By WAFAA SHURAFA, FATMA KHALED and LEE KEATH, Related Press
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli troops stormed one of many final hospitals working in northern Gaza on Friday, igniting fires and forcing many employees and sufferers outdoors to strip in winter climate, the territory’s well being ministry stated.
Kamal Adwan Hospital has been hit a number of occasions over the previous three months by Israeli troops waging an offensive towards Hamas fighters in surrounding neighborhoods, in keeping with employees. The ministry stated a strike on the hospital a day earlier killed 5 medical employees.
Israel’s navy stated it was conducting operations towards Hamas infrastructure and militants within the space of the hospital, with out particulars. It repeated claims that Hamas fighters function inside Kamal Adwan however supplied no proof. Hospital officers have denied that.
The Well being Ministry stated troops compelled medical personnel and sufferers to assemble within the yard and take away their garments. Some had been led to an unknown location, whereas some sufferers had been despatched to the close by Indonesian Hospital, which was knocked out of operation after an Israel raid this week.
Israeli troops throughout raids regularly perform mass detentions, stripping males to their underwear for questioning in what the navy says is a safety measure as they seek for Hamas fighters. The AP doesn’t have entry to Kamal Adwan, however armed plainclothes members of the Hamas-led police forces — tasked with holding safety and formally separate from the group’s armed wing — have been seen in different hospitals.
The Well being Ministry stated Israeli troops additionally set fires in a number of elements of Kamal Adwan, together with the lab and surgical procedure division. It stated 25 sufferers and 60 well being staff remained within the hospital out of 75 sufferers and 180 employees who had been there. The account couldn’t be independently confirmed, and makes an attempt to succeed in hospital employees had been unsuccessful.
“Fireplace is ablaze in all places within the hospital,” an unidentified member of the employees stated in an audio message posted on the social media accounts of hospital director Hossam Abu Safiya. The staffer stated some evacuated sufferers had been unhooked from oxygen. “There are at the moment sufferers who might die at any second,” she stated.
Since October, Israel’s offensive has nearly sealed off the northern Gaza areas of Jabaliya, Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya and leveled massive elements of them. Tens of 1000’s of Palestinians had been compelled out however 1000’s are believed to stay within the space, the place Kamal Adwan and two different hospitals are positioned. Troops raided Kamal Adwan in October, and on Tuesday troops stormed and evacuated the Indonesian Hospital.
The world has been minimize off from meals and different help for months , elevating fears of famine. The U.N. says Israeli troops allowed simply 4 humanitarian deliveries to the world from Dec. 1 to Dec. 23.
The Israeli rights group Physicians for Human Rights-Israel this week petitioned Israel’s Excessive Courtroom of Justice in search of a halt to navy assaults on Kamal Adwan. It warned that forcibly evacuating the hospital would “abandon 1000’s of residents in northern Gaza.” Earlier than the newest deaths Thursday, the group documented 5 different staffers killed by Israeli hearth since October.
Israel launched its marketing campaign in Gaza vowing to destroy Hamas after the group’s Oct. 7, 2023, assault on southern Israel wherein militants killed round 1,200 folks and kidnapped some 250 others. Round 100 Israelis stay captive in Gaza, round a 3rd believed to be useless.
Israel’s almost 15-month-old marketing campaign of bombardment and offensives has devastated the territory’s well being sector. A yr in the past, it carried out raids on hospitals in northern Gaza, together with Kamal Adwan, Indonesian and al-Awda Hospital, saying they served as bases for Hamas, although it introduced little proof.
Israel’s marketing campaign has killed greater than 45,400 Palestinians, greater than half of them ladies and kids, and wounded greater than 108,000 others, in keeping with the Well being Ministry. Its depend doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants.
Greater than 90% of Gaza’s 2.3 million Palestinians have been pushed from their properties, most of them now sheltering in sprawling, squalid tent camps in south and central Gaza.
Kids and adults, many barefoot, huddled Friday on the chilly sand in tents whose plastic and fabric sheets whipped within the wind. In a single day temperatures can dip into the 40s Fahrenheit (beneath 10 Celsius), and sea spray from the Mediterranean can dampen the tents simply steps away.
Khaled and Keath reported from Cairo.
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