One of the last functioning hospitals in northern Gaza was forcibly evacuated by the Israeli military, medics said, after dozens of people were reportedly killed in Israeli attacks on the area around the health facility.
Eid Sabbah, head of nursing at Kamal Adwan Hospital, told the BBC that the military gave the administration 15 minutes to evacuate patients and staff to the courtyard around 7 a.m. on Friday.
Israeli troops then entered the hospital and removed the remaining patients, he said.
The Israeli military said Friday afternoon it was conducting an operation in the area of the hospital, which it described as a “stronghold of Hamas terrorists.”
Israeli troops “enabled the safe evacuation of civilians, patients and medical personnel” from the hospital before the start of the operation, it said.
The military did not say where the patients would be taken. But earlier this week, an Israeli official said they planned to transfer patients at Kamal Adwan Hospital to the nearby Indonesian hospital, which itself was evacuated by the military on Tuesday.
“It is dangerous because there are patients in the intensive care unit who are in a coma and need ventilators and transporting them puts them in danger,” said Dr. Sabbah.
“If the Army wants to continue removing these patients, it needs specialized vehicles.”
Hours after the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital said about 50 people, including five medical staff, had been killed in a series of Israeli airstrikes on the area around the hospital.
In the statement from Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya said a building opposite the hospital was attacked by Israeli warplanes, resulting in the deaths of a pediatrician and a laboratory technician and their families.
He said a third employee, who worked as a maintenance technician, was attacked and killed as he rushed to the scene of the first attack.
Two of the hospital’s paramedics were 500 meters away from the hospital when they were attacked and killed in another attack, the statement added. Their bodies lay on the street and no one could reach them.
The Israeli military said Friday morning it was “unaware of any attacks in the area of Kamal Adwan Hospital” and was investigating reports that staff members had been killed.
The Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia has been under a tightened Israeli blockade that has imposed parts of the northern Gaza Strip since October. At the time, the military said it had launched an offensive to prevent Hamas from regrouping there.
According to the United Nations, the area is under a “near total siege” as the Israeli military severely restricts aid access to an area where an estimated 10,000 to 15,000 people remain.
In recent days, those responsible for the hospital have made desperate pleas for protection as the facility has been regularly targeted by Israeli shelling and bomb attacks.
Oxfam said attempts by aid agencies to deliver aid to the area since October had been unsuccessful because of “deliberate delays and systematic obstructions” by the Israeli military.
