Israel’s military and the enclave’s Health Ministry say Israeli forces arrested over 240 Palestinians, including the director and dozens of other medical personnel from a hospital in north Gaza that they raided on Friday.
As some employees released by the Israeli military late Friday claimed that Hussam Abu Safiya, director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital, had been beaten by soldiers, the Health Ministry expressed concern for his well-being.
The hospital was being used as a command center for Hamas military operations, according to the Israeli military, and the people who were arrested were suspected militants. The Israeli military detained Abu Safiya for interrogation on suspicion of being a Hamas agent.
Israel claimed that its fighters had been operating from the hospital during the 15-month-old Gaza conflict, but Hamas denied this claim on Friday, claiming that no fighters had been present. The 240 arrests have not yet prompted a response from the group.
Hamas called on the United Nations and other international organizations to act immediately to safeguard and provide for the remaining hospitals and medical facilities in northern Gaza in a statement released on Saturday.
The group also demanded the dispatch of UN representatives to Gaza’s medical facilities to refute Israeli claims of their use for military purposes.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said in a post on X that the raid on the hospital, one of three medical facilities on Gaza’s northern border, had rendered the region’s last significant health facility inoperable.
“WHO is horrified by the raid from yesterday. The 75,000 Palestinians who are still living in the region are at risk of dying as a result of the systematic destruction of the health system and the more than 80-day siege of North Gaza,” the statement stated.
Medics were not allowed to accompany the patients who were evacuated from Kamal Adwan to the Indonesian Hospital, which is not operating, according to the Health Ministry. Other medical facilities received the staff and other patients.
Israel’s forces have razed and emptied much of northern Gaza.
The Israeli military reported that, in cooperation with local health authorities, 350 patients and medical staff had been evacuated before the Kamal Adwan operation, and an additional 95 had been evacuated to the Indonesian Hospital during the operation.
At least nine of the 18 Palestinians killed by Israeli strikes in the enclave on Saturday were in a house in the Maghazi camp in central Gaza, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
The strikes and deaths prompted no immediate response from the Israeli military.
Over the last few months, Israeli forces have driven out residents and destroyed a large portion of the region surrounding the towns of Jabalia, Beit Hanoun, and Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza.
Palestinians have accused Israel of ethnic cleansing by depopulating those areas to establish a buffer zone. According to Israel, its goal is to prevent Hamas fighters from reassembling in the regions.
According to the Israeli military, “troops are enabling civilians still in the area to move away for their own safety” after it announced on Saturday that it had started conducting overnight operations against targets in the Beit Hanoun section.
After that, it declared rocket fire and advised locals to evacuate to the southern Strip.
Two rockets fired from north Gaza, including one aimed at Jerusalem, were intercepted, it said.
Health officials in the enclave say that more than 45,400 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s campaign against Hamas, which used to rule Gaza. Gaza is mostly in ruins, and the majority of its 2.3 million residents have been displaced.
According to Israeli estimates, Hamas’ October 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel killed 1,200 people and took 251 hostage to Gaza, sparking the war.
