IDF troops remove staff, patients from northern Gaza hospital

Israeli troops have stormed and set fire to one of the last hospitals operating in the northernmost part of Gaza, forcing many of the staff and patients out of the facility.

That’s according to Gaza’s Hamas-run Health Ministry.

In a post on X, the Israeli military (IDF) said it had begun “operational activity” around the Kamal Adwan Hospital following intelligence reports of “terrorist activities” in the area.

The IDF later denied any of its troops had entered the facility or set fire to it and accused the militant group Hamas of using the facility for cover.

Hospital officials have denied that.

The Health Ministry said troops forced medical personnel and patients to assemble in the yard and remove their clothes.

Some were led to an unknown location, while some patients were sent to the nearby Indonesian Hospital, which was put out of operation after an Israel raid this week.

During raids, IDF troops frequently carry out mass detentions, stripping men to their underwear for questioning in what the military says is a security measure as they search for Hamas fighters.

The Health Ministry claimed Israeli troops also set fires in several parts of the hospital, including the lab and surgery department.

It said 25 patients and 60 health workers remained in the hospital.

“Fire is ablaze everywhere in the hospital,” an unidentified staff member said in an audio message posted on social media accounts of hospital director Hossam Abu Safiya.

The staffer said some evacuated patients had been unhooked from oxygen.

Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani, an Israeli military spokesperson, denied those accusations.

“While IDF troops were not in the hospital, a small fire broke out in an empty building inside the hospital that is under control,” he said.

He said a preliminary investigation had found “no connection” between the military operation and the fire.

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The Israeli military heavily restricts the movements of Palestinians in Gaza and has barred foreign journalists from entering the territory throughout the war, making it difficult to verify information.

“These actions put the lives of all of these people in even more danger than what they faced before,” UN spokesperson Stephanie Tremblay told journalists, noting colleagues’ reports of “significant damage” to the hospital.

It should be protected as international law requires, she added.

Since October, Israel’s renewed offensive in the north, it says to stop Hamas units from regrouping, has virtually sealed off the areas of Jabaliya, Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya and levelled large parts of them.

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Tens of thousands of Palestinians were forced out but thousands are believed to remain in the area, where Kamal Adwan and two other hospitals are located.

Troops raided Kamal Adwan in October and on Tuesday the IDF stormed and evacuated the Indonesian Hospital.

The area has been cut off from food and other aid for months, raising fear among international humanitarian groups of famine.

The United Nations says Israeli troops allowed just four humanitarian deliveries into the area from the beginning to the last week of December.

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The Israeli rights group Physicians for Human Rights-Israel this week petitioned Israel’s High Court of Justice, seeking a halt to military attacks on Kamal Adwan.

It warned that forcibly evacuating the hospital would “abandon thousands of residents in northern Gaza.”

Israel launched its campaign in Gaza vowing to destroy Hamas after the group’s attack on southern Israel last October in which militants killed around 1,200 people and abducted 250 others.

Around 100 Israelis remain captive in Gaza, but a third are believed to be dead.

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Israel’s nearly 15-month-old campaign of bombardment and offensives has devastated Gaza and killed more than 45,400 Palestinians, more than half women and children.

More than 108,000 others have been wounded, according to Health Ministry figures which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count.