The Israeli army has arrested the director of one of the last functioning hospitals in northern Gaza as overnight strikes in the enclave killed nine people, including children, Palestinian health officials said, as sirens blared across Israel.
Gaza’s Ministry of Health said on Saturday that Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, was arrested by Israeli forces. The announcement came a day after Israeli troops stormed the hospital, forcing many staff and patients to strip outside in the winter, the ministry said.
The Israeli army did not respond to questions about Dr. Abu Safiya. On Friday it denied claims that it had entered the complex or set it on fire, saying it was conducting operations against Hamas infrastructure and militants in the area and had ordered people out of the hospital.
It repeated claims that Hamas militants were operating at Kamal Adwan Hospital, but provided no evidence. Hospital officials have denied this.
Kamal Adwan Hospital has been attacked several times in the past three months by Israeli troops who have been waging an offensive against Hamas militants in surrounding neighborhoods. The ministry said a strike at the hospital earlier this week left five medical staff dead.
Israel’s nearly 15-month bombing and offensive campaign has devastated Gaza’s health sector. According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, the war has killed more than 45,400 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, and injured more than 108,000 others. The count does not differentiate between civilians and combatants.
Dr. Abu Safiya was arrested on Friday along with dozens of other hospital employees and taken to an interrogation center, the ministry said.
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On Friday, MedGlobal, the humanitarian organization where Dr. Abu Safiya said he was the group’s lead doctor and was deeply concerned about him. The group said the incident followed the arrest of five other staff members in October, calling it an “alarming and egregious pattern of targeting medical staff and spaces.”
Since October, Israel’s offensive has effectively sealed off the northern Gaza areas of Jabaliya, Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya and leveled large parts of them. Tens of thousands of Palestinians have been displaced, but thousands are believed to remain in the area where Kamal Adwan and two other hospitals are located.
Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas after the militants’ attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, in which they killed about 1,200 people and kidnapped about 250 others. About 100 Israelis remain trapped in Gaza, and about a third are believed to be dead.
On Saturday, Israel continued its attacks across the Gaza Strip. At least nine people, including women and children, were killed in Maghazi, according to a night strike Associated Press Reporter who saw the bodies and staff at Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital where they were taken.
Israel said its troops also began operating in the northern city of Beit Hanoun after it emerged that militants and Hamas infrastructure were in the area.
Strikes also continued in Israel. Early Saturday morning, air raid sirens again woke Israelis and the military said it had intercepted a missile fired by Yemen’s Houthi rebels.
Israeli warplanes again bombed key infrastructure in Yemen on Thursday. Iran-backed Houthi rebels have also attacked ships in the Red Sea and said they would not stop until Israel agreed to a ceasefire in Gaza.
&Copy 2024 The Canadian Press
