Ambulances transport wounded Palestinians from the Kamal Adwan Hospital to the al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, on Dec. 28, 2024. (Credit: Omar al-Qattaa/AFP)
The World Health Organization said Saturday that the Kamal Adwan Hospital was "now empty" following an Israeli military raid which put north Gaza's last major health facility out of service.
The WHO said it was "appalled" by Friday's raid, saying "hospitals have once again become battlegrounds." On Saturday evening, the Israeli army announced it had completed its operations at the hospital, which it described as "a Hamas command center," a continuation of the narrative it has used in previous attacks against hospitals in Gaza.
"The systematic dismantling of the health system and a siege for over 80 days on north Gaza puts the lives of the 75,000 Palestinians remaining in the area at risk," the U.N. health agency said in a statement.
Israeli forces detained dozens of medical staff from the hospital in Beit Lahiya, the enclave's Health Ministry said. The army ordered dozens of patients and hundreds of others to evacuate and detained medical staff including the facility's director, Hussam Abu Safiya.
The Health Ministry said it was not clear what was happening to Abu Safiya, adding it was concerned about his well-being after some of the staff freed by the army late on Friday reported that he was beaten up by soldiers. The WHO said it had lost contact with the head doctor following the raid.
"The [Israeli army] and ISA [security agency] completed a targeted operation against a Hamas command center in the Kamal Adwan Hospital," the army claimed in a statement. "The forces apprehended over 240 terrorists in the area." The army also said it suspected Safiya of "being a Hamas terrorist operative," had been detained him for questioning.
The raid on the hospital, one of three medical facilities on the northern edge of Gaza, put the last major health facility in north Gaza out of service, WHO said in a post on X. Initial reports indicated that some areas of the hospital were burnt and severely damaged during the raid, including the laboratory, surgical unit, engineering and maintenance department, operations theater and the medical store.
The remaining 15 critical patients, 50 caregivers and 20 health workers were transferred Friday to Indonesian Hospital, which it described as "destroyed and non-functional," and medics were prevented from joining them there, the Health Ministry said. "The movement and treatment of these critical patients under such conditions pose grave risks to their survival," WHO added.
"An urgent WHO mission to Indonesian Hospital is being planned for tomorrow to safely move patients to southern Gaza for continued care."
Some others were transferred to another hospital in the southern Gaza Strip. Some of the freed medical staff arrived at the al-Ahli Arab Baptist Hospital in Gaza City.
The Israeli military said on Friday that Hamas fighters had operated from Kamal Adwan Hospital throughout the 15-month-old war and had made the site a key stronghold. Hamas dismissed this as "lies," saying there were no fighters in the hospital.
The Gaza Health Ministry also said Israeli strikes across the enclave killed 18 Palestinians on Saturday, at least nine of them in a house in Maghazi camp in central Gaza Strip.
In the past few months Israeli forces have pushed people out and razed much of the area around the northern towns of Jabalia, Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya. Palestinians have accused Israel of carrying out ethnic cleansing by depopulating those areas to create a buffer zone. Israel denies it is doing this, saying it aims to prevent Hamas fighters from regrouping in these areas.
Israel's war on Gaza has killed more than 45,400 Palestinians, according to health officials in the besieged Strip. Most of the population of 2.3 million has been displaced and much of Gaza is in ruins.