– / AFP
Illustrative photo, dated October 31, 2024. People gather in front of the Kamal Adwan hospital in Beit Lahya, in the northern Gaza Strip.
INTERNATIONAL – A new attack on one of the last hospitals in Gaza. The Israeli army announced this Friday, December 27, that it had launched an operation around the Kamal Adwan hospital. She mentions the presence of Hamas fighters in this area.
Members of the hospital, located in the north of the Gaza Strip, for their part described a targeted attack, leaving the establishment in a pitiful state. The WHO even describes it bluntly « hors service ». The hospital accommodated more than 300 people. Here is what we know about the situation on site.
• Emergency and surgical services on fire
“Initial reports indicate that key services were set on fire and destroyed during the raid. Sixty healthcare workers and 25 patients are in critical condition”indicates the World Health Organization, whose headquarters is in Geneva.
An audio message from Kamal Adwan’s staff had suggested that “the surgical wards, laboratory, maintenance and emergency units were completely burned and the fire is now spreading to the buildings”, reports the American channel CNN. “Ambulances were dispatched to transport the injured to the Indonesian hospital, which lacks medical supplies, water, medicines and even electricity or generators”also describes the message.
The army also “evacuated all medical personnel and displaced persons”also declared the director of the hospital, Dr. Hossam Abou Safiya. “There are a large number of injured among the medical team”he lamented.
As of Friday morning, the hospital housed around 350 people, including 75 injured and sick, as well as 180 medical staff, according to the hospital director. Witnesses in the area told AFP that the hospital had been evacuated and that hundreds of people living nearby had been “forced to take refuge at the Al-Fakhoura school and the Indonesian hospital” in Jabalia.
• The Israeli army justifies its operation
“Kamal Adwan Hospital is a Hamas terrorist stronghold in northern Gaza”affirmed the Israeli army to be able to justify its operations, adding that its troops carry out “targeted operations in the area while limiting damage to uninvolved civilians, patients and medical personnel”.
“IDF troops facilitated the safe evacuation of civilians, patients and medical personnel before the operation”she added, “with ambulances for transport to other hospitals in the Gaza Strip to ensure continuity of medical care. »
Conversely, Hamas indicated in a statement that “the occupying army stormed Kamal Adwan Hospital, forcing medical staff, patients, the injured and displaced people to evacuate”. He accused Israeli forces “to detain evacuees”. According to the Health Ministry of the Hamas government in Gaza, the hospital director was among those arrested.
• Five hospital staff died the day before
This operation comes the day after the director of this hospital announced the death of five members of his staff: a pediatrician, a laboratory technician, two paramedics and a maintenance worker. All died due to “from an Israeli strike”said the doctor.
Claiming that his establishment was targeted by the Israeli army, Dr Hossam Abou Safiya asked the international community to intervene “urgently before it is too late”. Furthermore, the World Health Organization had described the living conditions at Kamal Adwan Hospital as“terrible” and stated that the establishment was operating at a high level « minimum ».
Source: www.huffingtonpost.fr
