Israel arrests Kamal Adwan hospital director in Gaza, WHO 'appalled'

Israel claimed on Saturday to have arrested the director of a hospital in the north of the Gaza Strip presented as a Palestinian Hamas command center and now emptied of patients and staff, according to the World Health Organization, which said it was “appalled.”

The Kamal Adwan hospital was the last major hospital still operating in the north of the Palestinian territory, devastated by more than a year of war between Israel and the Islamist movement Hamas. It is now “empty” and “out of service,” said the World Health Organization (WHO), following a major offensive by the Israeli army.

The latter reported late Saturday afternoon that it had completed “a targeted operation,” launched the previous day, against Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters it believed were operating in and around the facility. It also confirmed that it had detained for questioning the hospital's director, Dr. Hossam Abou Safiya, “suspected of being a Hamas terrorist,” among more than 240 arrests in total. “This is the number of terrorists we expected,” said army spokesperson Nadav Shoshani. “We did not expect to find thousands of weapons."

'Stripped naked'

Since Oct. 6, the Israeli army has stepped up its ground and air offensive in the north of the Gaza Strip to prevent Hamas fighters from regrouping. It regularly accuses the latter of using hospitals as bases for preparing and launching attacks against its troops, a charge denied by the Islamist movement.

Mohammad, a witness who preferred not to give his surname, told AFP that the army had “asked all the young men to undress before leaving the hospital and going to a school used as a detention and interrogation center.” “Once the interrogation was over, they [the soldiers] put us in a truck and took off our clothes. We stayed in the truck from two to six in the morning before being released,” Ramadan Al-Aswad, a patient at the hospital, told AFP.

The WHO, “appalled” by the Israeli raid, also relayed accusations that “several people were stripped naked and forced to walk towards southern Gaza.”

According to the Hamas government's Health Ministry, the soldiers arrested dozens of medical staff from the Kamal Adwan hospital in addition to its director.

“The [Israeli] occupation has completely destroyed the medical, humanitarian and relief backbone in northern Gaza,” local Civil Defense spokesperson Mahmoud Bassal denounced to AFP.

48 dead in Gaza in 24 hours

Located in Beit Lahia, the Kamal Adwan hospital played a crucial role in the besieged Gaza Strip, where health services have dried up after more than a year of war. “The situation is catastrophic: There are no more medical services, ambulances or rescue workers in northern Gaza,” 50-year-old Ammar al-Barch told AFP.

The Civil Defense also reported that nine people were killed in an Israeli strike on Saturday morning on a house in the center of the Palestinian territory.

Israel announced that it had intercepted “two projectiles” fired from northern Gaza over its territory. Sirens were sounded in the Jerusalem, Negev and Shephelah regions.

Military operations are expected to continue as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, 75, undergoes prostate surgery on Sunday, his office said on Saturday.

In response to the Hamas attack from Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023, the Israeli army launched a campaign of aerial bombardments followed by a ground offensive against the Palestinian territory. According to the latest figures from Gaza's Health Ministry, a total of 45,484 Palestinians, mainly civilians, perished, including at least 48 in the space of 24 hours. On the Israeli side, the Hamas attack resulted in the deaths of more than 1,200 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official figures.