Israeli forces on Friday raided Kamal Adwan Hospital, one of three medical facilities on the country’s northern edge Gaza Officials said they burned large parts of the strip and ordered dozens of patients and hundreds of others to leave the country.
Elsewhere in Gaza, Israeli strikes killed at least 25 people, including 15 people in a single house in Gaza City, medics and the civilian emergency service said.
Gaza’s Health Ministry said it had lost contact with staff at the hospital in Beit Lahiya, which has been under heavy pressure from Israeli forces for weeks.
“The occupation forces are now in the hospital and burning it down,” ministry director Munir Al-Bursh said in a statement.
The Israeli military said it tried to limit damage to civilians and “enabled the safe evacuation of civilians, patients and medical personnel before the operation,” but gave no details.
A statement said fighters from the Hamas group, which previously controlled the Gaza Strip, had operated from the hospital during the conflict.
Youssef Abu El-Rish, the Hamas-appointed deputy health minister, said Israeli forces set fire to the surgical department, laboratory and a warehouse.
As the Indonesian and Al-Awda Hospitals, Kamal Advan has been repeatedly attacked by Israeli forces, who have been attacking the northern edge of the Gaza Strip for weeks, medical workers in the Gaza Strip say.
Hundreds were ordered to leave the hospital
Bursh said the army had ordered 350 people to leave Kamal Adwan and go to a nearby school housing displaced families. These included 75 patients, their companions and 185 medical staff.
Abu El-Rish said soldiers were taking patients and medical staff to the Indonesian hospital, which had already been put out of action by severe damage and was evacuated by Israeli forces a day earlier.
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Footage circulated in Arab media, which Reuters could not immediately verify, showed smoke rising from the area of Kamal Adwan.
Much of the area around the northern towns of Jabalia, Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya has been cleared of people and systematically razed, fueling speculation that Israel intends to keep the area as a settlement closed buffer zone after the end of the fighting in Gaza.
Israel denies this and says its campaign is aimed at preventing Hamas fighters from regrouping.
On Thursday, health officials said five medical workers, including a pediatrician, were killed by an Israeli fire in Kamal Adwan. The Israeli military said it was unaware of an attack on the hospital and would review the report into the medics’ deaths.
In a statement, Hamas blamed Israel and the United States for the fate of the hospital inmates.
Israel’s campaign against Hamas in Gaza has killed more than 45,300 Palestinians, according to health officials in the enclave. Most of the 2.3 million residents have been displaced and much of the Gaza Strip lies in ruins.
The conflict was triggered by the Hamas attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, in which, according to Israeli information, 1,200 people were killed and 251 were taken to Gaza as hostages.
