Israeli troops burn north Gaza hospital after forcibly removing staff and patients, officials say

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli troops stormed one of the last hospitals operating in the northernmost part of Gaza on Friday, forcing many of the staff and patients out of the facility, the territory’s health ministry said.

The Kamal Adwan Hospital has been hit multiple times over the past three months by Israeli troops waging an offensive against Hamas fighters in surrounding neighborhoods, according to staff. The ministry said a strike on the hospital a day earlier killed five medical staff.

Israel’s military said it was conducting operations against Hamas infrastructure and fighters in the area of the hospital, without providing details. It repeated claims that Hamas fighters were operating inside Kamal Adwan , though it provided no evidence.

Hospital officials have denied the accusations.

The Health Ministry said troops forced medical personnel and patients to assemble in the hospital yard and remove their clothes amid the winter temperatures. They were led out of the hospital, some to an unknown location, while some patients were sent to the nearby Indonesian hospital, which was knocked out of operation after an Israel raid earlier this week.

The ministry said troops set fires in several parts of Kamal Adwan, including the hospital’s lab and surgery department. It said 25 patients and 60 health workers remained in the hospital out of 75 patients and 180 staff who had been there. The ministry’s account could not be independently confirmed, and attempts to reach hospital staff were unsuccessful.

“Fire is ablaze everywhere in the hospital,” an unidentified member of the staff said in an audio message from the hospital posted on the social media accounts of its director Hossam Abu Safiya. The staffer said some evacuated patients had been unhooked from oxygen. “There are currently patients who could die at any moment,” she said.

In raids, Israeli troops frequently carry out mass detentions, stripping men down to their underwear for questioning in what the military says is a security measure as they search for Hamas fighters. Although the AP doesn’t have access to Kamal Adwan, armed Hamas security men in civilian clothes have been seen in other hospitals in Gaza, controlling access to certain areas or the distribution of supplies.

Since October, Israel’s offensive has virtually sealed off the north Gaza areas of Jabaliya, Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya and levelled large parts of the districts. Tens of thousands of Palestinians were forced out, but thousands are believed to remain the area, where Kamal Adwan and two other hospitals are located. Troops raided Kamal Adwan earlier in October, and on Tuesday troops stormed and evacuated the nearby Indonesian Hospital.

The area has been cut off from food and other aid for months , raising fears of famine. The U.N. says Israeli troops had only allowed four humanitarian deliveries to the area from Dec. 1 to Dec. 23.

The Israeli rights groups Physicians for Human Rights-Israel earlier this week petitioned Israel’s High Court of Justice seeking a halt to military attacks on Kamal Adwan. It warned that forcibly evacuating the hospital would “abandon thousands of residents in northern Gaza.” Before the latest deaths Thursday, the group documented five other staffers killed by Israeli fire since October.

Israel’s nearly 15-month-old campaign of bombardment and offensives in Gaza have devastated the territory’s health sector. A year ago, it carried out a wave of raids on hospitals in northern Gaza, including Kamal Adwan, Indonesian and nearby al-Awda Hospital, saying they served bases for Hamas, though it presented little evidence.

Israel’s campaign has killed more than 45,400 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, and wounded more than 108,000 others, according to the Health Ministry. Its count does not distinguish between civilians and combatants. More than 90% of Gaza’s 2.3 million Palestinians have been driven from their homes, most of them now sheltering in sprawling, squalid tent camps in south and central Gaza.

Israel launched its campaign vowing to destroy Hamas after the group’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel in which militants killed around 1,200 people and abducted some 250 others. Around 100 Israelis remain captive in Gaza, around a third of whom are believed to be dead.