Israeli forces withdrew from Kamal Adwan Hospital after arresting dozens of doctors and some patients, and causing extensive damage to one of the last functioning hospitals in northern Gaza, the Gaza Health Ministry said. the besieged enclave.
The medical facility is in disarray after being attacked and bombed during Israel’s three-week offensive in the north, with a senior Gaza health ministry official urging the World Health Organization (WHO) to evacuate the injured from the hospital seen as a lifeline for people living in the northern Gaza Strip. northern Gaza.
“The smell of death spread around the hospital,” Marwan al-Hams, director of field hospitals at the Gaza Health Ministry, told Tel Aviv Tribune, adding that Israeli forces destroyed the supplies. medical staff at the hospital during their raid to prevent doctors from saving patients. wounded.
More than 600 people, including patients and their companions, were housed at the hospital before it was raided on Friday.
Doctors said Saturday that at least 44 of the hospital’s 70 team members had been arrested by the army. It was later reported that 14 of those detained, including the hospital director, Hussam Abu Safia, had been released.
“A critical shortage of medical supplies, compounded by very limited access, is depriving people of life-saving care,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the head of the WHO, said on X on Saturday.
Tel Aviv Tribune’s Tareq Abu Azzoum, reporting from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, said Israeli forces caused significant damage to the pharmaceutical warehouse and intensive care unit.
“Everyone knows that Kamal Adwan Hospital is considered a medical lifeline for two-thirds of Palestinians in northern Gaza. »
“Firing in all directions”
Outside the hospital, hundreds of spent cartridges littered the ground. Images shared by the Ministry of Health revealed damage to buildings and services vandalized.
Nurse Mayssoun Alian said Israeli forces surrounded the hospital in the morning “and there was shooting in all directions.
“They evacuated everyone who had taken refuge here. They separated the men from the women and formed two lines. It was very humiliating for our men since they were undressed,” she told Tel Aviv Tribune.
It was chaos inside the hospital with patients lying on the floor, including in the corridors, according to footage seen by Tel Aviv Tribune.
A patient and witness at the hospital told Tel Aviv Tribune that Israeli forces first shelled the courtyard around 5 a.m. (0300 GMT) on Friday.
“Thirty minutes later, the bulldozers destroyed everything, including the tents sheltering the displaced,” he said. “They destroyed the hospital pharmacy and riddled the hospital with bullets. They started calling Dr. Hussam over the loudspeakers.
At least two children died inside the intensive care unit when Israeli forces destroyed the generators and oxygen station on Friday, doctors said.
‘Doctor’
Kamal Adwan Hospital spokesperson Hisham Sakani told Tel Aviv Tribune that the latest attack marks the 14th time the hospital has come under Israeli fire.
Israel has repeatedly attacked hospitals since this devastating war began on October 7, 2023. More than 42,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces and large parts of Gaza are in ruins. At least 17 of the 35 hospitals in the Gaza Strip are partially functioning.
The UN special rapporteur on health on Friday used a new term – medicine – to describe Israel’s widespread and systematic attacks on health personnel and facilities.
Gaza’s health ministry said all detained medical personnel were held by the Israeli military, without access to food or water. According to the ministry, three nurses were injured and three ambulances were destroyed.
Among those arrested was Mohamed Obeid, head of the orthopedics department at nearby Al-Awda Hospital, although his current whereabouts remain unknown, according to the hospital.
Images shared on social media on Saturday showed hospital director Abu Safia mourning the loss of his minor son, killed during the two-day Israeli assault.
An Israeli army spokesperson declined to comment on this information. On Friday, the Israeli military said it carried out operations near the hospital based on intelligence indicating the presence of “terrorists and terrorist infrastructure” in the area.
A spokesperson for the United Nations children’s agency said northern Gaza was a disaster zone after the Israeli army’s three-week ground incursion.
“The attacks intensified, hospitals and schools used as shelters were not spared,” Rosalia Bollen of UNICEF told Tel Aviv Tribune.
“It has been extremely difficult to get supplies north, with only 224 trucks. But 224 trucks is the number we would like to receive daily, not for an entire month. In hospitals, there is no food or water for patients. There is no fuel or electricity.
The Health Ministry reported that Israeli military strikes on Jabalia, Beit Hanoon and Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza killed around 800 people during a three-week offensive.