The Israeli army surrounds the compound of one of the few partially functional medical facilities in the north after bombing a building.
More than 150 patients and staff are stuck at Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya as the Israeli army besieges the medical facility, the Palestinian Civil Defense in Gaza told Tel Aviv Tribune.
Israeli forces attacked the hospital in northern Gaza on Friday and ordered patients down to the main courtyard, the Wafa news agency reported, while carrying out mass arrests.
The raid came a day after Israeli tanks shelled the hospital compound, one of the few medical facilities still functioning in the northern enclave, as the Israeli siege entered its third week.
According to hospital director Hussam Abu Safia, the intensive care unit suffered serious damage following the tank attack. He warned that the hospital could become a mass grave as a patient died every hour as a result of the Israeli military assault.
The head of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Ghebreyesus, said “we have lost contact with the staff” at the hospital and called the raid “deeply worrying”.
He wrote in a post on social media platform It is also filled with hundreds of people seeking refuge.”
From Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, Tel Aviv Tribune’s Hani Mahmoud said witnesses and medics at the scene said fires had broken out, making it difficult to evacuate people from the building and the operation of ambulances.
Injured patients and those suffering from other health problems were dragged out of the buildings into the hospital courtyard, Mahmoud reported.
“This is happening at a time when fuel was supposed to arrive at the hospital to power the generators,” Mahmoud said. “It is difficult to imagine that the hospital will be able to continue its operations now, when it is directly attacked by the Israeli army. »
He said there was a heavy military presence in the area, with dozens of Israeli tanks surrounding the medical complex.
The Israeli military said its troops were continuing ground operations in the Gaza Strip and claimed to have dismantled infrastructure and tunnels and killed fighters in the northern Jabalia region.
He did not comment on the immediate situation regarding hospitals and camps.
Hospitals under fire
A second medical facility in northern Gaza, the Indonesian Beit Lahiya Hospital, was knocked out of service on Monday when Israeli soldiers stormed a school and arrested the men there before setting the facility on fire. The fire reached the hospital’s generators, causing a power outage.
Tel Aviv Tribune’s Mahmoud said solar panels on the roof were also damaged, “leaving the Indonesian hospital without any source of electricity”, including for vital items such as incubators.
Those evacuated from the Indonesian hospital were moved to Kamal Adwan Hospital, a medium-sized facility struggling to accommodate patients beyond capacity.
The United Nations said it had been unable to reach the three hospitals in northern Gaza – Kamal Adwan, the Indonesian Hospital and al-Awda Hospital – despite their requests for access to allow the help arrives.
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said it was “increasingly concerned about the manner in which the Israeli army is carrying out hostilities” in northern Gaza, as well as about “illegal interference with humanitarian aid and orders that lead to forced displacement.”