Two Palestinian women, one of whom is a nurse working at Kamal Adwan Hospital, narrate horrific details about the conditions of their detention in the hospital, which the Israeli occupation forces forcibly evacuated of patients and doctors, and burned and destroyed in the North Gaza Governorate. They, along with other women and men, were beaten, insulted, and stripped of their clothes.
The women who arrived in Gaza City, the closest to the north of the Strip, walked more than 8 kilometers in harsh conditions.
On Friday, the government media office in the Gaza Strip announced that the occupation army burned and destroyed Kamal Adwan Hospital, which led to it being put out of service, with medical teams and wounded being taken to an unknown destination.
Stripping
Palestinian nurse Shorouk Al-Rantisi, who was forced to leave Kamal Adwan Hospital after the Israeli army stormed, said, “We were surprised that the army besieged the hospital and burned the archives, as the fire spread to the rest of the departments.”
She added, “We informed the army to evacuate the hospital, and the injured who could walk were asked to leave the place. We later went out with part of the medical staff and walked a very long distance on foot.”
She pointed out that the army separated the men from the women, then they took us in groups and forced us to take off our clothes. Those who refused to take off their clothes were beaten, and they also confiscated cell phones.
She continued that the soldiers forced the women to take off their clothes as they did the men, in a scene full of sarcasm and ridicule.
The doctor confirmed that the soldiers conducted careful inspections, then returned them to sit for between one and two hours before allowing them to walk long distances.
She continued, “There was continuous surveillance from a military jeep in front of us and another behind us, until they left us in an area near Gaza City.”
She pointed out that she “does not know anything about the rest of the people who were in the hospital, but there are about 25 to 30 people who were requested by the army, and no one knows their fate anymore.”
At gunpoint
While citizen Maha Masoud described to Anatolia what happened, saying, “At midnight, the occupation army began a military operation in the vicinity of the hospital, and at dawn the soldiers stormed it and forced us to leave it at gunpoint.”
She said, “The occupation soldiers began calling from inside their tanks for Dr. Hossam Abu Safiya, director of the hospital, to evacuate the place of patients, medical staff, and displaced persons.”
Maha, who was displaced inside the hospital, added, “They asked everyone to go out to the square, without any consideration for our humanitarian conditions.”
She explained that the hospital was completely evacuated, and those present were transferred to a nearby area under harsh conditions and extreme cold.
She continued, “They did not take into account our humanitarian condition. Rather, they treated us brutally. The soldiers assaulted us, asked the women to remove their hijab, stripped the men of their clothes, and assaulted them without any mercy.”
Regarding their exit from the northern Gaza Strip, Maha indicated that Israeli tanks continued to accompany the displaced people all the way from the time they left the hospital until they reached the nearest point on the outskirts of Gaza City.
She said, “The soldiers warned us not to look back while walking.”
Maha added, “On the way out, there were children, disabled people, and injured people crying from the severity of the pain and the difficulty of the situation, but the soldiers did not care about their condition and did not provide them with any assistance.”
Cruel siege
Regarding their siege inside the hospital, she said that they suffered from hunger, lack of water, and severe siege, noting that they refused to leave despite the harsh conditions, until the occupation army forced them to do so by force.
The military operation included arrests of medical staff, patients, and displaced persons. Among the detainees was journalist Muhammad al-Sharif and his father, who were trapped inside the hospital.
Al-Sharif was known for his continuous coverage of the Israeli genocide in northern Gaza, despite the risks.
Doaa Al-Sharif, the sister of journalist Muhammad, confirmed through her account on the Facebook platform that the occupation army arrested her brother and father from inside Kamal Adwan Hospital.
On Friday, the occupation army announced the launch of a military operation in the Kamal Adwan Hospital area in Beit Lahia.
The army said in a statement, “The combat team forces of the 401st Brigade, under the command of the 162nd Division and under intelligence guidance from the Military Intelligence Service and the General Security Service (Shin Bet), began working during the past hours in the Kamal Adwan Hospital area in Jabalia.”
In its statement, the army acknowledged the evacuation of hospital patients, staff, and residents around it through what it said were “specific evacuation axes.”
More than once, displaced Palestinians said that they are being targeted, killed, and arrested in the evacuation axes and roads determined by the occupation army, and it also sets up military and security checkpoints there for inspection.
Since the occupation army’s attack on the North Governorate on October 5, coinciding with an applied military siege, the hospital has been subjected to dozens of attacks with missiles and fire, with a health official saying that the army is treating it as a “military target.”
This operation caused the health system to be almost completely out of service, according to statements by government officials, in addition to stopping the work of the civil defense apparatus and ambulances belonging to the Palestinian Red Crescent.
With American support, Israel has been committing genocide in Gaza since October 7, 2023, leaving more than 153,000 Palestinian martyrs and wounded, most of them children and women, and more than 11,000 missing, amid massive destruction and famine that killed dozens of children and the elderly, in one of the worst humanitarian disasters. In the world.
