Israeli forces arrested more than 240 Palestinians from a hospital in northern Gaza they attacked on Friday, including the hospital's director and dozens of medical workers, according to the Gaza Health Ministry and the Israeli military.
The Health Ministry said it was concerned about the well-being of Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, as some workers who were freed by the Israeli military late on Friday said he had been beaten by soldiers.
The Israeli military said the hospital was being used as a command center for Hamas military operations and that those arrested were suspected terrorists. They said Abu Safiya was interrogated because he was suspected of being a Hamas operative.
On Friday, Hamas dismissed Israel's claim that its fighters had operated from the hospital throughout the 15-month Gaza war, saying no fighters had been in the hospital. The group had not yet mentioned the 240 arrested.
In its statement on Saturday, Hamas urged the UN and relevant international organizations to urgently intervene to protect the remaining hospitals and medical facilities in northern Gaza, and provide them.
The group also requested that UN observers be sent to medical facilities in Gaza to counter the Israeli accusations that they were being used for military purposes.
The attack on the hospital, one of three medical facilities on the northern edge of Gaza, put the last major health facility in the area out of service, the World Health Organization (WHO) said in a post on Friday.
In a statement released on Saturday, he said: “WHO is outraged by yesterday's attack. The systematic removal of the health system and siege for more than 80 days on Northern Gaza is putting the lives of the 75,000 Palestinians remaining in the area are at risk.”
Some patients were evacuated from Kamal Adwan to the Indonesian Hospital, which is not in service, and medics were prevented from accompanying them there, the Ministry of Health said. Other patients and staff were taken to other medical facilities.
Damage in northern Gaza
The Israeli military said that 350 patients and medical staff were evacuated before Kamal Adwan's operation, and another 95 were evacuated to the Indonesian Hospital during the operation, in coordination with local health authorities.
Separately, the Gaza Health Ministry said that Israeli strikes across the border killed 18 Palestinians on Saturday, at least nine of them in a house in the Maghazi camp in central Gaza.
The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the strikes and deaths.
In recent months, Israeli forces have pushed people out and looted much of the area around the northern Gaza towns of Jabalia, Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya.
Amnesty International has accused the state of Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza war in a new report, a charge Israel has vehemently denied, saying it has been honored brought to international law.
Palestinians have accused Israel of ethnic cleansing by destroying these areas to create a buffer zone. Israel denies that they are doing this, saying that it aims to prevent Hamas activists from gathering in the areas.
The Israeli military said on Saturday that it had begun operations overnight against targets in the Beit Hanoun area, saying that “soldiers are allowing civilians who are still in the area to move away for their own safety.” “
He then ordered residents to leave and go to southern parts of Gaza.
He said two rockets fired from northern Gaza, including one toward Jerusalem, were intercepted.
Israel's campaign against Hamas, which previously controlled Gaza, has killed more than 45,400 Palestinians, according to health officials in the enclave. Most of the population of 2.3 million have disappeared and much of Gaza is in ruins.
The war was sparked by a Hamas attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, in which 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken to Gaza as hostages, according to Israeli figures.
