Keystone-SDA
The last major operational hospital in northern Gaza is “out of service” after an Israeli army operation near it, the WHO announced Friday. Israel accuses the hospital of having become “a stronghold of terrorist organizations.”
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December 28, 2024 – 00:44
(Keystone-ATS) “Initial reports indicate that key services were set on fire and destroyed during the raid. Sixty members of the healthcare staff and 25 patients are in critical condition,” adds the World Health Organization (WHO) on the social network X.
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 Lahia comes the day after the director of the establishment announced the death of five staff members in an Israeli strike.
“Bastion of terrorist organizations”
In its statement Friday, the Israeli army called the hospital a “stronghold of terrorist organizations […] used as a hiding place by terrorists. Based on information from intelligence services, Israeli forces launched an operation near the hospital, according to the army.
“The troops are carrying out targeted operations” and trying to prevent civilians, patients and medical personnel from being affected, she added. 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” from the facility. But according to the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, “the occupying army stormed the Kamal Adwan hospital, forcing medical staff, patients, wounded and displaced people to evacuate.”
In a statement, he accused Israeli forces “of detaining evacuees”. The Israeli military regularly accuses Hamas of using hospitals as command centers to launch attacks against its forces. Hamas denies these accusations.
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 at the Al-Fakhoura school and the Indonesian hospital” in Jabalia. .
