The World Health Organization says Israel issued no warning for the strike on the hospital that killed four staff and forced patients out

by Aljazeera on 6th Dec 2024 via thefreeonline at https://wp.me/pIJl9-F6y Telegram t.me/thefreeonline

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Israeli forces attack and raid hospital in Gaza siege zone

At least four staff have been killed when several air strikes hit Gaza’s Kamal Adwan Hospital and Israeli forces stormed the facility, according to the hospital’s director and the enclave’s Civil Defence agency.

Hossam Abu Safieh, the director of one of the last functioning health centres in northern Gaza said a series of air strikes hit the northern and western sides of the hospital on Friday, “accompanied by intense and direct fire”.

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No surgeons were left in the hospital, he added.

Soldiers swept into the hospital and ordered all staff, patients and displaced people into its courtyard before allowing them hours later to return inside.

This comes just a week after the WHO had facilitated the entrance of an Indonesian emergency medical delegation to the hospital for the first time in 60 days. The facility had run out of most supplies, including fuel.

“Within one week, they feel forced, scared, whatever, to leave,” Peeperkorn said at a Geneva news briefing. “That is extremely concerning and should never happen.”

The hospital was “minimally functional”, he said. According to the WHO, about 12,000 patients across Gaza need medical evacuation but only 78 have been evacuated so far.

“The injured who remained inside are in critical condition and need immediate medical care,” it added.

The Israeli army has not yet commented on the attack. Beit Lahiya has been the site of an intense military operation for the past two months that has escalated in recent days, forcing thousands of people to flee the bombing.

Emptying the hospitals

Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum, reporting from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, said medical sources confirmed the Israeli military ordered patients out of the facility while the Indonesian medical delegation was able to flee to al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City.

Israel kills dozens of civilians across Gaza

Israeli forces targeted several buildings in Gaza City, Rafah, and central areas of the Strip.

Published On 6 Dec 2024

Israeli attacks across Gaza have killed dozens of civilians and injured many others, according to the Wafa news agency.

More than 30 people were killed on Friday morning in an Israeli attack on a residential block in the vicinity of the Kamal Adwan Hospital in the northern city of Beit Lahiya, Wafa reported. Many people are still missing under the rubble, the agency said.

Another three people were killed in an Israeli air attack on the Khirbet al-Adas area, near the southern city of Rafah.

Israeli forces also hit several buildings in Gaza City, Rafah, as well as areas in the central areas of the Strip, including the village of al-Musaddar and the refugee camps of Maghazi and Bureij.

On Thursday, an Israeli drone strike on a hospital compound in northern Gaza’s Kamal Adwan Hospital killed a 16-year-old boy in a wheelchair and wounded at least 12 other people, including medical staff, the Gaza Ministry of Health and the hospital director said.

The hospital is one of the few medical facilities still partially operating in the northernmost part of Gaza, where Israeli forces are pressing an offensive that has almost completely sealed off the area from humanitarian aid for two months.

On Thursday, the human rights group Amnesty International accused Israel of committing genocide in the Gaza Strip, saying it has sought to deliberately destroy Palestinians by mounting deadly attacks, demolishing vital infrastructure and preventing the delivery of food, medicine and other aid.

Since October 7 last year, Israeli attacks on Gaza have killed at least 44,580 people, mostly women and children, and wounded at least 105,739 others, according to Palestinian health authorities.