Dozens of patients and around 3,000 displaced people are inside, according to the UN, as Gaza’s health ministry appeals for international help.
Israeli forces attacked Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza after besieging and shelling it for several days, sources and the Palestinian Health Ministry said.
Ashraf al-Qudra, a ministry spokesman, said Israeli troops were rounding up men and boys in the courtyard of Beit Lahiya hospital on Tuesday, including medical staff.
“We fear their arrest and that of the medical teams, or even their assassination,” he said, calling for international intervention.
“We call on the United Nations, the World Health Organization and the International Committee of the Red Cross to act immediately to save the lives of those in hospital. »
Inside are patients, medical staff and thousands of civilians who have taken refuge after being forced to flee their homes.
Tel Aviv Tribune’s Hani Mahmoud, reporting Tuesday from southern Gaza, said the raid took place “under heavy fire and artillery bombardment.”
“Tanks are driven deeper at the gates and the entire installation is under heavy bombardment,” he said. “Loudspeakers are being used to call on anyone over the age of 15 to leave the building with their hands in the air.”
He added that Israeli forces who attacked the facility also asked security guards protecting the hospital to hand over their weapons.
Kamal Adwan is the only health facility remaining in the northern part of Gaza, our correspondent said. “Over the past few days, it has come under intense bombardment, airstrikes and tank bombardment, destroying the vast majority of its installations and all major roads leading to them. »
The “surrounded” hospital
The UN humanitarian agency OCHA said two mothers were killed when Kamal Adwan’s maternity ward was hit on Monday.
“The hospital remains surrounded by Israeli troops and tanks,” OCHA said, adding that the hospital was currently housing 65 patients, including 12 children in intensive care and six newborns in incubators.
“About 3,000 displaced people remain stuck in the facilities and awaiting evacuation, with extreme shortages of water, food and electricity,” he added.
The situation in Kamal Adwan is catastrophic, Leo Cans, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) head of mission for Palestine, told Tel Aviv Tribune.
“We are outraged by what is happening,” he said, adding that doctors in Gaza were operating in conditions comparable to those of the First World War.
“We operate on the ground. Children are arriving with very serious injuries and (surgeons) have to carry out many operations, but there are no more beds,” he said.
Israeli troops have already attacked and evacuated other medical facilities in Gaza, including the Indonesian hospital and al-Shifa, the territory’s largest hospital.
The World Health Organization (WHO) says only 11 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals remain partially functional and has pleaded for them to remain intact.
“We cannot afford to lose health facilities or hospitals,” Rik Peeperkorn, WHO representative for the occupied Palestinian territories, told a U.N. news briefing via video link from Gaza . “We hope and plead that this does not happen.”
More than 18,000 Palestinians have been killed since Israel began its war on Gaza on October 7.
