The besieged enclave’s Ministry of Health said Kamal Kamal after Israeli forces detained dozens of doctors and some patients and caused widespread damage to one of the last functioning hospitals in northern Gaza. announced that it had withdrawn from Adwan Hospital.
Medical facilities have been in disarray after being attacked and shelled during Israel’s three-week offensive in the north, and a senior Gaza health ministry official told the World Health Organization (WHO) that medical facilities, considered a lifeline for people in the strip, are in disarray. The injured were asked to be evacuated from the hospital. Northern Gaza.
“The smell of death spread throughout the hospital,” Marwan al-Hams, director of the Gaza Health Ministry’s field hospital, told Al Jazeera, adding that the Israeli military had raided the hospital’s medical facilities during the raid to prevent medical workers from being rescued. He added that supplies were destroyed. I was injured.
More than 600 people, including patients and their attendants, were housed at the hospital before Friday’s raid.
Medics announced Saturday that at least 44 of the hospital's 70-member team had been captured by the military. It was later reported that 14 of the detainees, including the hospital's director Hassam Abu Safia, had been released.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote on X on Saturday that “acute shortages of medical supplies and severe access restrictions are preventing people from receiving life-saving care.”
Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azizm, reporting from Deir El Bala in central Gaza, said Israeli forces had caused extensive damage to medical supplies warehouses and intensive care units.
“Everyone knows that Kamal Adwan Hospital is considered a medical lifeline for two-thirds of Palestinians in northern Gaza.”
“Photograph from every direction”
Outside the hospital, hundreds of spent rounds of ammunition littered the floor. Footage shared by the Ministry of Health showed damage to buildings and destruction of hospital wards.
Nurse Maysoon Arian said Israeli forces surrounded the hospital in the morning and “there was gunfire from all directions.”
“They evacuated all the people who had taken shelter here. They formed two lines, separating the men and women. It was very humiliating for the men to be stripped of their clothes. ” she told Al Jazeera.
Footage obtained by Al Jazeera showed chaos inside the hospital, with patients lying on the floor, including in the hallways.
Hospital patients and witnesses told Al Jazeera that Israeli forces first shelled the courtyard around 5 a.m. Friday (3 p.m. Japan time).
“Half an hour later, bulldozers destroyed everything, including the tents housing the evacuees,” he said. “They destroyed the hospital pharmacy and riddled the hospital with bullets. They started calling for Dr. Hassam on the loudspeaker.”
At least two children died in intensive care after Israeli forces destroyed a generator and oxygen station on Friday, doctors said.
“Medicide”
Kamal Adwan Hospital spokesman Hisham Sakani told Al Jazeera that the attack was the 14th time the hospital had come under Israeli shelling.
Israel has repeatedly attacked hospitals since launching the devastating war on October 7, 2023. More than 42,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces, and much of Gaza is in ruins. At least 17 of the 35 hospitals across the Strip are partially functional.
On Friday, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Health used a new term: “medical” to describe Israel’s widespread and systematic attacks on medical workers and facilities.
The Gaza Health Ministry said all detained medical personnel were being held by Israeli forces without food or water. According to the ministry, three nurses were injured and three ambulances were destroyed.
The hospital said Mohamed Obeid, head of the orthopedic department at nearby Al Awda Hospital, was among those taken, but his current whereabouts remain unknown.
Footage shared on social media on Saturday showed Abu Safia mourning the death of his minor son, who was killed in a two-day Israeli raid.
An Israeli military spokesperson declined to comment on the report. On Friday, the Israeli military announced that it had carried out an operation near the hospital based on information indicating the presence of “terrorists and terrorist infrastructure” in the area.
A Palestinian man passes under rubble after Israeli forces withdrew from the area around Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza (Reuters)
A spokesperson for the United Nations children’s agency said the Israeli military’s three-week ground invasion has turned northern Gaza into a disaster zone.
Rosalia Bolen from UNICEF told Al Jazeera: “The attacks are escalating and hospitals and schools being used as evacuation centers are not being saved.”
“Only 224 trucks arrived and it was very difficult to get supplies to the north. But 224 trucks is the number you want to transport per day, not for a whole month. There is no food, no water for the patients, no fuel, no electricity.”
The Ministry of Health reported that Israeli forces attacked Jabalia, Beit Hanoun and Beit Rahiya in northern Gaza, killing about 800 people in three weeks of attacks.
Damaged ambulance found at Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Rahiya (AFP)
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