Inhumane Zones

Installation views, ‘Inhumane Zones’, Echo Correspondence, 18 October–1 November 2024. Photos: Julian Lee.

Since the very beginning of Israel’s military response to the Hamas-led attacks of 7 October 2023, Forensic Architecture (FA) has been working with Palestinian colleagues and international collaborators to respond to the constantly evolving situation on the ground in Gaza. Where FA would typically spend six months to a year on a single investigation, the scale and pace of Israel’s military offensive in Gaza has demanded a responsive, day-by-day working practice, monitoring displacement and population movement, investigating incidents of civilian harm, and combatting disinformation published by official Israeli channels.

This exhibition presents a selection of that work for the first time, focusing on the Israel’s assault on Gaza’s medical infrastructure, including hospitals, ambulanc
es, paramedics, and doctors—individuals and entities that are protected under international humanitarian law. These works offer an entry point through which one may view and understand the systematic annihilation of fundamental ‘conditions of life’ in the besieged Strip, leaving displaced Palestinians clinging to life without access to food, water, shelter, healthcare, or even safety from military operations.

Central to the exhibition are the experiences of doctors and other medical staff who have worked in Gazan hospitals since Israel’s campaign began. Medical practitioners have been among the only foreign nationals permitted by the Israeli government to enter Gaza since October 2023, and as such, they have become key witnesses to the unfolding violence on the ground. A featured film presents the testimony of one such practitioner, esteemed British-Palestinian reconstructive surgeon Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah, concerning the devastating blast at al-Ahli Hospital on 17 October, which left hundreds of civilians dead. To Dr Abu-Sittah, who spent 43 days working in Gaza during the early part of Israel’s military assault, this was the critical moment ‘when it stopped being a war, and it became a genocide.’

As the ground invasion continued, civilians seeking medical care and shelter arrived at hospitals in droves, carrying news about conditions in the immediate vicinity and across the Strip and turning these medical facilities into vital nodes for information exchange.

Situated in the direct flow of information, while witnessing and treating the physical conditions of the injured, malnourished civilians who brought it, medical staff in turn became frontline witnesses.

Hearing this news, while witnessing and treating the physical condition of the injured, malnourished civilians who brought it, medical staff became vital frontline eyewitnesses.Through their testimonies, Israel’s comprehensive assault on all areas of infrastructure and civilian life in Gaza is revealed: ‘a military campaign,’ in the words of American-Palestinian physician Dr Thaer Ahmad, ‘targeting the past, present and future of Palestinian life.