“This horror must end”: WHO condemns Israeli attack on key Gaza hospital | News on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
The World Health Organization has condemned Israel’s actions Storming of a vital hospital in the northern Gaza Strip, saying attacks on medical facilities were a “death sentence” for thousands of Palestinians and that “this horror must end.”
A Israeli military attack The WHO said the last major health facility in northern Gaza Strip was decommissioned on Friday at Kamal Adwan Hospital.
“Initial reports indicate that some key departments were severely burned and destroyed during the raid,” the WHO said in a statement on X on Friday evening.
The Israeli military said in a statement it had launched a raid on Kamal Adwan Hospital because it “serves as a stronghold of Hamas terrorists” but was unable to provide evidence. Hamas said it “categorically” rejected the claims.
As of Friday morning, there were about 350 people in the hospital, including 75 patients, as well as 180 medical staff.
According to the WHO, 60 health workers and 25 patients in critical condition, including those on ventilators, reportedly remain hospitalized.
The patients, in moderate to severe condition, had to be evacuated to the destroyed and dysfunctional Indonesian hospital, the United Nations health agency said, adding that it was “deeply concerned for their safety.”
The WHO reiterated its call for a ceasefire.
“This raid on Kamal Adwan Hospital comes after increasing access restrictions for WHO and its partners, as well as repeated attacks on or near the facility since early October,” the WHO said.
“Such hostilities and raids undermine all our efforts and support to keep the facility functioning to a minimum. The systematic dismantling of the health system in Gaza is a death sentence for tens of thousands of Palestinians who rely on health care.
“This horror must end and healthcare must be protected.”
This morning’s raid on Kamal Adwan Hospital has destroyed the last major health facility in the north #Gaza Out of order. Initial reports suggest that some key departments were badly burned and destroyed in the raid.
60 health workers and 25 patients in critical condition,… pic.twitter.com/bD5eJgnVkR
— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) December 27, 2024
The Israeli military launched a new ground offensive in northern Gaza in October, claiming, also without evidence, that the hospital had “become an important stronghold for terrorist organizations and continues to be used as a hideout for terrorists.”
Before the latest attack on the hospital began, the Israeli military said its soldiers had “enabled the safe evacuation of civilians, patients and medical personnel.”
Hamas denied the presence of its fighters in the hospital and called on the UN to set up an investigative committee “to investigate the extent of the crimes committed in the northern Gaza Strip.”
“We categorically deny the presence of any military activity or resistance fighters in the hospital,” Hamas said in a statement.
“The enemy’s lies about the hospital are aimed at justifying the heinous crime committed by the occupying army today, which includes the evacuation and incineration of all hospital wards as part of a plan of extermination and forced relocation.”
Al Jazeera’s Hamdah Salhut said the Israeli military has often accused Hamas militants of operating from medical facilities but has never proven those claims.
“The most notable was the raid on al-Shifa hospital in 2023, when the military claimed that Hamas was using al-Shifa as a command and control center. Claims that have never been proven to this day,” she said, reporting from Amman. Jordan because Al Jazeera was banned from operating in Israel and the occupied West Bank.
“Now Kamal Adwan was the last functioning hospital in northern Gaza, but here too it was barely functioning due to the siege by Israeli forces – a siege of food, water and all other medical supplies.”
Gaza health officials said Saturday that Israeli forces had arrested the hospital’s director.
“Occupation forces have taken dozens of medical staff from Kamal Adwan Hospital to a detention center for questioning, including director Hussam Abu Safia,” said a statement from the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Hamas-controlled territory.
The Gaza Civil Defense Authority also reported that Abu Safia had been arrested.
The ministry had previously quoted Abu Safia as saying that the military had “set fire to all the surgical wards of the hospital.”
Abu Safia said there were “a large number of injured” among the medical team.
On Thursday, Abu Safia said five employees were killed in an Israeli airstrike.
Israel’s attack has killed more than 45,300 Palestinians, mostly children and women, since October last year, according to health officials in the enclave. The vast majority of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been displaced and much of Gaza lies in ruins.
Abu Safia has repeatedly raised concerns about the hospital’s situation in recent days.
“The world must understand that our hospital is being attacked with the intent to kill and forcibly displace the people inside,” he said in a statement on Monday.
