Israel detains medics after hospital raid, health officials say
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
A fire seen through a window from Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip on Dec 18.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Follow topic:
CAIRO/JERUSALEM – Israeli forces detained dozens of medical staff from a north Gaza hospital they raided on Dec 27, the enclave’s Health Ministry said.
The Israeli military raided the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya on Dec 27, ordering dozens of patients and hundreds of others to evacuate and detaining medical staff, including the facility’s director, Dr Hussam Abu Safiya.
The Health Ministry said it was not clear what was happening to Dr Abu Safiya, adding that it was concerned about his well-being after some of the staff freed by the army late on Dec 27 reported that he was beaten up by soldiers.
The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the detainees.
The raid on the hospital, one of three medical facilities on the northern edge of Gaza, means the last major health facility in north Gaza has been put out of service, the World Health Organisation said in a post on X.
Some patients were evacuated to the Indonesian Hospital, which is not in service, and medics were prevented from joining them there, the Health Ministry said. Some others were transferred to another hospital in the southern Gaza Strip.
“There are sick people at risk of dying at any moment as a result of the harsh conditions,” the ministry said.
Some of the freed medical staff arrived at the Al-Ahli Arab Baptist Hospital in Gaza City.
Kamal Adwan Hospital had been a main provider of medical care for the thousands of people who have stayed in Jabalia and other towns in the northernmost stretch of Gaza. It had often been inundated with patients and continued offering services despite severe shortages of medical workers.
The Israeli military said on Dec 27 that Hamas fighters had operated from Kamal Adwan Hospital throughout the 15-month-old war and had made the site a key stronghold. Hamas dismissed the claim as “lies”, saying there were no fighters in the hospital.
The Gaza Health Ministry also said Israeli strikes across the enclave killed 18 Palestinians on Dec 28, at least nine of them in a house in Maghazi camp in the central Gaza Strip.
The Israeli military said on Dec 28 it had begun operating overnight against targets in the Beit Hanoun area in northern Gaza. “Troops are enabling civilians still in the area to move away for their own safety,” it said.
In the past few months, Israeli forces have pushed people out and razed much of the area around the northern towns of Jabalia, Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya.
Palestinians have accused Israel of carrying out ethnic cleansing by depopulating those areas to create a buffer zone. Israel denies it is doing this, saying it aims to prevent Hamas fighters from regrouping in these areas.
Israel’s offensive against Hamas, which previously controlled Gaza, has killed more than 45,400 Palestinians, according to health officials in the enclave. Most of the area’s population of 2.3 million have been displaced and much of Gaza is in ruins.
The war was triggered by Hamas’ attack on southern Israel on Oct 7, 2023, in which 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken to Gaza as hostages, according to Israeli tallies. REUTERS, NYTIMES
