Medics said that the Israeli army forcefully evacuated one of the last functioning hospitals in the northern Gaza Strip, after dozens were killed in Israeli air strikes that targeted the area surrounding the health care facility.
Eid Sabah, head of the nursing department at Kamal Adwan Hospital, told the BBC that at around 07:00 on Friday, the army gave the administration 15 minutes to evacuate patients and staff to the hospital courtyard.
Dr. Sabah said that Israeli forces then entered the hospital and are currently removing the remaining patients.
The Israeli army said it was “not aware” of strikes in the area and was looking into reports that medics had been killed.
Dr. Sabah said: “The matter is dangerous because there are patients in the intensive care unit who are in a coma and need ventilators, and transporting them exposes them to danger.”
“If the Army intends to continue transporting these patients, they will need specialized vehicles.”
Currently, no injuries have been reported during the evacuation.
The Israeli military has not yet commented on the evacuation, but earlier in the week, an Israeli official said they intended to transfer those at Kamal Adwan Hospital to the nearby Indonesian hospital, which was evacuated by the Israeli military on Tuesday. .
This comes after the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital said that about 50 people were killed, including five medical staff, in a series of Israeli air strikes that targeted the vicinity of the hospital.
Dr. Hossam Abu Safiya's statement said that Israeli warplanes targeted a building opposite the hospital, which led to the martyrdom of a pediatrician, a laboratory technician, and their families.
He said that a third employee, working as a maintenance technician, was targeted and killed while rushing to the site of the first strike.
The statement continued that two hospital paramedics were 500 meters (1,640 feet) away from the hospital when they were targeted and killed in another raid, and their bodies remained in the street without anyone being able to reach them.
On Friday morning, the Israeli military stated that it was “not aware of strikes in the Kamal Adwan Hospital area” and was looking into reports that staff had been killed.
Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia has been under a tight Israeli blockade imposed on parts of northern Gaza since October, when the army said it launched an attack to prevent Hamas from regrouping there.
The UN said the area is under an “almost total siege” with the Israeli military severely restricting the arrival of aid shipments to an area inhabited by an estimated 10,000 to 15,000 people.
In recent days, hospital administrators have issued desperate pleas for protection, saying the facility has become a regular target of Israeli bombing and explosives.
Oxfam said attempts by aid agencies to deliver supplies to the area since October had failed due to “deliberate delay and systematic obstruction” by the Israeli military.
