By Nidal al-Mughrabi
CAIRO (Reuters) – Israel ordered the closure and evacuation on Sunday of one of the last partially functioning hospitals in the besieged northern Gaza Strip, forcing medics to look for ways to bring in hundreds of patients and staff. security.
The head of Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya, Husam Abu Safiya, told Reuters in a text message that complying with the closure order was “not impossible” because there were not enough ambulances to evacuate patients.
“At the moment we have almost 400 residents inside the hospital, including babies in the neonatal unit, whose lives depend on oxygen and incubators. We cannot get these patients out safely without help, equipment and time,” said Abu Safiya.
“We are sending this message under a heavy bombardment and we are directly targeting the fuel tanks, which when hit will cause a huge explosion and injure many people inside,” he said.
The Israeli military did not respond to a request for comment about Abu Safiya's remarks. It said on Friday it sent fuel and food to the hospital and helped evacuate more than 100 patients and caregivers from other hospitals in Gaza, some in cooperation with the Red Cross, to safety.
The hospital is one of the only partially functioning ones in the northern Gaza Strip, an area that has been under heavy pressure from the Israeli army for three months in one of the most punishing episodes of the 14-month-old war.
Abu Safiya said the army ordered patients and staff to be sent to another hospital where conditions were worse. Photos from inside the hospital showed patients in beds crammed into corridors to keep them away from windows. Reuters could not immediately confirm the images.
Israel says its operation around three communities on the northern border of the Gaza Strip – Beit Lahiya, Beit Hanoun and Jabalia – is targeting Hamas forces. The Palestinians accuse Israel of wanting to permanently remove the area to create a buffer zone, which Israel denies.
FIGHTING AT THE CLOSEST QUARTER
Hamas released a video on Sunday that it says was filmed in northern Gaza. It showed fighters standing in bombed-out buildings and in piles of rubble, wearing civilian clothes and firing bullets at Israeli forces.
The Israeli army said on Sunday that forces operating in Beit Hanoun struck Hamas forces and bases. Hamas and the allied Islamic Jihad group claimed responsibility for the casualties among Israeli soldiers.
Separately, Israel allowed the Catholic bishop of Jerusalem, the Latin patriarch, to enter Gaza on Sunday, according to a statement on the website of the Latin Patriarchate and COGAT, the Israeli protection agency that coordinates the Palestinians, after Pope Francis said on Saturday that the patriarch. he was not allowed to enter.
Elsewhere, Israeli military attacks across the Gaza Strip have killed at least 29 Palestinians, eight of them – including some children – at a school sheltering displaced families in Gaza City, doctors said.
The Israeli military said the strike targeted Hamas militants operating inside the school. Hamas rejects its forces among the people. Two other children were among five people killed in a separate strike that hit a civilian area designated by Israel in southern Gaza, doctors said.
Mediators have stepped up efforts in recent weeks to end the war in Gaza after months of stalled talks.
Israel launched its offensive in Gaza after Hamas-led militias attacked Israeli communities on Oct. 7, 2023, killed 1,200 people and took more than 250 hostages, according to the Israelis. About half of the 100 hostages still held are believed to be alive.
Authorities in Gaza say Israel's operation has killed more than 45,200 Palestinians. Most of the 2.3 million inhabitants have been displaced and much of the coast is in ruins.
(Reporting and writing by Nidal al-Mughrabi; Additional reporting by Ali Sawafta in Ramallah and Emily Rose and Maayan Lubell in Jerusalem; Editing by Peter Graff and Ros Russell)