Israeli forces detain hundreds at Kamal Adwan hospital

Israel’s military confirmed Friday that its troops were operating around Kamal Adwan hospital in north Gaza. The hospital’s director had said the facility was facing a catastrophic situation with bombardment, Israeli troops preventing the entry of crucial aid and patients dying for lack of medical supplies.

In a social media video posted late Thursday, the hospital’s director, Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, said the hospital had been directly shelled by a tank, a claim the Israeli military did not immediately respond to.

“We’re a few hours away from the death of all these people,” he said. “Until when will this continue? Instead of receiving aid, we receive tanks."

"Since this morning's reports of a raid on Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza, we have lost touch with the personnel there. This development is deeply disturbing given the number of patients being served and people sheltering there," World Health Organization director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X.

Israel said troops were operating in the area of the hospital because it had intelligence that militants and militant infrastructure was in the area, and said it had evacuated some patients from the hospital the night before and delivered fuel and supplies to the facility.

The hospital is in the Jabaliya refugee camp in north Gaza, where Israel is staging a renewed offensive claiming that Hamas fighters have regrouped there. It has called for the evacuation of all civilians in the north.

In a voice recording obtained by AP from Thursday, Abu Safiya said the hospital has 14 patients in pediatric and neonatal intensive care, and several patients had died due to a lack of supplies and medicine like antibiotics. He said that one doctor at the hospital was killed Wednesday, as bombing could be heard in the background.

His video showed one woman knelt over the yellowed body of a child, who Abu Safiya said had died that morning. Another small child sat alone on a bed, face bloodied and both arms bandaged, crying as flies swarmed around the open wounds on his head.

Israel’s offensive on Gaza has killed over 42,000 Palestinians and ravaged the strip’s hospitals, with most no longer functioning after a year of war.