Israel orders evacuation of critical Indonesian hospitals in Gaza, al-Awda | News from Gaza
Israeli forces ordered the immediate evacuation of staff and patients from two of the most critical hospitals in the northern Gaza Strip under threat of attack, while the United Nations pleaded with Israel to end its attacks on medical facilities in the besieged territory.
On Friday, Israeli soldiers surrounded Indonesian Hospital in Beit Lahia, where many displaced Palestinians sought refuge.
A special evacuation order was also issued to al-Awda Hospital in Jabalia, reports Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza.
Health care in the Gaza Strip has been pushed to the brink of collapse by repeated attacks by Israeli forces, including last week’s destruction Kamal Adwan Hospital. Both the Indonesian hospital and al-Awda hospital were damaged by repeated Israeli attacks since October 2023.
Mahmoud said many of those receiving treatment or seeking refuge at the two hospitals came from the destroyed Kamal Adwan Hospital.
“We are talking about people in a very critical condition,” he said. “They need to be connected to medical equipment and some of them have sustained serious injuries.”
Images from an Indonesian hospital show children among seriously injured patients.
Mahmoud also reported that Israeli authorities blocked “any kind of coordination” between hospital staff and independent humanitarian organizations such as the Red Crescent.
Israel has defended its attacks on medical facilities by saying they are being used by Palestinian armed groups, but the UN has often questioned the veracity of those claims.
On Friday, Israel’s ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Daniel Meron, posted on social media a letter he sent to the UN and the World Health Organization, saying the attack on the Kamal Adwan hospital a week ago was “motivated by irrefutable evidence” that Palestinians armed groups used the hospital.
He said Israeli forces took “extraordinary measures to protect civilian lives while acting on credible intelligence.”
Israel’s shelling of medical facilities in Gaza prompted the UN Security Council to hold an emergency meeting on Friday, during which UN officials pleaded for the protection of hospitals.
At the meeting, UN Human Rights Chief Volker Turk said Israel had failed to substantiate many of its claims that the facilities were used by Gaza fighters, describing the allegations as “often vague and broad” and in some cases “appearing to contradict publicly available information”.
Turk called for an independent investigation into all Israeli attacks on medical facilities and health workers in Gaza, as well as the alleged abuse of such facilities.
The WHO’s Rik Peeperkorn called on Israel to immediately reverse its orders to evacuate Indonesian and al-Awda hospitals.
“They are struggling to stay open. Food, water and fuel are running out fast,” he told a UN Security Council meeting, adding that hospitals had been without many essential medicines for the past 85 days amid Israel’s renewed offensive in northern Gaza.
Peeperkorn said WHO is deeply concerned about the fate of hospital director Kamal Adwan, Dr. Hussam Abu Safia, who was arrested by Israel last week.
“We have since lost contact with him and are calling for his immediate release,” Peeperkorn said.
Christina Markus Lassen, Denmark’s ambassador to the UN, noted the WHO’s warning about the “systematic targeting of the health system in Gaza” and called for the “pattern” to be “reversed”.
A recent report by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights found that Israeli forces had carried out more than 136 airstrikes on some 27 hospitals and 12 medical facilities in the past eight months.
Meanwhile, Israeli forces continue to bombard areas across Gaza, killing at least 73 Palestinians in the territory since Friday morning, medical sources told Al Jazeera.
Al Jazeera’s Mahmoud reported that at least five people were killed early Saturday in an attack by an Israeli drone on a convoy of security personnel hired to protect the delivery of commercial and humanitarian trucks.
The Palestinian Civil Defense also reported that a husband and wife, along with their son, were killed in an Israeli attack on a house on al-Sahaba Street in Gaza City.
Several people were also injured after Israeli warplanes bombed tents housing displaced Palestinians nearby Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir el-Balah, in central Gaza, reports our colleagues from Al Jazeera Arabic.
Israel’s the war in Gaza has killed at least 45,658 Palestinians and wounded 108,583 since October 7, 2023. At least 1,139 people were killed in Israel during attacks led by Hamas that day, and about 250 others were captured.
