Israeli forces arrested more than 240 Palestinians from the northern Gaza hospital they raided on Friday, including the hospital director and dozens of medical staff, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health and the Israeli military.
The Health Ministry said it was concerned about the health of Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, where some staff members released by the Israeli army late Friday said he was beaten by soldiers.
The Israeli army said the hospital was being used as a command center for Hamas’ military operations and that those detained were suspected activists. She added that Abu Safiya was detained for interrogation on suspicion of being a Hamas activist.
Hamas on Friday rejected Israel’s assertion that its fighters had performed surgeries from the hospital throughout the 15-month-old Gaza war, saying there were no fighters in the hospital. The group has not yet commented on the 240 arrests.
In its statement on Saturday, Hamas called on the United Nations and relevant international agencies to intervene urgently to protect the remaining hospitals and medical facilities in northern Gaza, and to provide them with supplies.
The group also called for UN observers to be sent to medical facilities in Gaza to refute Israeli allegations that they are being used for military purposes.
The World Health Organization said in a post on the
“The World Health Organization is horrified by yesterday’s raid,” she said in a statement issued on Saturday. “The systematic dismantling of the health system and the more than 80-day siege of northern Gaza are putting the lives of 75,000 Palestinians still in the area at risk.”
The Ministry of Health said that some patients from Kamal Adwan were evacuated to the Indonesian Hospital, which is out of service, and paramedics were prevented from joining them there. Other patients and staff were transferred to other medical facilities.
Destruction in northern Gaza
The Israeli army said that 350 patients and medical workers were evacuated before Operation Kamal Adwan, while 95 others were evacuated to the Indonesian hospital during the operation, in coordination with local health authorities.
Separately, the Gaza Ministry of Health said that Israeli raids across the Strip killed 18 Palestinians on Saturday, at least nine of them in a home in the Maghazi camp in central Gaza.
The Israeli army had no immediate comment on the raids and deaths.
In the past few months, Israeli forces have expelled people and destroyed much of the area surrounding the towns of Jabalia, Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip.
Amnesty International has accused the State of Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza war in a new report, an allegation that Israel has strongly denied, saying it respects international law.
The Palestinians accused Israel of carrying out ethnic cleansing by depopulating those areas to create a buffer zone. Israel denies doing so, saying it aims to prevent Hamas fighters from regrouping in the territories.
The Israeli army said on Saturday that it had begun operations at night against targets in the Beit Hanoun area, adding that “the forces are enabling civilians who are still in the area to move away for their safety.”
It ordered citizens to leave the place and head towards the southern Gaza Strip.
It added that two rockets were intercepted, fired from northern Gaza, one of them towards Jerusalem.
The Israeli campaign against Hamas, which previously controlled Gaza, has killed more than 45,400 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 attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, in which 1,200 people were killed and 251 were taken hostage into Gaza, according to Israeli statistics.
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