North Gaza air strikes bring chaos to nearby hospital

Victims are treated inside the Kamal Adwan hospital in Beit Lahya in the northern Gaza Strip, following a Israeli strike that hit the medical complex on Dec. 6, 2024. (AFP)

• Beit Lahia has been the site of an intense Israeli military operation for the past two months
• The Israeli army has stormed Kamal Adwan on several occasions since the start of their offensive nearly 14 months ago

JERUSALEM: Gaza’s civil defense agency Friday reported deadly air strikes around Kamal Adwan Hospital in the territory’s north as well as “direct fire” on the health facility, which the Israeli army firmly denied.
Several witnesses described intense bombings in the vicinity of the hospital.
“There was a series of air strikes on the northern and western sides of the hospital, accompanied by intense and direct fire,” said hospital director Hossam Abu Safieh, adding that four staff were killed.
The Israeli military on Friday denied claims it had struck or entered Kamal Adwan Hospital, saying it was operating next to the facility.
“Contrary to the reports made over the past day, the (military) did not strike the Kamal Adwan Hospital or operate within it,” it said in a statement.
It said it would “continue to operate against terror infrastructure and terrorists” in northern Gaza, including “adjacent to” the hospital.
Gaza’s civil defense agency said 29 people were killed and dozens wounded on Friday by Israeli shelling in north Gaza, “especially around Kamal Adwan,” one of the area’s last functioning health centers.
The agency’s spokesman, Mahmud Bassal, told AFP that the Israeli army entered the hospital, evacuated patients and arrested several Palestinians.
Abu Safieh said that following the latest raid, no surgeons were left.
Beit Lahia has been the site of a major Israeli military operation for the past two months that has again escalated in recent days, forcing thousands to flee, the civil defense agency said.
Israeli forces have stormed Kamal Adwan on several occasions since the start of the war nearly 14 months ago.
The hospital said its intensive care unit director Ahmad Al-Kahlut was killed in an air strike late last month.
The latest strikes came just days after the World Health Organization said an emergency medical team had reached the hospital for the first time in 60 days.
Dr. Faradina Sulistiyani, a surgeon on the team, told AFP from Gaza City that all seven of her team members left the premises on foot as the bombing went on.
The UN agency’s representative in the Palestinian territories, Rik Peeperkorn, told reporters he had “extremely concerning information” from the Kamal Adwan.
He said the Israeli army was first spotted outside the hospital at 4:00 am (0200 GMT).
He said that the international medical team said that “panic caused by the bombing and shelling, along with the panicked crowd inside the hospital” caused Gazans and the team to leave the hospital despite there being “no official evacuation order.”
Peeperkorn said that a “substantial amount” of people including patients and staff remained in the hospital, which is still “minimum operational.”
With little to no aid reaching the hospital since the start of the Israeli operation in early October, the hospital had run out of most supplies, including fuel.
The Israeli army said Friday that it is “in continuous contact with the hospital in order to deliver supplies, food and medical equipment.”
The Israeli army says its operation in the far north aims to keep Hamas militants from regrouping there.
Human rights groups have accused it of pursuing a plan to evacuate or starve all those remaining there, a goal which Israel denies.
Israeli government spokesman David Mencer said on Thursday that displaced Palestinians would not be allowed to move back to Gaza’s north as long as the military operations are ongoing.
The war in Gaza was sparked by Hamas’s surprise October 7, 2023 attack which resulted in the deaths of 1,208 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory military campaign in Gaza has killed at least 44,612 people, mostly civilians, according to figures from the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry which the UN considers reliable.