An Israeli military operation targeting Hamas militants near Kamal Adwan Hospital on Friday has put the last major health facility in northern Gaza out of service, the World Health Organization said.
“Initial reports indicate that some key departments were seriously burned and destroyed during the raid,” WHO said in a statement on Friday.
Israel’s military claimed in a statement that the hospital “has become a major stronghold for terrorist organizations and is being used as a hideout for terrorist operatives” since Israeli forces launched a sweeping campaign in northern Gaza in October. Is”.
WHO said 60 health workers and 25 patients in critical condition, including those on ventilators, were reportedly in hospital.
Patients in moderate to severe conditions were forced to move to a destroyed and non-functional Indonesian hospital, the UN health agency said, adding that it was “extremely concerned for their safety”.
Since October 6, Israel has stepped up its ground and air strikes in northern Gaza, saying its goal is to prevent Hamas militants from regrouping, and on Friday said it was targeting the area around the hospital. Was working on intelligence about “terrorist infrastructure and operatives”.
Before launching the latest operation near the hospital, the army said its troops had “facilitated the safe evacuation of civilians, patients and medical personnel”.
WHO reiterated its call for a ceasefire.
“This raid on Kamal Adwan Hospital follows increasing restrictions on access for WHO and partners, and repeated attacks on or near the facility since the beginning of October,” WHO said.
“Such hostilities and raids are destroying all our efforts and support to keep the facilities minimally functional. The systematic destruction of the health system in Gaza is a death sentence for thousands of Palestinians in need of health care.”
Hamas denied that its militants were present at the hospital, and alleged that Israeli forces had attacked the facility on Friday.
“We categorically deny any military activity or the presence of resistance fighters in the hospital,” Hamas said in a statement.
“The enemy’s lies about the hospital are intended to justify the heinous crime committed by the occupying forces today, including the evacuation and burning of entire departments of the hospital as part of a plan of destruction and forced displacement.”
Hamas urged the United Nations to set up an investigative committee “to investigate the scale of the crime being committed in northern Gaza.”
– ‘Fire broke out in the surgery department’ –
The health ministry of the Hamas-run region quoted hospital director Hossam Abu Safiyeh as saying that the army “set fire to all the surgery departments of the hospital”.
Abu Safiyeh said the army had “evacuated the entire medical staff and also displaced people”.
“There are a large number of injuries among the medical team.”
Abu Safiyeh said that as of Friday morning, there were about 350 people in the hospital, including 75 injured and sick patients as well as 180 medical staff.
Witnesses in the area told AFP that the hospital had been evacuated and hundreds of people living nearby were “forced to take shelter in al-Fakhura school and the Indonesian hospital” in Jabaliya.
AFP was unable to contact Abu Safiyeh and other hospital officials or independently verify how many people were evacuated from the facility.
The Israeli military has regularly accused Hamas of using hospitals as command and control centers for attacks against its forces during the war. Hamas has denied these allegations.
On Thursday, Abu Safiyeh said five staff members had been killed in the Israeli strike.
The military had no comment on the attack when contacted by AFP.
In recent days, Abu Safiyeh has repeatedly raised concerns about the situation at the hospital, accusing Israeli forces of targeting the facility.
“The world must understand that our hospital is being targeted with intent to kill and the people inside are being forcibly displaced,” he said in a statement on Monday.
The World Health Organization has described conditions at Kamal Adwan Hospital as “appalling” and said it is operating at “minimal” levels.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
