Last major hospital in northern Gaza ‘out of service’ after Israeli raid

The World Health Organization (WHO) announced Friday that the last major operational hospital in northern Gaza was “out of service” after an Israeli army raid on Hamas fighters near the facility, which was taken over assault according to the Palestinian Islamist movement.

This morning’s raid on Kamal Adwan Hospital knocked out the last major health center in northern Gazalocated in Beit Lahya, announced the World Health Organization (WHO) on

Initial reports indicate that key services were burned and destroyed during the raid. Sixty healthcare workers and 25 patients are in critical conditionadds the international organization, whose headquarters is in Geneva.

The Israeli army announced that it had launched an operation on Friday against Hamas fighters near this crucial hospital in a Gaza strip with bloodless health services, devastated by 14 months of war between Israel and Hamas.

This operation near the Kamal Adwan hospital in Beit Lahya comes the day after the director of the establishment, Dr Hossam Abou Safiya, announced the death of five staff members in an Israeli strike.

In its statement Friday, the Israeli army described the hospital as stronghold of terrorist organizations […] used as a hideout by terrorists.

Based on intelligence information, Israeli forces launched an operation near the hospital, according to the army.

Troops carry out targeted operations and try to prevent civilians, patients and medical personnel from being affected, she added.

Call for UN investigation

Since October 6, Israel has intensified its land and air offensive in the north of the Gaza Strip to prevent, according to the army, Hamas fighters from regrouping.

Before launching the operation near the hospital, the army said its troops had facilitated the safe evacuation of civilians, patients and medical personnel of the establishment.

But according to Hamas, the occupying army stormed Kamal Adwan Hospital, forcing medical staff, patients, injured and displaced people to evacuate. In a statement he accused Israeli forces to detain evacuees.

Hamas holds the occupation fully responsible for the lives of patients, wounded and medical personnel, whom it arrested and took to an unknown locationadded the movement.

The Israeli military regularly accuses Hamas of using hospitals as command centers to launch attacks against its forces. Hamas denies these accusations.

A denial

On Friday, the Palestinian movement categorically denied in a press release any military activity or presence of resistance fighters in the hospital Kamal Advan.

The enemy’s lies about the hospital are intended to justify the abominable crime committed today by the occupying army, which evacuated and set fire to all the departments of the hospital as part of a plan of extermination and forced displacementhe adds, calling for a UN commission of inquiry into the scale of the crime army in northern Gaza.

Citing the director of the hospital, the Ministry of Health of the Palestinian territory run by Hamas affirmed that the Israeli army had set fire to all the surgical departments of the hospital.

As of Friday morning, the hospital housed around 350 people, including 75 injured and sick as well as 180 medical staff, according to the director of the establishment.

Witnesses in the area told AFP that the hospital had been evacuated and that hundreds of people living nearby had been forced to take refuge in the Al-Fakhoura school and the Indonesian hospital in Jabalia.