Hospital director Kamal Adwan, surrounded by Israeli drones and tanks, pleaded with the international community to intervene to protect the hospital in northern Gaza as Israel ordered patients as well as hospital staff to ‘evacuate.
The hospital remains one of the few still operational in the region, where only a handful of doctors remain to treat patients amid a severe shortage or complete depletion of essential medical supplies.
“We are once again facing a direct bombardment of the intensive care unit,” Dr. Hussam Abu Safia said in a video statement on Saturday evening, calling on the international community to protect the hospital and its 66 remaining patients as well as the medical staff.
“The nursery, maternity ward and all hospital departments are targeted by the occupying forces with all types of weapons, including sniper fire, tank shells and quadcopters,” he added.
“For more than an hour now, shells have been raining on us from all corners, kilometers and directions. »
Tel Aviv Tribune’s Hani Mahmoud, reporting from nearby Deir el-Balah, said: “What we are witnessing now is a deliberate attack on the health facility. »
“The Israeli army ordered the evacuation of the hospital, but they also created an intimidating environment that makes people feel like it is not safe to leave. »
Mahmoud added that contact with those besieged at the hospital was lost overnight.
Footage verified by Tel Aviv Tribune showed injured Palestinians sheltering in hospital corridors, away from windows, after Israeli forces opened fire on the facility. Despite this, Mahmoud said, “many injuries” were reported when the bullets penetrated the walls, also damaging equipment.
Tel Aviv Tribune’s Arab correspondents in Gaza also said they had lost contact with journalists inside the hospital amid the ongoing assault. According to the channel, al-Awda hospital located in the Jabalia refugee camp was also attacked.
The continued Israeli attacks on medical facilities, including Kamal Adwan, have prompted a response from World Health Organization (WHO) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who called it “deeply worrying.” He called for an “immediate ceasefire” in the area that has been under siege for more than 70 days.
More than 14 months of relentless Israeli attacks have devastated the enclave and displaced almost all of the 2.4 million residents. More than 45,000 people, mostly children and women, were killed in the offensive which sparked global condemnation.
Israel justifies its deadly attacks as a response to attacks carried out by Hamas on October 7, 2023, in which nearly 1,100 people were killed and some 250 were captured.
Abu Safia said Israeli forces use the pretext that the hospital is a combat zone to justify attacks on the hospital.
“We hold the world responsible for what is happening and for our repeated calls,” he said, adding that “there seems to be no response” to the calls from the international community.
34 Palestinians killed in one day
Health officials in Gaza said Israel had killed 34 Palestinians, including 19 since dawn on Sunday, in the past 24 hours.
Tel Aviv Tribune’s Mahmoud said Gaza had become “a death box with attacks around the clock”, as four children were among the five killed in the Israeli attack on Jabalia on Sunday.
At least eight people, including four children, were killed in a new attack on a school transformed into a shelter for Palestinians displaced by the war. The Israeli military confirmed Saturday’s attack on the school, saying it targeted a Hamas “command and control center.”
At the same time, the humanitarian situation has deteriorated in Gaza, particularly in the northern areas, which have been under military siege for weeks.
In a statement on and Jabalia, but only three of them had been granted.
Israel has been accused of genocide due to the blocking of aid and basic necessities to the Gaza Strip. In its latest report, Human Rights Watch said earlier this week that since October last year, Israeli authorities have “deliberately obstructed Palestinians’ access to the adequate amount of water necessary for their survival in the Strip.” Gaza.”
“More than a million children, the entire population of Gaza, are affected by this war,” Rachel Cummings, Save the Children’s humanitarian director in Gaza, told Tel Aviv Tribune.
“We are seeing children deeply affected by this attack, but the medium and long term impact is terrifying,” she said. “We provide immediate relief to suffering, but we know that what we do is just a drop in the ocean. »
Since October, WFP has asked to deliver food to areas #GazaNorthern Governorate (Beit Hanoun, Beit Lahya, Jabalia) 101 times.
97% were refused or obstructed on the ground – this is the third approval.
– World Food Program (@WFP) December 21, 2024
The continued attacks come even as Palestinian groups say a ceasefire deal is “closer than ever.”
In a rare joint statement, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine said a ceasefire in Gaza and a deal to release captives was possible provided Israel did not does not impose new conditions in the negotiations.
On October 7 last year, Palestinian fighters took around 250 prisoners, 96 of whom are still in Gaza, 34 of whom died according to the Israeli army.
