Israel's targeting Palestinian hospitals is primarily against the Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City - this is because intelligence has shown that Hamas has tunnels and a command centre located underneath. The use of human shields in warfare, defined as 'where the presence of civilians or the movement of the civilian population, whether voluntary or involuntary, is used in order to shield military objectives from attack, or to shield, favour or impede military operations' is a war crime and therefore as long as proportionality is observed, there is no legal or moral issues from doing so - any collateral damage is squarely on the back of Hamas. Furthermore, Hamas have in the past attacked Israeli medical infrastructure. Reprisal is also a legal tactic. The attacking of medical facilities can therefore be justified in two major cases - when the military value of nearby targets makes the medical facility acceptable collateral damage, or in an attempt to get the other party to return to compliance with international law. Outright specific targeting of medical facilities to inflict terror should not be performed.
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