Source: CNN
Israeli forces have breached a hospital compound in northern Gaza as the United Nations warned the war’s “darkest moment” was unfolding in the north of the Strip.
After days of laying siege to the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya, the Israeli military twice entered the hospital compound over the past 24 hours and opened fire at parts of the complex, the Gaza health ministry and the hospital director told CNN.
The facility is running low on supplies and is in desperate need of aid as injured people from neighboring areas pour in following Israel’s renewed offensive in northern areas, according to health authorities.
“One of the darkest moments of the Gaza conflict is unfolding in the north of the Strip,” the UN’s human rights chief Volker Turk said Friday.
“The Israeli military is effectively subjecting an entire population to bombing, siege and risk of starvation, as well as being forced to choose between mass displacement and being trapped in an active conflict zone,” he added, warning that Israel’s actions could amount to crimes against humanity.
Gaza’s health ministry said Saturday that Israeli troops have detained all male medical staff at the hospital “while confining women in one of the hospital rooms without water or food.”
World Health Organization (WHO) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Friday that since the raid on Kamal Adwan hospital, WHO has “lost touch with the personnel there.”
“This development is deeply disturbing given the number of patients being served and people sheltering there,” Ghebreyesus said on X. Prior to Friday’s raid, he said, WHO and its partners managed to reach Kamal Adwan “amid hostilities in the vicinity, and transferred 23 patients and 26 caregivers to Al-Shifa Hospital.”
Ghebreyesus said later Saturday that Israel’s raid on the hospital was over, but came “at a heavy cost.” After 44 male staff members detained, the hospital’s female staff, the hospital director and one other male doctor were left to care for “nearly 200 patients in desperate need of medical attention,” said Ghebreyesus.
Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, the hospital director, said in a video that Israeli tanks and bulldozers entered the hospital compound late Thursday and began firing at parts of the complex, adding that “all departments of the hospital are under direct shelling.”
“Instead of receiving aid, we are receiving tanks,” he said.
After an hours-long communications blackout and “intense bombardment,” Safiya told CNN late Friday that Israeli troops were still present in the hospital.
“We all gathered in one place, and then the army called for me. When I went down, they put me inside a tank and began interrogating me about my statements and contact with the media,” Abu Safiya recounted.
He said the Israeli military were “searching all the rooms, evacuating the displaced people and removing 44 staff members” as he spoke.
“The situation is extremely tragic and terrifying, and the bombing is continuous,” Abu Safiya said.
Kamal Adwan is one of three minimally operational hospitals in northern Gaza, and the closest to Israeli military activity in Beit Lahiya and the Jabalya Refugee Camp. Despite its limited capacity, it has been receiving most of the injured from the surrounding fighting.
The Israeli military said in a statement Friday that its forces are operating in the area of the Kamal Adwan Hospital “based on intelligence information regarding the presence of terrorists and terrorist infrastructure,” adding that in the weeks preceding the operation, “the IDF facilitated the evacuation of patients from the area while maintaining emergency services.”
COGAT, the Israeli agency that manages the flow of aid into the strip, said on Friday that with the help of UNICEF and WHO, several patients and their escorts were evacuated from the facility. The hospital was also given fuel, blood units and medical equipment.
‘Shocked by the entry of bulldozers and tanks’
Maher Shamiya, an official with the Gaza health ministry, told CNN Friday that the Israeli military had demolished parts of the hospital’s wall. The oxygen station had also been damaged by Israeli fire, he said.
Shamiya said that the military had entered the hospital yard for a second time on Friday morning and had begun separating men from women.
“After that, it became impossible to communicate with anyone.”
In his video message, Safiya said he was “shocked by the entry of bulldozers and tanks into the hospital compound,” adding that tanks began firing at the upper floors, shattering windows and “creating an atmosphere of panic, terror, and fear.”
“Everyone in the hospital gathered in the stairwell; it was a very distressing scene,” he said.
One video showed Abu Safiya speaking from within the Intensive Care Unit, where patients and medical staff were huddled. He said that some severely injured people were dying. Abu Safiya said that a number of properties around the hospital had been set on fire.
Later Thursday night, a convoy of supplies from the World Health Organization reached the hospital, he said. Video showed a fuel tanker and other vehicles close to the facility.
Abu Safiya said the convoy delivered enough fuel for five days, as well as 200 units of blood and a few other supplies, but no food or water.
He said he had been in touch with Israeli officers.
“I explained the situation of the patients and the injured people in the hospital, emphasizing that their condition was extremely critical and that evacuation was necessary.”
The health ministry in Gaza told CNN Friday that 23 injured people had been evacuated in six ambulances. Abu Safiya said there were 70 critically injured people at the hospital needing evacuation.
Abu Safiya also told CNN that there was a large number of injured people in the Jabalya area of northern Gaza, which has been subjected to intense Israeli military operations in recent days.
“We have no medical assistance that can reach them, and I do not have the means to help them even if they were able to reach us. We have nothing to offer them.”
It has been 21 days since Israel ramped up its military operation in northern Gaza. Authorities in Gaza say the military has stopped aid from reaching parts of the area and displaced many of its residents. Israel says it is preventing Hamas from regrouping.