Health authorities in the Gaza Strip are concerned on Saturday about the critical situation in the north of the Palestinian territory at war, after the detention, according to them, by Israel of the director of a key hospital declared “out of service” by the World Health Organization. health (WHO).
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The Hamas government’s Health Ministry in Gaza claimed that Israeli troops had taken “dozens of medical staff from Kamal Adwan Hospital” to “a detention center for interrogation,” including the director , Dr Hossam Abou Safiya.
This establishment was the last major operational hospital in the north of the Palestinian coastal strip. It is now “out of service” after an Israeli raid nearby, the WHO said.
“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,” pointed out the international organization.
“The (Israeli) occupation has completely destroyed the medical, humanitarian and relief infrastructure in northern Gaza,” Gaza Civil Defense spokesperson Mahmoud Bassal told AFP, adding that the local official rescue workers were also detained.
When contacted, the Israeli army did not immediately comment on these arrests. The AFP was also unable to directly contact the hospital director despite several attempts.
“Hideout”
“The army asked all the young men to undress before leaving the hospital and going to a school that it uses as a detention and interrogation center,” Mohammad told AFP , who did not wish to give his last name for fear of being prosecuted.
“The soldiers asked us questions about the resistance, Hamas, the weapons and the people who were filming the bombings and the destruction,” added the 48-year-old man.
Since October 6, the Israeli army has intensified its land and air offensive in the north of the Gaza Strip to prevent Hamas fighters from regrouping.
It is with this objective that she indicated that she had launched an operation on Friday morning near the Kamal Adwan hospital, which plays a crucial role in a Gaza strip with bloodless health services after more than a year of war.
The establishment, whose director had already been warning for several days that he was being targeted, would be “used as a hiding place by terrorists”, the Israelis claim, which Hamas “categorically” denies.
“War crimes”
“The situation is catastrophic, there are no more medical services, ambulances and rescue workers in the north,” a witness on the spot, Ammar al-Barch, aged 50, told AFP on Saturday. “The army continues its raids on the hospital and surrounding houses. We hear drone and artillery fire. »
The Foreign Ministry of Iran, Israel’s enemy, condemned “the brutal attack by soldiers of the Israeli regime”, seeing it as “the latest example” of its “war crimes, crimes against humanity and flagrant violations of international norms and laws.”
Gaza Civil Defense also reported nine deaths in an Israeli strike Saturday morning on a house in the center of the territory.
In response to an unprecedented attack by Hamas on Israeli soil on October 7, 2023, the Israeli army launched a devastating offensive against the Gaza Strip, which it has been besieging ever since.
According to the latest report from the Hamas government’s Ministry of Health, 45,484 Palestinians, mainly civilians, died in total, including at least 48 in the space of 24 hours.
The Hamas attack caused the deaths of more than 1,200 people on the Israeli side, the majority civilians, according to an AFP count based on official figures.
