Israeli forces have detained more than 240 Palestinians from a northern Gaza hospital they raided on Friday, including the hospital’s director and dozens of medical staff, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry and the Israeli military.
The Health Ministry said it was concerned for the welfare of Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, as some staff released by the Israeli military late Friday said he had been beaten by soldiers.
The Israeli military said the hospital was being used as a command center for Hamas military operations and that those arrested were suspected militants. It was said that Abu Safiya was brought in for questioning because he was suspected of being a Hamas activist.
On Friday, Hamas rejected Israel’s claim that its fighters had operated from the hospital during Gaza’s 15-month war, saying there were no fighters in the hospital. The group had not yet commented on the 240 arrests.
In its statement on Saturday, Hamas called on the United Nations and relevant international organizations to urgently intervene to protect and supply the remaining hospitals and medical facilities in northern Gaza.
The group also called for UN observers to be sent to medical facilities in Gaza to refute Israeli allegations that they were being used for military purposes.
The raid on the hospital, one of three medical facilities on the northern edge of Gaza, has put the last major health facility in the region out of action, the World Health Organization (WHO) said in a post on X on Friday.
A statement released on Saturday said: “The WHO is appalled by yesterday’s raid. The systematic dismantling of the health system and an 80-day siege of northern Gaza are endangering the lives of the 75,000 Palestinians remaining in the region.”
Some patients were evacuated from Kamal Adwan to the Indonesian hospital, which is not operational, and doctors were prevented from seeing them, the health ministry said. Other patients and staff were taken to other medical facilities.
Devastation in the north of the Gaza Strip
The Israeli military said 350 patients and medical staff were evacuated before the operation in Kamal Adwan, and another 95 were evacuated to the Indonesian hospital during the operation in coordination with local health authorities.
Separately, Gaza’s Health Ministry said Israeli strikes across the enclave on Saturday killed 18 Palestinians, at least nine of them in a house in Maghazi camp in central Gaza.
The Israeli military initially did not comment on the attacks and deaths.
In recent months, Israeli forces have displaced people and leveled much of the area around the northern Gaza Strip towns of Jabalia, Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya.
Amnesty International has accused the State of Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza war in a new report. Israel vehemently rejected this accusation and said it had respected international law.
Palestinians have accused Israel of carrying out ethnic cleansing by depopulating these areas to create a buffer zone. Israel denies this and says it aims to prevent Hamas fighters from regrouping in the areas.
The Israeli military said on Saturday it had begun operations against targets in the Beit Hanoun area overnight, adding that “troops are allowing civilians still in the area to move away for their own safety.”
It then ordered residents to leave the Gaza Strip and head to the southern parts of the Gaza Strip.
It said two rockets fired from northern Gaza, including one aimed at Jerusalem, were intercepted.
Israel’s campaign against Hamas, which previously controlled Gaza, has killed more than 45,400 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 war 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 hostage to Gaza.
