Israeli forces detained doctors and patients after a brutal attack on a hospital in Gaza News

The besieged enclave’s health ministry said Israeli forces withdrew from the Kamal Advan hospital after detaining dozens of doctors and some patients, and inflicting significant damage on one of the last remaining hospitals in northern Gaza.

A medical facility is in disarray after it was raided and shelled during Israel’s three-week offensive in the north, with a senior Gaza health ministry official calling on the World Health Organization (WHO) to evacuate the wounded from the hospital, which is seen as a lifeline people in this region. northern Gaza.

“The smell of death spread around the hospital,” Marwan al-Hams, director of field hospitals at the Gaza Ministry of Health, told Al Jazeera, adding that Israeli forces destroyed medical supplies at the hospital during the raid to prevent medics from rescuing the patient. wounded.

More than 600 people, including patients and those accompanying them, were housed at the hospital before it was searched on Friday.

On Saturday, medics said at least 44 of the hospital’s 70-member team had been detained by the army. It was later reported that 14 of those detained, including hospital director Hussam Abu Safiya, had been released.

“Critical shortages of medical supplies, combined with very limited access, are depriving people of life-saving medical care,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote on X on Saturday.

Al Jazeera’s Tarek Abu Azzum, reporting from Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, said Israeli forces had caused extensive damage to a pharmaceutical warehouse and an intensive care unit.

“Everyone knows that Kamal Adwan Hospital is considered a lifeline for two-thirds of the Palestinians in northern Gaza.”

“Shooting from all sides”

Hundreds of shell casings lay on the floor near the hospital. Footage released by the Ministry of Health showed damage to buildings and vandalism in wards.

Nurse Maissoun Alian said Israeli forces surrounded the hospital in the morning, “and there was shooting from all sides.

“They evacuated everyone who was hiding here. They separated the men from the women and made two queues. It was very humiliating for our men as they were stripped of their clothes,” she told Al Jazeera.

According to footage available to Al Jazeera, chaos reigned inside the hospital, with patients lying on the floor, particularly in the corridors.

A patient and a witness at the hospital told Al Jazeera that Israeli forces first fired at the courtyard at around 5am (0300 GMT) on Friday.

“Thirty minutes later, the bulldozers destroyed everything, including the tents where the displaced people lived,” he said. “They destroyed the hospital pharmacy, riddled the hospital with bullets. They started calling Dr. Hussam over the loudspeakers.”

At least two children died in an intensive care unit when Israeli forces destroyed generators and an oxygen station on Friday, medics said.

“Medicine”

Kamal Advan Hospital spokesman Hisham Sakani told Al Jazeera that the latest attack is the 14th time the hospital has come under Israeli fire.

Israel has repeatedly attacked hospitals since the devastating war began on October 7, 2023. Israeli forces killed more than 42,000 Palestinians, and large parts of Gaza lay in ruins. At least 17 of the 35 hospitals across Gaza are partially functional.

On Friday, the UN special rapporteur on health issues used a new term – medicine – to describe Israel’s widespread and systematic attacks on medical workers and facilities.

Gaza’s health ministry said all detained medical personnel were being held by the Israeli military without access to food and water. According to the ministry, three nurses were injured and three ambulances were destroyed.

Among those captured was Mohamed Obeid, head of orthopedics at nearby Al-Awda Hospital, although his current whereabouts remain unknown, according to hospital records.

Footage shared on social media on Saturday showed the director of Abu Safiya Hospital, mourning the loss of a minor sonwho died during the two-day Israeli assault.

An Israeli military spokesman declined to comment on the report. On Friday, the Israeli military said it had conducted operations near the hospital based on intelligence indicating the presence of “terrorists and terrorist infrastructure” in the area.

A UN children’s agency official said northern Gaza is a disaster zone following a three-week ground invasion by the Israeli military.

“The attacks are increasing, hospitals and schools being used as shelters have not been spared,” UNICEF’s Rosalia Bollen told Al Jazeera.

“It was extremely difficult to deliver goods to the north, as only 224 trucks were able to reach. But 224 trucks is the number we would like to receive every day, not in a whole month. Hospitals have neither food nor water for patients. There is no fuel or electricity.”

The health ministry said Israeli military strikes on Jabalia, Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza killed an estimated 800 people during the three-week offensive.