Israeli forces seized hundreds of employees, patients, and displaced persons during an assault on the only operational hospital in the northern part of the enclave, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza on Friday.
The Israeli military reported that its troops were conducting a large operation earlier this month in the vicinity of Kamal Adwan Hospital in the Jabalia refugee camp in north Gaza.
At least 20 people, many of them youngsters, were killed by Israeli airstrikes that struck two residences in the city of Khan Yunis in south Gaza at daybreak, according to Gaza’s civil defence agency.At Kamal Adwan Hospital, Israeli troops were “detaining hundreds of patients, medical staff and some displaced individuals from neighbouring areas who sought refuge,” the health ministry said.
The World Health Organization said it had lost contact with staff at the hospital on Friday.
“This development is deeply disturbing given the number of patients being served and people sheltering there,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.
23 patients were released from the hospital Wednesday evening, according to COGAT, the Israeli defence ministry agency in charge of civil affairs in the Palestinian territories.
Twenty-three patients and their caretakers were moved to another hospital, Tedros said.
Tens of thousands of civilians are trapped in north Gaza as a result of an operation by the Israeli military that has drawn harsh condemnation.
According to the military, the attack aims to destroy the operational capabilities that Hamas is attempting to re-establish in the north.
