An Israeli military raid targeting Hamas militants has forced a major hospital in northern Gaza out of service and led to the detention of its director, the WHO and health officials said yesterday.
The attack comes just days after an Israeli airstrike hit Yemen’s main airport as a civilian Airbus 320 with hundreds of passengers on board was landing and a UN delegation was waiting to leave.
The assault on Kamal Adwan Hospital has rendered the facility “useless,” further worsening Gaza’s severe health crisis, the Palestinian territory’s health officials said.
Photo: Reuters
“This morning’s raid on Kamal Adwan Hospital has put this last major health facility in north Gaza out of service. Initial reports indicate that some key departments were severely burnt and destroyed during the raid,” the WHO said overnight on X, referring to the Israeli operation that began in the early hours of Friday.
The WHO said 60 health workers and 25 patients in critical condition, including some on ventilators, reportedly remain in the hospital.
Patients in moderate to severe condition were forced to evacuate to the destroyed, nonfunctioning Indonesian Hospital, the UN health agency said, adding that it was “deeply concerned for their safety.”
Hamas-run Gaza’s health ministry reported that Israeli forces detained Kamal Adwan Hospital’s director, Hossam Abu Safiyeh, along with several medical staff members. Gaza’s civil defence agency said Abu Safiyeh was held alongside its north Gaza chief, Ahmed Hassan al-Kahlout.
Ammar al-Barsh, a resident of Jabalia where the military has focused its assault in the past few weeks, said that the raid on Kamal Adwan and its environs had left dozens of homes in the area in ruins.
“The situation is catastrophic, there is no medical service, no ambulances and no civil dfense in the north,” Barsh, 50, said.
Meanwhile, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told BBC radio that his ears were still ringing following Thursday’s attack as he prepared to board a flight in Sana’a, and stressed that the protection for civilian installations under international law must be respected.
The strikes hit Sana’a’s international airport and other areas in Yemen on Thursday, against what Israel’s military called rebel “military targets.”
“We heard a heavy explosion nearby, and then I think repeated,” Tedros said. “The sound was so, so loud... So deafening, actually. Still my ear rings. It’s already more than 24 hours now. I don’t know if it affected my ear. The explosion was so heavy.”
He said it was a “matter of luck,” that a missile deviated slight, missing them.
Houthi Deputy Minister of Transport Yahya al-Sayani said four people were killed and 20 wounded in the strikes.
Additional reporting by AP
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