Gaza ministry says Israeli forces detained hundreds of people in hospital

Gaza’s health ministry said Israeli forces detained hundreds of staff, patients and displaced people on Friday during a raid on the last functioning hospital in the region’s embattled north.

In its statement, the ministry said, “Israeli forces raided the Kamal Adwan Hospital in the city of Jabalia and are inside.”

“They are detaining hundreds of patients, medical personnel and some displaced persons who took refuge in the hospital from constant bombardment from neighboring areas.”

World Health Organization chief Tedros Ghebreyesus said communication with the hospital had been cut off since Friday morning.

Ghebreyesus said in a statement to X: “Since the news of the raid on Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza this morning, we have lost contact with the staff there.”

“Given the number of patients served and the number of people housed there, this development is extremely troubling.”

The Israeli army confirmed that its soldiers were operating in the hospital area accompanied by agents of the Shin Bet internal security service.

The statement said that Army and Israel Security Agency forces were “operating in the area of ​​Kamal Adwan Hospital in Jabalia based on intelligence information regarding the presence of terrorists and terrorist infrastructure.”

Gaza’s civil defense agency said Israeli forces surrounded the hospital in the Jabalia refugee camp before entering the building.

“More than 150 patients and staff, including medical and nursing teams, were surrounded by the Israeli army at Kamal Adwan Hospital,” agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said. he said.

COGAT, the body of the Israeli defense ministry responsible for civil affairs in the Palestinian territories, said in a statement on Friday that it allowed 23 patients to be removed from the hospital by Palestinian ambulances and UN vehicles the night before.

Kamal Adwan is the last functioning hospital in northern Gaza. Since the beginning of the war, it has been grappling with shortages of medicine and medical equipment, which were exacerbated by Israel’s massive operation in northern Gaza earlier this month.

-‘Mayhem and chaos’-

Rik Peeperkorn, WHO’s representative for the Palestinian territories, went to the hospital this week and said he witnessed “unrest and chaos” there.

On Thursday night, “we saw a lot of patients being brought in and horrific trauma patients,” with hundreds of people sheltering in “every corner of the hospital,” he said.

Speaking from the Gaza Strip at a press conference in Geneva, Peeperkorn said that at a checkpoint close to Kamal Adwan, the WHO team saw “thousands of women and children leaving the area, walking and limping towards Gaza City with their few belongings.”

Gaza’s health ministry said restrictions on aid deliveries to the area had negatively affected the hospital.

Gaza’s health ministry described the situation as “literally a disaster” and said, “The supply or supply of food, medicine or basic medical supplies needed to save the lives of the injured and patients in the hospital was not provided.” .

COGAT said a fuel truck donated by UN agencies allowed the transfer of “180 blood units and a truckload of medical equipment”.

Tedros said WHO and partner organizations reached the hospital late Wednesday and managed to transfer 23 patients and 26 caregivers to Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza.

“Kamal Adwan Hospital is overflowing with nearly 200 patients; horrific trauma cases are constantly coming in. It is also filled with hundreds of people seeking shelter,” he said.

Hamas called the attack on Kamal Adwan a “war crime and a clear violation of international law.”

Israel launched a major operation in northern Gaza on October 6 that killed more than 770 people, according to civil defense agency figures.

“Since the start of operational activities in Jabaliya, approximately 45,000 Palestinian civilians have been evacuated and IDF (Israeli army) troops have eliminated hundreds of terrorists,” the Israeli army said.

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