The Albany Gazette - Israeli military confirms north Gaza hospital chief held in raid

The military said the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, Hossam Abu Safiyeh, is being held for questioning, suspected of "being a Hamas terrorist operative", and the raid is now over.

Gaza health officials and the WHO earlier Saturday had said the raid forced the hospital in Beit Lahia out of service and led to Abu Safiyeh's detention.

Also Saturday, the military said it intercepted two projectiles fired towards Israel from northern Gaza, a rare attack more than 14 months into Israel's war with the Palestinian militants, whose top leaders have been killed.

Since October 6, Israeli operations in Gaza have focused on the north, where they are carrying out a land and air offensive they say aims to prevent Hamas from regrouping.

Israel's military says it has killed hundreds of militants since October 6, while rescuers in the area say thousands of civilians have died.

"Kamal Adwan is now empty," the WHO said, adding it was "appalled" by the raid, the latest against a hospital during the war.

"The systematic dismantling of the health system and a siege for over 80 days on north Gaza puts the lives of the 75,000 Palestinians remaining in the area at risk," the UN health agency said in a statement.

Israel's military said it had "completed a targeted operation against a Hamas command centre in the Kamal Adwan Hospital", leading to the detention of "over 240 terrorists in the area".

Abu Safiyeh is among those held, the military confirmed.

WHO said the remaining 15 critical patients, 50 caregivers and 20 health workers had been transferred on Friday to the nearby Indonesian Hospital, which it described as "destroyed and non-functional".

This posed "grave risks" to the surivival of the critical patients, it said.

WHO said initial reports indicated that some areas of the Kamal Adwan hospital were burnt and severely damaged during the raid.

Hamas-run Gaza's health ministry earlier reported that several medical staff had been detained along with Abu Safiyeh.

- 'Catastrophic' -

One of the Gazans evacuated, who asked to be identified only as Mohammad for security reasons, told AFP some evacuees were interrogated about Hamas.

"As we began to exit, the army asked all young men to take off their clothes and walk outside the hospital," said Mohammad, whose brother was a patient there.

"They (soldiers) took tens of young men, as well as physicians and patients, to an unknown place... The young men were interrogated. They were asked about resistance fighters, Hamas and weapons."

Ammar al-Barsh, a resident of nearby Jabalia, said the raid on Kamal Adwan and its environs left dozens of homes in ruins.

"The situation is catastrophic. There is no medical service, no ambulances and no civil defence in the north," Barsh, 50, told AFP.

Ahead of the raid, Abu Safiyeh had repeatedly warned about the hospital's precarious situation. On Monday, he accused Israel of targeting the hospital "with the intent to kill and forcibly displace the people inside".

The military said it had identified Kamal Adwan as used by "terrorists... for military operations in Jabalia".

Troops conducted "precise activities" inside the hospital and located and confiscated weapons including grenades, guns, munitions, and military equipment, it said in a statement.

- Arson allegations -

Before beginning the raid, the military said it helped to evacuate 350 patients, as well as caregivers and medical staff.

In a statement, Hamas dismissed as "lies" Israeli allegations that its operatives were at the hospital. It described "the evacuation and burning of all hospital departments as part of a plan for extermination and forced displacement".

Gaza's health ministry had earlier quoted Abu Safiyeh as reporting that the military had "set on fire all surgery departments of the hospital" and there were "a large number of injuries among the medical team".

The military has regularly accused Hamas of using hospitals as command centres for attacks on its forces throughout the war.

Hamas has denied the accusations.

The United Nations humanitarian agency, OCHA, said that on Tuesday the military had also "reportedly entered the Indonesian Hospital, ordering patients, caregivers and staff to evacuate to Gaza City".

The same day, "military tanks reportedly attacked the third floor of the eastern wing of the Al Awda Hospital, causing panic", following previous air strikes that damaged the facility, OCHA said.

Israel's former defence minister Moshe Yaalon last month used Beit Lahia as an example when he accused the army of "ethnic cleansing" in Gaza, comments dismissed as "dishonest" by the Likud party to which he once belonged.

A separate Israeli strike in central Gaza killed at least nine Palestinians on Saturday, Gaza's civil defence said.

The Gaza war was triggered by the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, which resulted in 1,208 deaths, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Israel's retaliatory military campaign has killed at least 45,484 people in Gaza, a majority of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory's health ministry that the UN considers reliable.

(Y.Harris--TAG)