Israeli forces detain medics, patients after violent raid on Gaza hospital

Israeli forces have withdrawn from Kamal Adwan Hospital after detaining dozens of medics and some patients, and causing widespread damage to one of the last functioning hospitals in northern Gaza, the Health Ministry in the besieged enclave has said.

The medical facility is in disarray after it was raided and shelled amid Israel’s three-week offensive in the north, with a top Gaza Health Ministry official urging the World Health Organization (WHO) to evacuate the wounded from the hospital considered a lifeline for people in northern Gaza.

“The smell of death has spread around the hospital,” Marwan al-Hams, director of field hospitals at Gaza’s Health Ministry, told Al Jazeera, adding that the Israeli forces destroyed the hospital’s medical supplies during their raid to prevent the medics from saving the wounded.

More than 600 people, including patients and those accompanying them were housed in the hospital before it was raided on Friday.

Medics said on Saturday that at least 44 out of the hospital’s 70-member team had been detained by the army. Later, it was reported that 14 of those detained, including the hospital’s director Hussam Abu Safia, were released.

“A critical shortage of medical supplies, compounded by severely limited access, are depriving people of life-saving care,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO chief, posted on X on Saturday.

Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum reporting from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza said that the Israeli forces caused widespread damage to the pharmaceutical warehouse and the ICU.

“Everyone knows that Kamal Adwan Hospital is considered a medical lifeline for the two-thirds of Palestinians in northern Gaza.”

‘Shooting from all directions’

Outside the hospital, hundreds of spent bullet cartridges littered the floor. Footage shared by the Health Ministry revealed damage to buildings and vandalised wards.

Nurse Mayssoun Alian said Israeli forces surrounded the hospital in the morning “and there was shooting from all directions.

“They evacuated all those who were sheltering here. They separated the men from women and made two queues. It was very humiliating for our men since they were stripped of their clothes,” she told Al Jazeera.

There was chaos inside the hospital with patients lying on the floor, including in the hallways, according to footage accessed by Al Jazeera.

A patient and witness in the hospital told Al Jazeera that Israeli forces first shelled the courtyard at about 5am (03:00 GMT) on Friday.

“Thirty minutes later, bulldozers destroyed everything, including the tents housing the displaced,” he said. “They destroyed the hospital’s pharmacy and riddled the hospital with bullets. They started calling for Dr Hussam over the loudspeakers.”

At least two children died inside the intensive care unit when Israeli forces destroyed the generators and oxygen station on Friday, medics said.

‘Medicide’

Kamal Adwan Hospital spokesperson Hisham Sakani told Al Jazeera that the latest assault marks the 14th time that the hospital has come under Israeli fire.

Israel has repeatedly attacked hospitals since it launched the devastating war on October 7, 2023. More than 42,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces and large parts of Gaza lay in ruins. At least 17 out of 35 hospitals across the Strip are partially functioning.

On Friday, the UN special rapporteur on health used a new term – medicide – to describe the widespread and systematic attacks by Israel on healthcare workers and facilities.

Gaza’s Health Ministry stated that all detained medical personnel were held by the Israeli military without access to food or water. According to the ministry, three nurses were injured, and three ambulances were destroyed.

Among those taken was Mohamed Obeid, head of the orthopaedics department at Al-Awda Hospital nearby, though his current location remains unknown, according to the hospital.

Footage shared on social media on Saturday showed hospital director Abu Safia, mourning the loss of his minor son, who was killed during the two-day Israeli assault.

An Israeli military spokesperson declined to comment on the report. On Friday, the Israeli military stated it had conducted operations near the hospital based on intelligence indicating the presence of “terrorists and terrorist infrastructure” in the area.

A Palestinian man walks past the rubble after Israeli forces withdrew from the area around Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza [Reuters]

A spokesperson from the UN agency for children said northern Gaza is a disaster zone after the Israeli military’s three-week ground incursion.

“Attacks have been escalating, hospitals and schools used as shelters haven’t been spared,” UNICEF’s Rosalia Bollen told Al Jazeera.

“It’s been extremely difficult to bring supplies to the north with only 224 trucks reaching. But 224 trucks is the number we’d like to get in on a daily basis, not for an entire month. In the hospitals, there’s no food or water for patients. There’s no fuel, no electricity.”

The Health Ministry reported that Israeli military strikes on Jabalia, Beit Hanoon, and Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza have killed approximately 800 people over the course of a three-week offensive.

A damaged ambulance is seen at the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya [AFP]