One of northern Gaza’s last functioning hospitals, Kamal Adwan in Beit Lahia, is “undergoing a suffocating siege,” Gaza’s Health Ministry said Friday after Israeli forces stormed inside and evacuated workers. health workers, patients and families.
“The surgical and surgical departments, laboratory, maintenance and emergency units have been completely burned and the fire is now spreading to the buildings,” the Health Ministry statement said.
Ambulances have reportedly been sent to take the injured to hospital in Indonesia while those inside continue to be evacuated.
“There are patients who are threatened with death at any time due to the harsh conditions,” the statement said.
Dr. Hussam Abu Safia, director of the hospital, said in an Instagram story that the Israeli army was “burning all operational departments of the hospital” while medical staff were still present inside. He added that some staff members were also arrested.
Shortly after, the Ministry of Health issued a statement saying that the fate of staff and patients had become “unknown” after “communication with the hospital director was cut off.”
The attack and evacuations followed an Israeli airstrike that hit a building across from the hospital on Thursday, killing approximately 50 people, including five medical staff.
Abu Safia had said in a separate statement on Thursday that among the dead were Dr. Ahmed Samour, a pediatrician who worked at the hospital, and Esraa, a laboratory technician, who had gone out to bring food to her father and brother.
A maintenance technician, Fares, was also injured when he rushed to the scene to try to rescue others, Abu Safia said.
“It is another dark day in the ongoing series of crimes against Kamal Adwan Hospital and its staff,” he added.
Israeli attacks on the hospital over the past few weeks have killed several doctors and patients at Kamal Adwan, including the hospital’s ICU director, Dr. Ahmed al-Kahlout.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health noted that the three public hospitals operating in the northern Gaza Strip (Beit Hanoun Hospital, Indonesian Hospital and Kamal Adwan Hospital) are now out of service.
In response to a request from NBC News, the Israel Defense Forces said they had attacked the hospital after receiving information about “the presence of terrorist infrastructure and agents carrying out terrorist activities” inside.
It added that “IDF troops facilitated the safe evacuation of civilians, patients and medical personnel before the operation” and that they continued “to make extensive efforts to allow patients to continue receiving care in other hospitals.”
NBC News contacted the Gaza Health Ministry for a response to the IDF’s allegation that the hospital had been used for military purposes.
The war that followed the Hamas terrorist attacks of October 7, 2023 that killed 1,200 people in southern Israel has decimated Gaza.
Since then, Israeli forces have killed more than 45,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials, and destroyed much of the enclave’s basic infrastructure and health system.
In an October report, an independent United Nations commission accused Israel of carrying out a “concerted policy to destroy Gaza’s health system as part of a broader attack on Gaza, committing war crimes and a crime against humanity.” of extermination with relentless and deliberate attacks against Israel. medical personnel and facilities.”
A press release issued by the UN at the time of the report’s publication warned that Israel’s attacks on health facilities risk “significant long-term detrimental effects on the civilian population.”
