The Indonesian hospital in northern Gaza is no longer treating patients or the injured, Gaza’s health ministry said.
The ministry noted that the northern Gaza governorate has three public hospitals, Kamal Adwan, Beit Hanoon and the Indonesian Hospital, all of which were knocked out of service by the Israeli offensive.
On Friday, Israeli soldiers surrounded the Indonesian hospital in Beit Lahiya, where many displaced Palestinians have sought refuge.
Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya was emptied of patients and staff and was severely burned by the Israeli army last week. Hussam Abu Safia, the hospital’s director, was also arrested by Israeli forces during their raid on Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya last week.
On Saturday, World Health Organization (WHO) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus posted on X that the agency had received “no updates on the safety and well-being” of Abou Safia , 51 years old.
A separate evacuation order was also issued to al-Awda hospital in Jabalia, according to Tel Aviv Tribune’s Hani Mahmoud, who was reporting from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza.
Health care in the Gaza Strip has been pushed to the brink of collapse due to repeated attacks by Israeli forces, including last week’s destruction of the Kamal Adwan Hospital. Indonesian and al-Awda hospitals have been damaged due to repeated Israeli attacks since October 2023.
Mahmoud said many of the people being treated or seeking shelter at the two hospitals came from the destroyed Kamal Adwan Hospital.
“We are talking about people in very critical condition,” he said. “They have to be attached to medical equipment, and some of them were seriously injured.”
Footage from the Indonesian hospital shows children among the seriously injured patients.
Mahmoud also reported that Israeli authorities blocked “any kind of coordination” between hospital staff and independent humanitarian organizations such as the Red Crescent.
Israel has defended its raids on medical facilities by claiming they were used by Palestinian armed groups, but the UN has frequently questioned the veracity of these claims.
On Friday, Israel’s ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Daniel Meron, posted on social media a letter he sent to the UN and the World Health Organization, saying the raid on Kamal Adwan Hospital a week ago had been “triggered by irrefutable evidence” that Palestinian armed forces groups were using the hospital.
He said Israeli forces had taken “extraordinary measures to protect civilian life while acting on credible intelligence.”
“Systemic targeting of the health system in Gaza”
Israel’s targeting of medical facilities in Gaza prompted the UN Security Council to hold an emergency meeting on Friday, during which UN officials pleaded for the protection of hospitals.
At the meeting, UN human rights chief Volker Turk said Israel had failed to substantiate many of its claims that the facilities were used by fighters in Gaza, calling the allegations “often vague and broad” and, in some cases, “appear to be contradicted.” through publicly available information.
Turk called for an independent investigation into all Israeli attacks on medical facilities and healthcare workers in Gaza, as well as the alleged misuse of these facilities.
WHO’s Rik Peeperkorn urged Israel to immediately reverse its orders to evacuate Indonesian and al-Awda hospitals.
“They are having a hard time staying open. Food, water and fuel are running out quickly,” he told the UN Security Council meeting, adding that hospitals have been deprived of many essential medicines over the past 85 years. days, due to the new Israeli attack on northern Gaza.
Peeperkorn said WHO was deeply concerned about the fate of Kamal Adwan Hospital director Dr. Hussam Abu Safia, who was arrested by Israel last week.
“We have since lost contact with him and are calling for his immediate release,” Peeperkorn said.
Christina Markus Lassen, Denmark’s ambassador to the UN, highlighted the WHO’s warning of “systematic targeting of the health system in Gaza” and urged to “reverse the trend”.
A recent report by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights reveals that Israeli forces have carried out more than 136 air raids against some 27 hospitals and 12 medical facilities over the past eight months.
Israeli attacks on Gaza continue
Meanwhile, Israeli forces continue to bombard areas across Gaza, killing at least 41 people since dawn Saturday, including 27 people in the north of the Strip, according to Gaza Civil Defense.
An Israeli airstrike on a house on Saturday killed eleven family members, including seven children, in northern Gaza City.
“The house, which sheltered several displaced people, was completely destroyed,” said civil defense spokesman Mahmoud Basal.
“It was a two-story building and several people are still under the rubble,” he added, adding that Israeli drones “also fired on ambulance personnel” who were trying to treat the injured.
Tel Aviv Tribune’s Mahmoud also reported that at least five people were killed Saturday morning in an Israeli drone attack on a convoy of security personnel hired to protect the delivery of commercial and humanitarian trucks.
Civil Defense also reported that a husband, wife and their son were killed in an Israeli attack on a house on al-Sahaba Street in Gaza City.
Several people were also injured after Israeli warplanes bombed tents housing displaced Palestinians near the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir el-Balah, central Gaza, Tel Aviv Tribune reported Arab.
Separately, on Saturday, the Israeli military said a rocket had been identified after being fired from northern Gaza towards Israel.
The army said the rocket fell in the area of the Beit Hanoon crossing, known as Erez to Israelis, one of several crossings between Israel and the Gaza Strip.
Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 45,658 Palestinians and injured 108,583 since October 7, 2023. At least 1,139 people were killed in Israel in attacks carried out by Hamas that day and around 250 others were captured.