Kamal Adwan patients describe harsh treatment by Israeli soldiers
Wounded Palestinians who Israeli soldiers expelled from a northern Gaza hospital over the weekend described harrowing conditions where they were forced to strip down to their underwear in cold winter weather for hours.
“They surrounded the hospital at 4 a.m. and burned all the buildings around the hospital,” said Wissam Warsh, a 45-year-old father of five who spent almost a week at Kamal Adwan Hospital receiving treatment. He said soldiers made the hospital director, Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, bring all the patients outside before detaining him.
“They told him over the loudspeaker that he had 10 minutes to evacuate them, and they began firing shells around the hospital as a pressure tactic,” Warsh said. He and other patients were recuperating at Ahli Hospital in Gaza City, where he spoke to The Associated Press from a hospital bed on Sunday.
Israel’s military says its troops entered the hospital because Hamas militants were using it as a base, and said over 240 militants were detained, including hospital director Abu Safiya. Hospital officials have denied those claims.
Other patients said the Israeli army refused to provide them with food or water.
“We were in the cold and winter and we could not find clothes, in addition to the moments of insults. All the moments were difficult,” said Ramadan al-Aswad, who was a patient at the hospital.
Staff at Kamal Adwan Hospital say it has been hit multiple times over the past three months. Israel has virtually sealed off the areas of Jabaliya, Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya from food or medical aid.
Abu Safiya's family is pleading with the international community and the Israeli military for his release. Thee family said he's being denied medical care and kept in the freezing cold in Sde Teiman, an Israeli detention center that been sharply criticized for its inhuman conditions.
Israeli military spokesman Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani said Abu Safiya “is currently being questioned regarding his potential involvement in terrorist activity.”
On Monday, the International Committee of the Red Cross said Israeli operations have “obliterated the health care system in northern Gaza,” noting that Kamal Adwan and Indonesian hospitals are now “completely inoperable.”
- UN says Israel's claims 'vague'-
A United Nations report on Tuesday found that Israel's claims that Gaza hospitals were being improperly used for military purposes by Palestinian groups were "vague".
"Insufficient information has so far been made publicly available to substantiate these allegations, which have remained vague and broad, and in some cases appear contradicted by publicly available information," the U.N. rights office report said.
© Agence France-Presse
