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, forcing many employees and sufferers exterior to strip in winter climate, the territory’s well being ministry stated. The military denied claims it had entered or set hearth to the complicated and accused Hamas of utilizing the ability for canopy.
Kamal Adwan Hospital has been hit a number of occasions over the previous three months by Israeli troops waging an offensive in opposition to Hamas fighters in surrounding neighborhoods, in response to employees. The ministry stated a strike on the hospital a day earlier killed 5 medical employees. Hamas has been designated as a terrorist group by the US, Canada and the European Union.
Israel’s navy stated it was conducting operations in opposition to Hamas infrastructure and fighters within the space and had ordered folks out of the hospital, however stated it had not entered the complicated as of Friday night time. It repeated claims that Hamas fighters function inside Kamal Adwan however offered 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 incessantly 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 Related Press doesn’t have entry to Kamal Adwan, however armed plainclothes members of the Hamas-led police forces have been seen in different hospitals, sustaining safety but in addition controlling entry to elements of the amenities.
A girl sits exterior a tent made regionally from items of material and nylon, in a camp for internally displaced Palestinians on the beachfront in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, Friday, Dec. 27, 2024. (AP Picture/Abdel Kareem Hana)
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 employees remained within the hospital. The account couldn’t be independently confirmed, and makes an attempt to succeed in hospital employees had been unsuccessful.
“Fire is ablaze everywhere in the hospital,” an unidentified employees member stated in an audio message posted on social media accounts of hospital director Hossam Abu Safiya. The staffer stated some evacuated sufferers had been unhooked from oxygen.
“There are currently patients who could die at any moment,” she stated.
Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, an Israeli navy spokesman, denied the accusations.
“While IDF troops were not in the hospital, a small fire broke out in an empty building inside the hospital that is under control,” he stated Friday night time. He stated a preliminary investigation discovered “no connection” between navy exercise and the hearth.
The Israeli navy closely restricts the actions of Palestinians in Gaza and has barred overseas journalists from coming into the territory all through the conflict, making it tough to confirm data.
“These actions put the lives of all of these people in even more danger than what they faced before,” U.N. spokesperson Stephanie Tremblay informed journalists, and famous colleagues’ reviews of “significant damage” to the hospital. It needs to be protected as worldwide legislation requires, she added.
A largely remoted north
Since October, Israel’s offensive has just about sealed off the northern Gaza areas of Jabaliya, Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya and leveled giant 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 situated. Troops raided Kamal Adwan in October, and on Tuesday troops stormed and evacuated the Indonesian Hospital.
The realm has been reduce off from meals and different help for months , elevating fears of famine. The United Nations 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 Court docket of Justice, in search of a halt to navy assaults on Kamal Adwan. It warned that forcibly evacuating the hospital would “abandon thousands 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 terrorists killed round 1,200 folks and kidnapped some 250 others. Round 100 Israelis stay captive in Gaza, round a 3rd believed to be lifeless.
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 offered little proof.
Israel’s marketing campaign has killed greater than 45,400 Palestinians, greater than half girls and youngsters, and wounded greater than 108,000 others, in response to the Well being Ministry. Its depend doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants.
Deaths from the chilly in Gaza
Greater than 90% of Gaza’s 2.3 million Palestinians have been pushed from their houses, most now sheltering in sprawling tent camps in south and central Gaza.
Youngsters and adults, many barefoot, huddled Friday on the chilly sand in tents whose plastic and material sheets whipped within the wind. In a single day temperatures can dip into the 40s Fahrenheit (under 10 Celsius), and sea spray from the Mediterranean can dampen tents simply steps away.
“I swear to God, their mother and I cover ourselves with one blanket and we cover (their five children) with three blankets that we got from neighbors. Sea waters drowned everything that was ours,” stated Muhammad al-Sous, displaced from Beit Lahiya within the north.
The youngsters gather plastic bottles to make fires, and pile beneath the blankets when their solely set of garments is washed and dried within the wind.
At the very least three infants in Gaza have died from publicity to chilly in current days, docs there have stated, and the Well being Ministry stated an grownup — a nurse who labored on the European Hospital — additionally died this week.
Khaled and Keath reported from Cairo. Related Press author Edith M. Lederer on the United Narions contributed to this report.
Initially Printed: December 27, 2024 at 9:54 AM EST
