Its operation was already affected by Israeli strikes. Kamal-Adwan Hospital, the last to operate in the northern Gaza Strip, is now “hors service”said the World Health Organization (WHO) on X, Friday 27 December. The Israeli army had earlier claimed responsibility for launching an operation against Hamas fighters near this hospital, in the town of Beit Lahia. Patients have been evacuated and medical staff, including the director, are detained by Israeli forces, according to the Hamas government's Civil Defense and Health Ministry in Gaza. Franceinfo takes stock of the situation on site.
“Services burned and destroyed” according to the WHO
“Initial reports indicate that key services were burned and destroyed during the raid”the WHO reported Friday on X. “Sixty members of the nursing staff and 25 patients are in critical condition.adds the organization under the aegis of the UN. Citing the hospital director, the Health Ministry of the Hamas-run Palestinian territory said the Israeli army had “set fire to all the surgical departments of the hospital“.
War in the Middle East: the last hospital in Gaza “out of service” following Israeli bombings
On X, a spokesperson for the Israeli army denied the responsibility of Israeli troops in a fire. “While IDF soldiers were not present at the hospital, a small fire broke out in an empty building inside the hospital, but it is under control.”said Nadav Shoshani.
At this stage, we do not know the precise state of the establishment's various services. In November, Unicef highlighted that Kamal-Adwan hospital was the last in the north of the Gaza Strip to have incubators for newborns and a neonatal intensive care unit.
Patients evacuated
As of Friday morning, the hospital housed approximately 350 people, including 75 wounded and sick, as well as 180 members of the medical staff, according to the hospital director, Hossam Abou Safiya, cited by the Gaza government. The day before, this doctor had already announced the death of five staff members in a previous strike.
Ahead of its military operation, the Israeli army declared that its troops had “facilitated the safe evacuation of civilians, patients and medical personnel”. But according to Hamas, “The occupying army stormed the Kamal-Adwan hospital, forcing medical staff, patients, wounded and displaced people to evacuate”.
A hospital nurse contacted by the BBC said that Israeli soldiers ordered the evacuation as early as 7 hours on Friday, leaving a quarter of an hour for staff and patients to gather in the courtyard, before evacuating the last patients themselves.
Witnesses in the area told AFP that hundreds of people living nearby had been “forced to take refuge in the al-Fakhoura school and the Indonesian hospital” in Jabaliya, a commune near Beit Lahia. The WHO also states that “Patients in serious to serious condition were forcibly evacuated to the Indonesian hospital, which was destroyed and non-functional”. The organization said “deeply concerned” by their safety. On social media, videos appear to show patients leaving the hospital, walking through the rubble of a street while carrying their IV.
Medical staff and director held for questioning
The Hamas government in Gaza and Civil Defense say the hospital director and several dozen staff members were arrested by the Israeli army. According to the Ministry of Health, the arrested personnel were taken to “a detention center, to interrogate them”. Israel had not yet reacted on Saturday morning to confirm or deny this information.
The spokesperson for Gaza Civil Defense, Mahmoud Bassal, also denounced the arrest of the director of the hospital and “dozens of medical and technical staff”as well as that of the director of Civil Defense in the north. He accuses Israel of having “completely destroyed the medical, humanitarian and relief infrastructure in northern Gaza”.
An operation against terrorists, according to Israel
In its statement on Friday, the Israeli army justified this operation by the presence of Hamas members, describing the Kamal-Adwan hospital as “stronghold of terrorist organizations (…) used as a hiding place by terrorists”.
The Palestinian movement responded Friday with a statement, “categorically denying any military activity or presence of resistance fighters in the hospital.”
