Israeli forces raid hospital in northern Gaza Strip, Health Ministry says contact with staff lost Reuters
Nidal al-Mughrabi and James Mackenzie
CAIRO/JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israeli forces stormed Kamal Adwan Hospital, one of only three medical facilities on the northern edge of the Gaza Strip, on Friday, ordering dozens of patients and hundreds of others to evacuate the hospital, officials said.
In separate incidents across Gaza, Israeli strikes killed at least 25 people, medics said. In one of these attacks on a house in the city of Gaza, 15 people were killed, doctors and civilian emergency services said.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health said it had lost contact with staff inside the facility, which had been under heavy pressure from Israeli forces for weeks.
“The occupation forces are now inside the hospital and are burning it,” Munir Al-Bursh, director of the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, said in a statement.
Israel’s military said it made efforts to mitigate civilian casualties and “enabled the safe evacuation of civilians, patients and medical personnel prior to the operation,” but gave no details.
“Kamal Adwan Hospital serves as a stronghold of Hamas terrorists in northern Gaza, from which the terrorists operated throughout the war,” the statement said.
Kamal Adwan, as well as hospitals in Indonesia and Al-Awda, have been repeatedly attacked by Israeli forces, which have been clearing the northern edge of the Gaza Strip for weeks, according to Palestinian medical staff.
Friday’s raid comes a day after the military evacuated a nearby Indonesian hospital and continued to pressurize Al-Awda Hospital.
Bursh said the military ordered the 350 people inside the facility to go to a nearby school housing displaced families. There were 75 patients, their companions and 185 medical staff in them.
Hamas’s Al-Aqsa TV reported that hours after the raid, Israeli forces set fire to the hospital. Footage circulated by Palestinian and Arab media, which Reuters could not immediately verify, showed smoke rising from the hospital grounds.
There was no comment from the Israeli army.
Much of the area around the northern towns of Jabalia, Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya has been cleared of people and systematically leveled, prompting speculation that Israel intends to keep the area as a closed buffer zone after the fighting in Gaza ends.
Israel denies the claims, saying its campaign is to prevent Hamas militants from regrouping.
On Thursday, health officials said five medical staff, including a pediatrician, were killed by Israeli fire at Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia, where Israeli forces have been operating since October.
In a statement, Hamas held Israel and the United States responsible for the fate of the patients, injured and medical staff at the hospital.
Israel’s campaign against Hamas in Gaza has killed more than 45,300 Palestinians, according to health officials in the enclave. Most of the population of 2.3 million have been displaced, and much of Gaza is in ruins.
The war was triggered by a Hamas attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, in which 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage in Gaza, according to Israeli figures.
