Last week the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) stormed Kamal Adwan Hospital – the last operational medical facility in northern Gaza – set large parts on fire, destroyed the hospital's entrances and assaulted patients and medical staff. The fate of 30 medical personnel remains unknown, said Dr. Khalil Daqran, a spokesman for the Hamas-run health ministry.
The attack on the Beit Lahia-located hospital was launched around 2:00 am local time, shortly after Israeli fighter jets carpet-bombed residential buildings in the nearby Jabalia camp and southern Gaza's Khan Younis.
Dr. Munir al-Bursh, director general of the Palestinian health ministry in Gaza, said that the air strikes landed in the hospital and its courtyards, including the medical oxygen generator, which caused the death of children in the hospital and wounded medical staff. (Related: Israeli bombs oxygen station at Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, killing children who relied on oxygen for survival.)
"Instead of receiving aid, we receive tanks... which are shelling the [hospital] building," Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of the hospital whose son Ibrahim also died in the recent strikes, said in a video published on his social media pages shortly after the bombing.
"Where is the law? Which law in the world allows for a hospital to be directly targeted?" he said in the video.
Reports indicated that after the air strikes, IDF raided the hospital and made patients, even those in intensive care, gather in the courtyard. They then separated men and women. All men have been detained and subjected to field interrogations.
Gaza's health ministry said hundreds of patients, medical staff and displaced Palestinians who had sought shelter at Kamal Adwan Hospital had been detained by Israeli forces, and that only three doctors were working at the hospital on Saturday. There were 150 patients and wounded people inside at the time of the raid, alongside 250 medical staff.
The Palestinian health ministry said that no food, medicines or medical supplies necessary to save the lives of the wounded and patients have been supplied or provided.
On Saturday, Oct. 26, IDF withdrew from Kamal Adwan Hospital, claiming that they had "apprehended approximately 100 terrorists" inside the hospital and found "weapons, terror funds and intelligence documents during its operation. Some Hamas militants, including some linked to last year's Oct. 7 attacks, disguised themselves as medical staff, the IDF also said.
The Israeli military did not provide evidence and claimed that Israel's military liaison with the Palestinians, the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), had coordinated with the hospital to activate an additional generator.
NBC News crew in Gaza took footage showing equipment, blankets, medical supplies and ceiling panels scattered across the floor and fallen furniture blocking doors and walkways when the IDF left the facility.
Meanwhile, a Civil Defense official told the media outlet that approximately 1,000 people have been killed and 670 others were missing since operations began in northern Gaza.
Only one doctor left running Kamal Adwan Hospital following days-long Israeli siege
There is only one medic left running Kamal Adwan Hospital after the IDF held it under siege for days, Daqran reported.
He appealed to international organizations to send medical staff to the hospital as "patients there were bleeding to death for lack of proper care."
"Conditions in northern Gaza are catastrophic: there is no water, food or baby formula. Infrastructure has been decimated, sewage and waste are piling up among the residents, leading to the spread of disease and epidemics," Daqran added.
UN human rights chief Volker Turk said: "The Israeli government's policies and practices in northern Gaza risk emptying the area of all Palestinians. We are facing what could amount to atrocity crimes, including potentially extending to crimes against humanity." He also said it was unacceptable that Palestinian armed groups were reportedly operating among civilians, including inside shelters for the displaced.
For Palestinians, Israel is implementing the so-called "Generals' Plan" in the north, which would see the forced displacement of all of the estimated 400,000 civilians there to the south followed by a siege of any remaining Hamas fighters.
However, IDF denied having such a plan and says it is making sure that civilians get out of harm's way.
Meanwhile, in a statement Sunday, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres' office called the situation for Palestinians in northern Gaza "unbearable." Guterres is said to have reiterated his call for a ceasefire and the release of hostages.
"The Secretary-General is shocked by the harrowing levels of death, injury and destruction in the north, with civilians trapped under rubble, the sick and wounded going without life-saving health care, and families lacking food and shelter, amid reports of families being separated and many people detained," the statement said.
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