Israel attacks hospital in northern Gaza, leaving bodies lying in streets, director says | Israel-Gaza war

Israeli forces stormed Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza, evicting some staff and displaced people before withdrawing, and the bodies of people killed by airstrikes littered the streets outside, its director said.

The attack began with a series of airstrikes on the western and northern sides of Kamal Adwan, accompanied by intense gunfire, hospital director Hussam Abu Safiye said, speaking via an online chat room, Reuters reported.

He said troops who stormed the hospital ordered all staff, patients and displaced people into its courtyard before allowing them back inside hours later, even though some of the staff, including the Indonesian emergency surgery team, and some displaced persons were ordered to leave the premises permanently.

Gaza’s civil defense agency said 29 people were killed and dozens wounded on Friday by Israeli shelling in the north Gaza“especially around Kamal Adwan”. AFP reported that four members of hospital staff were among the dead, citing Abu Safiye. Al Jazeera TV said it had verified footage of Israeli forces shooting at a Palestinian Red Crescent Society ambulance outside the hospital.

It is not possible to independently verify the reports because Israel does not allow foreign journalists into Gaza.

The Israeli military on Friday denied claims it had struck or entered Kamal Adwan Hospital, saying it was operating near the facility. “Contrary to reports over the past day, [military] did not hit Kamal Adwan Hospital nor did he operate there,” it said in a statement.

This week Amnesty International released a report saying that Israel’s campaign in Gaza amounts to genocide. One of his main charges was that Israel was creating living conditions calculated to lead to physical destruction, such as the destruction of medical infrastructure. Israel rejected the report.

Kamal Adwan Hospital is caught up in renewed Israeli military operations in northern Gaza against a regrouping of militants.

“This morning we were shocked to see hundreds of bodies and injured people in the streets around the hospital,” Abu Safiye said in another statement posted online.

“The situation in and around the hospital is catastrophic. There are a large number [dead] martyrs and wounded people and no surgeons left,” he said. Abu Safiye’s 15-year-old son was killed in an Israeli drone attack in the hospital in October and his father was forced to bury him in the hospital yard.

Gaza’s health ministry said the three main hospitals on the northern edge of the territory were barely functioning and had been the target of repeated attacks since Israel sent tanks into Beit Lahiya and nearby Beit Hanoun and Jabalia in October.

Later on Friday, an Israeli airstrike on a house in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip killed at least 18 people, including three children and two women, and wounded 30 others, medics said.

They added that Israeli military strikes across the territory killed at least 53 Palestinians, most of them in northern Gaza on Friday.

In a signal for help on Friday, the ministry accused the Israeli army of committing a “war crime” at Kamal Adwan hospital, carrying out “all forms of killing and violence in and around it”.

He added: “The injured who remained inside are in a critical condition and require immediate medical attention.”

The ministry said only half of the 37 hospitals and clinics in the war-torn territory remained operational, but lacked basic equipment, manpower, medical and fuel supplies.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday that Israeli forces bombed Kamal Adwan Hospital early on Thursday, apparently without warning staff beforehand. It came just days after the WHO said an emergency medical team had arrived at the hospital for the first time in 60 days.

Dr. Faradina Sulistiani, a surgeon on the team, told AFP from Gaza City that all seven members of her team left the premises on foot as the bombardment continued.

“This is extremely worrying and should never happen,” WHO spokesman Rick Peppercorn told a video briefing in Geneva. The hospital is now “minimally functional,” he added.

Israel’s military says it has killed hundreds of militants in fighting with Hamas in northern Gaza since October, a heavily urbanized area it claimed to have conquered earlier this year.

On Friday, he said that in the past week his forces had killed several senior Hamas operatives who were involved in the Oct. 7, 2023, cross-border attack that precipitated the war and commanded combat units in northern and central Gaza.

Hamas and its smaller ally Islamic Jihad say they killed many Israeli soldiers in those areas during the same period.

Residents of Beit Lahiya said the army blew up several houses overnight not far from Kamal Adwan Hospital. Palestinians say Israel plans to carve out a buffer zone on Gaza’s northern outskirts after depopulating the area. Israel denies this.

Israel launched its air and ground assault on densely populated Hamas-ruled Gaza after militants stormed Israeli border communities 14 months ago, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli figures.

Since then, almost the entire population of 2.3 million has been displaced. Gaza’s health ministry said more than 44,500 residents had been killed, with thousands more feared dead under the rubble.

Reuters and Agence France-Presse contributed to this report