services availability monitoring system database, 7 Oct 2023 to 31 Oct 2024.Conflict and health · 2026Article
- Attacks on healthcare in conflict-affected countries: a comparison of temporal trends in ongoing conflicts in Lebanon, Myanmar, occupied Palestinian territory, Sudan and Ukraine using WHO SSA and SHCC data, 2018-2024.Population health metrics · 2025Article
- BLS competency of doctors and nurses serving during the war in Gaza: insights from a cross-sectional study.BMC health services research · 2025Article
- Quality of life and access to healthcare among hemodialysis patients during wartime: cross-sectional insights from Gaza.BMC nephrology · 2025Article
- The Ongoing Environmental Destruction and Degradation of Gaza: The Resulting Public Health Crisis.American journal of public health · 2025Article
- Are We All Post Traumatic Yet? A Critical Narrative Review of Trauma Among Arab Refugees.International journal of social determinants of health and health services · 2025Review
- War and chronic illness: a health center-based study of Palestinians with non-communicable diseases in Gaza.Conflict and health · 2025Article
- Antimicrobial resistance in a protracted war setting: a review of the literature from Palestine.mSystems · 2025Review
- Challenges in orthopaedic data collection in Gaza Strip: observational findings and bibliometric analysis.International orthopaedics · 2025Article
- Evaluating the MPM III and SAPS III prognostic models in a war-affected, resource-limited setting: a prospective study from the Gaza Strip.BMC health services research · 2025Article
- The failure to protect the rights and needs of children in Gaza.Frontiers in public health · 2025Review
- Displacement, personal loss, and psychological strain among physicians and nurses working in Gaza, 2023-2024.PLOS global public health · 2025Article
- Trauma by the Numbers: A Cross-Sectional Analysis and Categorization of Trauma Cases in the Gaza War.International journal of public health · 2025Article
- Guidance for infectious disease care in the face of human conflict: a case-based narrative review.Antimicrobial stewardship & healthcare epidemiology : ASHE · 2025Review
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Authors and funding
11 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
After attacks in Israel led by Hamas militants on October 7, 2023, Israel launched a major military campaign in the Gaza Strip that has featured an unprecedented scale of destruction. This has included the use of highly destructive weapons in a densely populated area. Mark-84 bombs (M-84s) are 2000 lb air-dropped explosive munitions with the capacity to damage infrastructure and kill or cause severe injury hundreds of meters away. This study examines the proximity of M-84 bomb detonations to hospital infrastructure in the Gaza Strip. We combined geospatial data on hospital locations across the Gaza Strip with maps of the locations of M-84 bomb craters between October 7 and November 17, 2023, published by CNN and New York Times. We then measured and summarized the proximity of the bomb craters to hospitals across the territory. We identified 592 M-84 bomb craters. Of the 36 hospitals across the Gaza Strip, 25% (n = 9) had at least one bomb crater within the lethal range (360 m) and 83.3% (n = 30) within the infrastructure damage and injury range (800 m) of their facilities. The shortest distance of a bomb crater from a hospital was 14.7 m. Two hospitals had as many as 23 and 21 bomb craters within 800 m of their facilities and one hospital had seven bomb craters within 360 m. Thirty-eight M-84 bombs were detonated within 800 m of hospitals in the Israeli military defined evacuation zone. Given the known blast effect of these M-84 bombs, the impact from the bomb detonations near hospitals likely killed and injured people in and around the hospital area, which could include civilians and hospital staff, and likely damaged hospital infrastructure. The results of this study suggest indiscriminate bombing in dangerous proximities to hospital infrastructure, which is afforded special protection under international humanitarian law (IHL).
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