Israel forced the evacuation of Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza
One of the last functioning hospitals in northern Gaza was forced to evacuate by the Israeli military after dozens of people were feared killed in Israeli attacks on the area, doctors said. area surrounding the health care facility.
Eid Sabbah, head of nursing at Kamal Adwan hospital, told the BBC that at around 07:00 on Friday, the army gave authorities 15 minutes to evacuate patients and staff into the courtyard.
The Israeli army then entered the hospital and took out the remaining patients, he said.
The Israeli army said Friday afternoon that it was conducting an operation in the hospital area, which it called a “Hamas terrorist stronghold.”
The Israeli military “facilitated the safe evacuation of civilians, patients and medical personnel” from the hospital before the start of the operation.
The military did not say where the patients would be transferred. But earlier this week, an Israeli official said they intended to move those at Kamal Adwan hospital to a nearby Indonesian hospital, which the military evacuated on Tuesday.
“It’s dangerous because there are patients in the ICU who are comatose and need ventilators and moving them puts them at risk,” Dr. Sabbah said.
“If the military intends to continue moving these patients, they will need specialized vehicles.”
The incident occurred hours after hospital director Kamal Adwan said about 50 people were killed, including five medical staff, in a series of Israeli airstrikes targeting the hospital’s vicinity.
Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya’s statement said the building opposite the hospital was targeted by Israeli warplanes, leading to the deaths of a pediatrician and a laboratory technician as well as the family Surname.
He said a third employee working as a maintenance technician was targeted and killed as he ran to the scene of the first attack.
Two of the hospital’s medical staff were 500m (1,640ft) away from the hospital when they were targeted and killed by another attack, the statement continued. Their bodies remained in the street and were not found. Who can reach them?
The Israeli army said Friday morning that it was “not aware of attacks in the Kamal Adwan hospital area” and was looking into reports that staff were killed.
Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia has been under a tight Israeli blockade of areas of northern Gaza since October, when the army said it launched an offensive to prevent Hamas from regrouping there.
The United Nations said the area was under “almost total siege” as the Israeli military sharply limited aid access to the area to about 10,000 to 15,000 people.
In recent days, hospital management has made desperate calls for protection, as they say the facility is regularly targeted by Israeli shelling and explosives.
Oxfam said efforts by aid agencies to deliver supplies to the region since October had been unsuccessful due to “deliberate delays and systematic obstruction” by the Israeli military.
