Israeli forces raided the Kamal Adwan hospital on Friday, one of three medical facilities on the northern edge of the Gaza Strip, burning large sections and forcing dozens of patients and hundreds of others to leave, officials said.
Gaza’s Health Ministry said it had lost contact with staff inside the hospital in the northern city of Beit Lahiya.
“The occupation forces are inside the hospital now and they are burning it,” Ministry Director Munir al-Bursh said in a statement.
The Israeli military said it launched the operation to target Hamas militants near the hospital. The military said in a statement the hospital had become “a key stronghold for terrorist organizations and continues to be used as a hideout for terrorist operatives.”
Since the war began between Israel and Hamas in October 2023, the Israeli military has frequently accused Hamas of using hospitals as command and control centers for attacks against its forces. Hamas has rejected those accusations.
Without providing specific details, the Israeli military said it had tried to mitigate harm to civilians and had “facilitated the secure evacuations of civilians, patients and medical personnel prior to the operation.”
The hospital has been under intense pressure from Israeli forces for weeks. “The world must understand that our hospital is being targeted with the intent to kill and forcibly displace the people inside,” Hossam Abu Safiyeh, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, said in a statement Monday.
The hospital announced Thursday that five of its staff members, including a pediatrician, had been killed in an Israeli strike. The Israeli military said it was not aware of a strike at the hospital and that the report of the deaths would be examined.
The World Health Organization has characterized conditions at the hospital as “appalling” and said it was operating at a “minimum” level.
Hamas said Israeli forces had stormed the hospital Friday.
“The occupation army stormed Kamal Adwan Hospital, forcing medical staff, patients, the wounded, and displaced people to evacuate it,” the militant group said in a statement.
Hamas also accused Israeli forces of isolating and detaining those evacuated. “Hamas holds the occupation fully responsible for the lives of patients, wounded, and medical staff after they were cut off from communication, arrested, and taken to an unknown location,” the militant group added.
The war was triggered by Hamas’ terror attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, in which 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken to Gaza as hostages, according to Israeli data.
Israel’s subsequent campaign against Hamas in Gaza has killed more than 45,400 Palestinians, according to health officials in the territory. An additional 108,000 people have been wounded, the health ministry said.
Hamas has been designated as a terror group by the United States, Britain and other Western countries.
The majority of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million people has been displaced as they continue to face threats of famine. The enclave itself is in ruins.
Some information in this report came from Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
