The Israeli army announced on Saturday December 28 the end of its operation against a “Hamas command center” in a hospital in the north of the Gaza Strip, of which it confirmed having arrested the director in order to question him. “The army and intelligence services completed a targeted operation against a Hamas command center in Kamal Adwan Hospital. The forces arrested more than 240 terrorists in the surrounding area,” it said in a statement. , confirming that the director of the establishment, “suspected of being a Hamas terrorist”, had been arrested for questioning.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said the hospital, the last major health facility in northern Gaza, knocked out of service by an Israeli raid the day before, was “now empty”. “Last night, the remaining 15 critical patients, 50 caregivers and 20 health workers were transferred to the Indonesian hospital, which lacks the necessary equipment and supplies to provide adequate care,” the WHO said, adding that it was “dismayed” by the raid.
“Systematic dismantling of the health system”
“The movement and treatment of these critically ill patients in such conditions poses serious risks to their survival,” the WHO said, adding that “an urgent WHO mission to the Indonesian hospital is planned tomorrow (Sunday) to safely move patients to southern Gaza.” The WHO also relays accusations according to which “several people were stripped naked and forced to walk towards the south of Gaza”.
The Hamas government’s Health Ministry in Gaza claimed that Israeli troops had taken “dozens of medical staff from Kamal Adwan Hospital” to “a detention center for interrogation,” including the director , Dr Hossam Abou Safiya.
Since October 6, the Israeli army has intensified its land and air offensive in the north of the Gaza Strip to prevent Hamas fighters from regrouping. It is with this objective that she indicated that she had launched an operation on Friday morning near the Kamal Adwan hospital, which plays a crucial role in a besieged Gaza Strip and whose health services are exhausted after more than a year of war. “The systematic dismantling of the health system and the siege of more than eighty days in the north of Gaza endanger the lives of the 75,000 Palestinians remaining in the area,” denounces the UN agency.