Israel forcibly evacuates Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza

One of northern Gaza’s last functioning hospitals has been forcibly evacuated by the Israeli military, medics say, after dozens of people were reportedly killed in Israeli air strikes targeting the area around the healthcare facility.

Eid Sabbah, head of the nursing department at Kamal Adwan hospital, told the BBC that at about 07:00 on Friday, the military gave the administration 15 minutes to evacuate patients and staff into its courtyard.

Israeli troops subsequently entered the hospital and were now currently removing the patients that remain, Dr Sabbah said.

The Israeli military said it was “unaware” of strikes in the area and was looking into the reports of medics being killed.

“It’s dangerous because there are patients in the ICU department in a coma and in need of ventilation machines and moving them will put them in danger,” Dr Sabbah said.

“If the army intends to continue removing these patients, they will need specialised vehicles.”

Currently no injuries have been reported during the evacuation.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have not yet commented on the evacuation, but earlier in the week, an Israeli official said that they intended to relocate those at Kamal Adwan hospital to the nearby Indonesian hospital that was itself evacuated by the Israeli military on Tuesday.

It comes after the director of Kamal Adwan hospital said that approximately 50 people had been killed, including five medical staff, in a series of Israeli air strikes targeting the vicinity of the hospital.

The statement from Dr Hussam Abu Safiya said a building opposite the hospital was targeted by Israeli warplanes, leading to the death of a paediatrician and a lab technician, as well as their families.

He said a third staff member who worked as a maintenance technician was targeted and killed as he rushed to the scene of the first strike.

Two of the hospital’s paramedics were 500m (1,640ft) away from the hospital when they were targeted and killed by another strike, the statement continued, with their bodies remaining in the street with no-one able to reach them.

On Friday morning, the Israeli military stated that it was “unaware of strikes in the area of Kamal Adwan hospital” and was looking into the reports that staff had been killed.

Kamal Adwan hospital in Beit Lahia has been under a tightening Israeli blockade imposed on parts of northern Gaza since October, when the military said it had launched an offensive to stop Hamas from regrouping there.

The UN has said the area is under a “near-total siege” as the Israeli military heavy restricts access of aid deliveries to an area where an estimated 10,000 to 15,000 people remain.

In recent days, the hospital’s administrators have issued desperate pleas appealing to be protected, as they say the facility has become regularly the target of Israeli shelling and explosives.

Oxfam said that attempts by aid agencies to deliver supplies to the area since October had been unsuccessful because of “deliberate delays and systematic obstructions” by the Israeli military.