Israeli forces burn Gaza's Kamal Adwan hospital, contact with staff lost
The Gaza Health Ministry says it has lost contact with staff inside the Kamal Adwan Hospital as Israel sets fire to it1x
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27 December 2024
![Israeli forces set fire to the Kamal Adwan hospital [Getty]](https://www.newarab.com/sites/default/files/2024-12/GettyImages-2190765445.jpg)
Israeli forces set fire to the Kamal Adwan hospital [Getty]
Israeli forces on Friday raided the Kamal Adwan Hospital, one of three medical facilities on the northern edge of the Gaza Strip, torching large sections and ordering dozens of patients and hundreds of others to leave, officials said.
In separate incidents across Gaza, Israeli strikes killed at least 25 people, medics said. One of those strikes on a house in Gaza City killed 15 people, medics and the civil emergency service said.
The Palestinian health ministry said contact with staff inside the facility, which has been under heavy pressure from Israeli forces for weeks, had been lost.
"The occupation forces are inside the hospital now and they are burning it," Munir Al-Bursh, director of the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, said in a statement.
Youssef Abu El-Rish, the deputy health minister in Gaza, said troops set fires in several parts of Kamal Adwan, including the hospital’s lab and surgery department.
An Israeli airstrike on Thursday killed 50 people near the hospital, including five medical workers.
Dozens of doctors and medical workers stripped to their underwear were being directed to an unknown destination. (Photo inserted)
The ministry said 25 patients and 60 health workers remained in the hospital out of 75 patients and 180 staff. However attempts to reach hospital staff were unsuccessful.
“Fire is ablaze everywhere in the hospital,” an unidentified member of the staff said in an audio message from the hospital posted on the social media accounts of its director Hossam Abu Safiya.
The staffer said some evacuated patients had been unhooked from oxygen. “There are currently patients who could die at any moment,” she said.
Like the Indonesian and Al-Awda hospitals, Kamal Adwan has been repeatedly attacked by Israeli forces who have been attacking the northern edge of the Gaza Strip for weeks, Palestinian medical staff say.
Hundreds ordered to leave hospital
Bursh said the army had ordered 350 people to leave Kamal Adwan for a nearby school sheltering displaced families. They included 75 patients, their companions, and 185 medical staff.
Abu El-Rish said soldiers were transferring patients and medical staff to the Indonesian Hospital, which had already been put out of action by heavy damage and had been evacuated by Israeli forces a day earlier.
Footage circulating on Palestinian and Arab media showed smoke rising from the area of Kamal Adwan.
Much of the area around the northern towns of Jabalia, Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahia has been cleared of people and systematically razed, fuelling speculation that Israel intends to ethnically cleanse the area and permanently occupy it.
In a statement, Hamas blamed Israel and the United States for the fate of Kamal Adwan Hospital's occupants.
Israel's war on Gaza has killed over 45,436 Palestinians, according to health officials in the enclave. Most of the population of 2.3 million has been displaced, and much of Gaza is in ruins.
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Gaza’s Health Ministry appealed to the international community on Friday to provide alternative medical services for civilians after an Israeli raid on a main hospital in the north of the enclave, Anadolu Agency reports. The Israeli army raided Kamal Adwan Hospital on Friday, burning large sections and forcing patients and displaced civilians to flee. “The hospital has been under attack since dawn, forcing around 350 health workers, patients, and civilians to evacuate at gunpoint,” Maher Shamiyeh, assistant undersecretary for Gaza’s Health Ministry, told a press conference. “The Israeli army set fire to the hospital buildings, including the engineering and maintenance building, the central laboratory, and the hospital stores,” he added. Shamiyeh urged the international community to intervene “to save what is left from Gaza’s health system and to provide alternative medical services for civilians in northern Gaza.” He also called for opening urgent humanitarian corridors “to ensure patients get access to medical services and the delivery of logistical and medical aid.”
A UN official on Friday voiced concern over the ongoing Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip, Anadolu Agency reports. “We are alarmed by ongoing attacks across the Strip that have left scores of Palestinians dead,” spokeswoman Stephanie Tremblay told reporters. Tremblay said an air strike near Kamal Adwan Hospital in North Gaza governorate on Thursday night is said to have killed dozens of people, including health workers. “In Kamal Adwan hospital today, staff, patients and their companions were forced out of the facility. Arrests and significant damage to the hospital have been reported,” she added. The official underlined that the UN teams continue to face “systematic denials” of humanitarian access to North Gaza.
“Just today, another attempt by the UN to reach besieged parts of North Gaza governorate was denied by the Israeli authorities,” she added. Turning to the occupied West Bank, Tremblay said as of Dec. 26, Israeli forces had killed 20 Palestinians over a 10-day period, including at least 12 deaths due to air strikes. “Our humanitarian colleagues say Israel’s military operation in Tulkarm’s refugee camp caused extensive damage to infrastructure. “Lethal, war-like tactics are being applied repeatedly during these operations in the West Bank, raising concerns over use of force that exceeds law enforcement standards,” she added. According to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), she said, as of Dec. 24, a total of 4,706 Palestinians have been displaced across the West Bank this year, including 1,949 children.
Over the past week, at least four infants have died of hypothermia from low temperatures and a lack of supplies to keep them warm. The chief paediatric doctor at a southern Gaza hospital confirmed that four babies had died of "severe temperature drop" this week as the war-ravaged Palestinian territory grapples with winter cold. The fourth baby died within 72 hours of the first in Gaza, with medical sources saying the infant died due to exposure to the cold. Dr. Ahmed al-Farra of Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis city said a three-week-old girl "was brought to the emergency room with a severe temperature drop, which led to her death". Farra, the hospital's paediatric services head, mentioned two other cases his team handled on Tuesday.
"A three-day-old baby and another baby, less than a month old, both died after a severe temperature drop," he said. "This is due to the fact that they live in tents," added the doctor, referring to Palestinians displaced by more than 14 months of indiscriminate Israeli war on Gaza who have sought shelter in makeshift camps, many in the coastal Khan Younis area. Israel's attacks on the territory have displaced over 90 percent of Gaza's population, many of them multiple times. "The tents do not protect from the cold, and it gets very cold at night, with no way to keep warm," said Farra. The risk to newborns is particularly acute, he added, as many mothers suffer malnutrition, affecting the quality of the milk their babies feed on. Israel has imposed a crippling siege on Gaza, depriving people of food and other basic necessities.
At least 50 Palestinians, including five medical workers, were killed after Israeli warplanes targeted a building near the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza. The attack occurred in the early hours of Thursday in the Beit Lahia area were Palestinians had been sheltering from Israel’s bombardment. "There are nearly 50 martyrs, including three of our medical staff, under the rubble of a building opposite Kamal Adwan Hospital in the Beit Lahia Project area after it was bombed by Israeli warplanes," Hussam Abu Safia, the hospital’s director, said in a statement. Among the dead were paediatrician Dr. Ahmed Samour, laboratory technician Israa Abu Zaida, technologist Fares Al Hudali, and paramedics Abdul Majeed Abu Al Aish and Maher Al Ajrami. The hospital is struggling to remain operational, with 350 people sheltering inside, including 180 medical staff and 75 injured patients, all while enduring persistent aerial bombardments from Israeli forces.
The facility, which is the last working hospital in northern Gaza, has been rendered non-operational after weeks of near-daily attacks. It has been under an intense siege with constant bomb and drone attacks for weeks. Just days earlier, the Israeli military had raided Kamal Adwan, demanding its evacuation while 400 civilians were sheltering inside.