Israeli military raid puts last major Gaza hospital 'out of service'

An Israeli military raid targeting Hamas fighters has forced a major hospital in northern Gaza out of service and led to the detention of its director, the World Health Organization (WHO) and health officials said.

The assault on Kamal Adwan Hospital has rendered the facility "useless," further worsening Gaza's severe health crisis, the Palestinian territory's health officials said.

"This morning's raid on Kamal Adwan Hospital has put this last major health facility in north Gaza out of service. Initial reports indicate that some key departments were severely burnt and destroyed during the raid," the World Health Organization said overnight on X, referring to the Israeli operation that began in the early hours of Friday.

Hospital under siege

"It's been attacked [repeatedly and has been] under siege since October," Margaret Harris, the WHO spokesperson told CGTN. "We've recorded more than 50 attacks on the hospital, and we've continuously called for urgent calls to protect the health workers and the hospitals, as under international humanitarian law, yet these calls have remained unheard.

"Now, we understand there may still be patients in the hospital, but we don't know who's looking after them. There were at least 25 critically ill patients. Some of them are on ventilators, and we really fear for their lives," she added.

Before initiating the latest operation near the hospital, the military said its troops had "facilitated the secure evacuation of civilians, patients, and medical personnel."

Patients in moderate to severe condition were forced to evacuate to the destroyed, non-functioning Indonesian Hospital, the UN health agency said, adding it was "deeply concerned for their safety."

The WHO also said 60 health workers remain in the hospital.

Gaza's health ministry reported that Israeli forces detained Kamal Adwan Hospital's director, Hossam Abu Safiyeh, along with several medical staff members. Gaza's civil defence agency said Abu Safiyeh was held alongside its north Gaza chief, Ahmed Hassan al-Kahlout.

The Israeli military did not comment on the detentions.

Catstrophic situation

Ammar al-Barsh, a 50-year-old resident of Jabalia where the military has focused its assault in recent weeks, said the raid on Kamal Adwan and its environs had left dozens of homes in the area in ruins.

"The situation is catastrophic, there is no medical service, no ambulances and no civil defense in the north," Barsh said.

The army "continues to raid the Kamal Adwan Hospital and the surrounding houses, and we hear gunfire from Israeli drones and artillery shelling," he added.

In the days leading up to the raid, Abu Safiyeh had repeatedly warned about the hospital's precarious situation, accusing Israeli forces of targeting the facility. 

On Monday, he issued a statement accusing Israel of targeting the hospital "with the intent to kill and forcibly displace the people inside."

On Thursday, Abu Safiyeh said five staff members of the hospital had been killed in an Israeli strike near the facility.

Since October 6 last year, Israel has intensified its land and air offensive in northern Gaza, saying its goal is to prevent Hamas fighters from regrouping.

The military said on Friday that it was acting on intelligence regarding "terrorist infrastructure and operatives" in the hospital's vicinity.

"We never saw anything that wasn't [related to] healthcare going on, nobody's even raised concerns that something else could be going on," the WHO spokesperson said. "The concerns that our team have are that the staff are overworked, they're exhausted. They didn't have the equipment and they were under constant bombardment and [have been] seeing their colleagues killed."

The Israeli military has regularly accused Hamas of using hospitals as command and control centers for attacks against its forces throughout the war. 

Heinous crime

The Palestinian group has denied claims its operatives were present at the hospital, accusing Israeli forces of storming it on Friday.

"The enemy's lies about the hospital aim to justify the heinous crime committed by the occupation army today, involving the evacuation and burning of all hospital departments as part of a plan for extermination and forced displacement," Hamas said in a statement.

Gaza's health ministry had earlier quoted Abu Safiyeh reporting that the military had "set on fire all surgery departments of the hospital, evacuated the entire medical staff and displaced people.

"There are a large number of injuries among the medical team," he added.

Iran, which backs Hamas, "strongly condemned the brutal attack," with a foreign ministry statement calling it "the latest example of war crimes, crimes against humanity, (and) gross violations of international law and norms."

'Systematic dismantling' of Gaza's healthcare

The WHO reiterated its call for a ceasefire.

"Such hostilities and the raids are undoing all our efforts and support to keep the facility minimally functional. The systematic dismantling of the health system in Gaza is a death sentence for tens of thousands of Palestinians in need of health care," the UN agency said.

Meanwhile, Hamas's media center reported "massive Israeli air and artillery strikes in Beit Hanoun," in northern Gaza.

Gaza civil defense also reported that in a separate Israeli strike in central Gaza at least nine Palestinians were killed on Saturday.

Israel's war in Gaza has killed at least 45,436 people, a majority of them civilians, according to figures from the enclave's health ministry.

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