Israel detains director of main hospital in northern Gaza as WHO condemns raids | Israel-Palestine conflict news

The Israeli army has detained the director of one of the last operating hospitals in northern Gaza as the World Health Organization (WHO) reiterated its demand to protect hospitals in the bombed Palestinian enclave.

In a statement on Saturday, the WHO said the Kamal Advan Hospital was “already empty” after the accident. Israeli army raided the facility and expelled dozens of medical staff and patients.

“Yesterday evening, the remaining 15 critical patients, 50 caregivers and 20 health workers were transferred to an Indonesian hospital that lacks the necessary equipment and supplies to provide adequate care,” the UN health agency said. he said.

“Moving and treating these critically ill patients in such conditions poses serious risks to their survival. “WHO is deeply concerned for their well-being, as well as for the Director of Kamal Advan Hospital, who was reportedly detained during the raid.”

The WHO said it had lost contact with director Hussam Abu Safia since the raid began.

The Israeli military said it launched the raid on Kamal Advan – which as of Friday morning housed about 350 patients and medical staff – because the hospital “serves as a stronghold of Hamas terrorists”.

Israel has not provided any evidence to support its claim, and Hamas, the Palestinian group that rules Gaza, has said it “categorically” rejects the claim.

The raid on Kamal Advan Hospital this morning left this last major health facility in the North #Gaza out of service. According to initial reports, some key departments were seriously burnt and destroyed during the raid.

60 medical workers and 25 patients are in serious condition… pic.twitter.com/bD5eJgnVkR

– World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) December 27, 2024

Gaza health officials said early Saturday that Israeli forces had taken Abu Safiya and dozens of hospital workers “to a detention center for questioning.”

The Israeli military later confirmed that Abu Safiya was among those detained for questioning. His exact whereabouts are unknown.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza earlier quoted Abu Safi as saying that the military had “burnt down all the surgical departments of the hospital” and that there were “a large number of wounded” among the doctors.

“Hospitals become battlefields”

The raid on the Kemal Advan hospital took place during Israel’s renewed ground offensive in northern Gaza, which began in October. There is Israel besieged in the region, severely restricting the delivery of humanitarian aid to Palestinians there.

The World Health Organization said it had also documented “access restrictions and repeated attacks” on the health facility since early October.

“WHO is urgently calling for support to reopen hospitals in northern Gaza,” the agency said in a statement on Saturday.

“Hospitals have once again become battlegrounds, reminiscent of the destruction of the health system in Gaza City earlier this year.”

The Israeli army claimed that the hospital “has become a stronghold for terrorist organizations and continues to be used as a hideout for terrorist operatives.”

Before launching the latest attack on Kamal Advan, the Israeli military said its soldiers had “facilitated the safe evacuation of civilians, patients and medical personnel.”

Hamas has denied that its fighters are in the hospital and has called on the UN to establish an investigative committee “to investigate the extent of the crime committed in northern Gaza.”

“We categorically deny any military activity and the presence of resistance fighters in the hospital,” Hamas said in a statement.

Al Jazeera’s Hamdah Salhut said the Israeli military has often accused Hamas fighters of operating from medical facilities, but has never provided evidence for its claims.

“The most notable incident 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, which has never been proven to date,” he said.

“Now, Kamal Advan was the last hospital operating in northern Gaza, but it was still barely functioning because of the siege by the Israeli forces – the siege of food, water and all medical supplies.”

Witnesses tell what happened

Ismail al-Kahlout, a nurse working at the hospital, told Al-Jazeera TV that the workers and patients were kept in the cold for hours by the Israeli military after they were stripped almost naked.

Some Palestinians, including those who were injured or sick, were beaten. “The Israeli soldiers kept us bound and blindfolded,” he said. “We could hear people screaming, but we didn’t know exactly who was being beaten.”

Shoruk al-Rantisi, who is also besieged in Kamal Adwan, said that Israeli soldiers do not give people water and forbid them from going to the toilet.

“We live in humiliation,” he told Al Jazeera. “We are exhausted. We are tired. That’s enough.”

The director of the hospital has repeatedly expressed his concern about the situation in recent days.

“The world must understand that our hospital was targeted to kill and forcefully relocate the people inside,” Abu Safiya said in a statement on Monday.

The Israeli offensive has killed more than 45,300 Palestinians, mostly children and women, since October last year, according to health officials in the enclave. Most of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been displaced and much of Gaza has been reduced to rubble.