Israel detains director of one of the last operating hospitals in Gaza

Israel’s army detained the director of one of the last functioning hospitals in northern Gaza as overnight strikes in the enclave killed nine people including children, Palestinian medical officials have said.

Gaza’s health ministry said on Saturday that Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, was arrested by Israeli forces after troops stormed the hospital, forcing many staff and patients outside.

Israel’s army has not commented on the fate of Dr Abu Safiya. On Friday, it denied claims it had entered or set fire to the complex and said it was conducting operations against Hamas infrastructure and militants in the area and had ordered people out of the hospital.

No evidence

It repeated claims that Hamas militants operate inside Kamal Adwan Hospital but provided no evidence. Hospital officials have denied that.

Kamal Adwan Hospital has been hit multiple times over the past three months by Israeli troops waging an offensive against Hamas fighters in surrounding neighbourhoods.

The ministry said a strike on the hospital earlier this week killed five medical personnel.

Israel’s nearly 15-month campaign of bombardment and offensives has devastated Gaza’s health sector. The war has killed more than 45,400 Palestinians, more than half women and children, and wounded more than 108,000 others, according to the health ministry. Its count does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.

The World Health Organisation said the raid on Kamal Adwan has put northern Gaza’s last major health facility “out of service” after growing restrictions on access, adding: “This horror must end and health care must be protected.”

Dr Abu Safiya was detained on Friday along with dozens of other staff from the hospital and taken to an interrogation centre, the ministry said.

MedGlobal, the humanitarian organisation where Dr Abu Safiya worked, said it is gravely concerned for the chief medic. It said the incident follows the detention in October of five of its staff, calling it an “alarming and egregious pattern of targeting medical personnel and spaces”.

Since October, Israel’s offensive has virtually sealed off the northern Gaza areas of Jabaliya, Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya and levelled large parts of them. Tens of thousands of Palestinians were forced out but thousands are believed to remain in the area where Kamal Adwan and two other hospitals are located.

Destroy

Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas after the militants’ October 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel in which they killed around 1,200 people and abducted some 250 others. Around 100 Israelis remain captive in Gaza, around a third believed to be dead.

On Saturday, Israel continued attacks across Gaza. An overnight strike killed at least nine people in Maghazi, including women and children, according to witnesses.

The Gaza health ministry said 48 people had been killed in the past 24 hours by Israeli fire.

Israel said its troops have also begun operating in the northern city of Beit Hanoun, following intelligence that fighters and Hamas infrastructure are in the area.

Strikes also continued into Israel. Early on Saturday, air raid sirens once again awoke Israelis and the military said it intercepted a missile fired by Yemen’s Houthi rebels.