Medical staff have been rounded up and placed in a single room, with several staff members, including, Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, the Director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, summoned to the area where the Israeli forces are stationed in the hospital courtyard.
The World Health Organization has said that since Israeli forces raided the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza on Friday morning, all contact with the staff has been lost.
“We have lost touch with the personnel there,” WHO Chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X. “This development is deeply disturbing given the number of patients being served and people sheltering there.”
Since this morning’s reports of a raid of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern #Gaza, we have lost touch with the personnel there. This development is deeply disturbing given the number of patients being served and people sheltering there.
Prior to this, @WHO and partners managed to… pic.twitter.com/KL5ElhoQia
— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) October 25, 2024
Israeli soldiers ordered all patients and medical staff to gather in the hospital’s courtyard, as ongoing shelling in the area intensified, Al-Jazeera reported.
Medical Staff Rounded Up
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, Israeli forces have forced displaced males to strip and detained some of them.
Medical staff have been rounded up and placed in a single room, with several staff members, including Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, the Director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, summoned to the area where the Israeli forces are stationed in the hospital courtyard.
⚡️BREAKING:
“We’re a few hours away from the death of all these people”
“instead of receiving aid we received tank shells”
Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal
Adwan Hospital speaks from within the ICU where the injured and medical staff are huddled after having been… pic.twitter.com/zRLFp4cKe1— Suppressed News. (@SuppressedNws) October 24, 2024
“The fate of these individuals remains unknown as all communication with them has been cut off,” the Health Ministry said in a statement.
The Ministry called for urgent intervention by international organizations to protect the health staff and patients present there, who are without water, food, or medical services.
More than 150 people reportedly trapped inside in the hospital, according to Gaza’s Civil Defense spokesman, who spoke with Al-Jazeera.
Patients Transferred to Al-Shifa
The WHO chief pointed out that a WHO delegation managed to reach the hospital late on Thursday night “and transferred 23 patients and 26 caregivers” to Al-Shifa Hospital.
“The hospital has been overflowing with close to 200 patients – a constant stream of horrific trauma cases. It is also full of hundreds of people seeking shelter,” said Ghebreyesus.
Israeli Forces Raid Kamal Adwan Hospital, Kill Dozens in Khan Yunis – Children Massacred
He stressed that accessing hospitals across Gaza “is getting unbelievably harder and exposes our staff to unnecessary danger. The mission returned at 3.30 am.”
The WHO chief called for an immediate ceasefire, as well as the protection of hospitals, patients, health professionals and humanitarians.
The hospital spokesperson who spoke to Al-Jazeera said the hospital’s windows had been shattered due to nearby shelling, and multiple injuries were reported among the staff.
During the Israeli raid, the hospital’s primary oxygen station was bombed, killing several children who were relying on its life-sustaining support.
Northern Gaza has been under an Israeli siege for more than three weeks with access to food, water and medicines completely cut off.
Ongoing Genocide
Currently on trial before the International Court of Justice for genocide against Palestinians, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza since October 7.
Beit Lahia, northern Gaza in the aftermath of relentless Israeli bombardments. pic.twitter.com/FNFrvEp5TM
— The Palestine Chronicle (@PalestineChron) October 25, 2024
Israel also continues to defy a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire, Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 42,847 Palestinians have, to date, been killed, and 100,544 wounded.
Moreover, at least 11,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip.
Israel says that 1,200 soldiers and civilians were killed during the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on October 7. Israeli media published reports suggesting that many Israelis were killed on that day by ‘friendly fire’.
Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.
Famine and Displacement
The Israeli war has resulted in an acute famine, mostly in northern Gaza, resulting in the death of many Palestinians, mostly children.
The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.
Later in the war, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians began moving from the south to central Gaza in a constant search for safety.
(The Palestine Chronicle)
