Israel forcefully evacuates a hospital in northern Gaza and leaves it on fire

On Friday, Israeli forces raided Kamal Adwan Hospital, one of three medical facilities on the northern end of the Gaza Strip, ordered dozens of patients and hundreds of others to evacuate the hospital and left part of the site engulfed in flames, Health Ministry officials said.

Elsewhere in Gaza, medics and the civil emergency service said Israeli strikes killed at least 25 people, including 15 in one house in Gaza City.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health said that contact with workers inside the hospital in Beit Lahia, which has been under intense pressure from Israeli forces for weeks, was cut off.

The ministry’s director, Munir Al-Barsh, said in a statement, “The occupation forces are now inside the hospital and are burning it.”

The Israeli military said it tried to limit harm to civilians and “facilitated the safe evacuation of civilians, patients and medical personnel before the operation,” but did not provide details.

It said in a statement that fighters from Hamas, which previously controlled the Gaza Strip, have operated from the hospital throughout the current war and have made the site a major stronghold.

Youssef Abu Al-Rish, Hamas-appointed Deputy Minister of Health, said that Israeli forces set fire to the surgery department, laboratory, and warehouse.

The Israeli army said that a small fire broke out in an empty building inside the hospital and that it was under control. He added: “With regard to allegations that the fire was caused by Israeli army gunfire, the Israeli army is currently unaware of any such incident.”

As with the Indonesian Hospital and Al Awda Hospital, Kamal Adwan has come under repeated attacks by Israeli forces, which have been hitting the northern edge of the Gaza Strip for weeks, Palestinian medical staff say.

Hundreds were ordered to leave the North Gaza Hospital

Burch, the ministry’s director, said the army ordered 350 people to leave Kamal Adwan to a nearby school housing displaced families. Among them were 75 patients and their companions and 185 medical staff.

Abu Al-Rish said that the soldiers were transporting patients and medical staff to the Indonesian hospital, which had stopped operating due to severe damage and had been evacuated by Israeli forces the day before.

Footage circulated on Palestinian and Arab media, and Reuters was unable to immediately verify its authenticity, showed smoke rising from the Kamal Adwan area.

Much of the area surrounding the northern cities of Jabalia, Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahia has been depopulated and destroyed, raising speculation that Israel intends to keep the area as a closed buffer zone after the fighting in Gaza ends.

Israel says its campaign aims to prevent Hamas activists from regrouping, but it will retain full security control over Gaza after the war.

On Thursday, health officials said five medical staff members, including a pediatrician, were killed by Israeli fire in Kamal Adwan. The Israeli army said that it was not aware of the bombing of the hospital and that the death report of the paramedics would be examined.

In a statement, Hamas held Israel and the United States responsible for the fate of the hospital’s occupants.

The Israeli campaign against Hamas in Gaza has killed more than 45,300 Palestinians, according to health officials in the Strip. Most of the 2.3 million people were displaced, and much of Gaza was reduced to rubble.

The war was sparked by a Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 were taken to Gaza hostage, according to Israeli statistics.