Israel arrested a hospital director in a raid that closed the last major functioning health facility in northern Gaza, with its forces also accused of ordering patients to strip in the streets.
Kamal Adwan Hospital is “now empty” after the remaining patients – some of them critically ill – along with caregivers and health workers were transferred to the Indonesian Hospital in Beit Lahiya, the World Health Organization said.
The facility has come under frequent Israeli fire in recent months and its closure exacerbates a dire humanitarian situation in northern Gaza, reports CNN.
The whereabouts of Kamal Adwan’s director, Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, and other staff are unclear, friends and colleagues say.
“We do not know the fate of Dr. Hussam. He was actually threatened by the army as soon as they arrived at the hospital,” a nurse from Kamal Adwan Hospital, Rawiya Al Batsh, told CNN.
The Israeli military acknowledged Saturday it had detained Dr. Abu Safiya, saying he was “suspected of being a Hamas terrorist operative.”
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it raided the area of the hospital and detained at least 240 “Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists,” alleging the facility was being used as a “Hamas terror stronghold.”
“Individuals are being questioned. Those found not to be involved in terrorist activities are released,” the IDF said.
‘No limit to the beating’
Last Friday, Dr. Safiya said in a post on social media that Israeli forces were besieging the facility, “and issuing orders for its evacuation.” Multiple nurses have said staff and patients were then ordered to leave the hospital and gather outside.
Once outside, staff and patients were separated by gender and both men and women were told to remove their clothes, two nurses told CNN. “Those who refused to remove their clothing were beaten,” Shorouq Saleh Al-Rantisi, a nurse working in the laboratory, said on Friday.
After hours of being held, they were forced to move to the nearby Indonesian Hospital, the staff said, a facility the WHO has described as “destroyed and nonfunctional.”
Some patients said they asked to be transferred to the Indonesian Hospital but were not allowed.
“They told us to sit down. After gathering everyone, they made us strip down to our underwear in the cold,” Abdulrahman Rayan told CNN, adding that a significant number of people were detained and injured patients were beaten.
“There was no limit to the beating. They struck people on the head with hoses. They dragged three people at a time, including an injured person with a cast, and beat them on their heads,” added Rayan. “They spared no one – not the injured, not the elderly, not the children.”
Other patients were allegedly made to walk hours on foot to a school in northern Gaza, alongside medical staff. “They made us strip down to our underwear. It was a tough situation, and they assaulted the wounded and women,” Abu Mahmoud Al-Attawi, an injured patient, told CNN on Friday.
The IDF said it had helped evacuate staff and patients ahead of the operation, later adding that “an additional 95 patients, caregivers and medical personnel” were taken to the Indonesian Hospital “to maintain and operate essential systems.”
It is often necessary for terror suspects to take off their clothes so that their clothes can be searched and to ensure that they are not concealing explosive vests or other weaponry. According to IDF guidelines, as soon as possible after the search, their clothing is returned to them or alternative clothing is provided.”
Asked by CNN about the allegations of strip searches and beatings of patients, as well as if they had evidence to the claims against Dr. Abu Safiya, the IDF responded the claims, saying, “The detention of suspects involved in terrorism, their arrest, and the search conducted on their bodies were carried out in accordance with international law.
Video sent by nurse Rawiya Al Batsh from the Indonesian Hospital, seen by CNN, showed upturned furniture and tattered blankets strewn along the dusty corridors. The buzz of Israeli drones can be heard overhead.
CNN has reached to the Israeli military asking for comment on allegations that men and women were forced to strip.
Several staff also reported a large fire breaking out. Al Batsh told CNN that the blaze broke out in the hospital after Israeli strikes on the building, with staff forced to use water from a kidney dialysis machine to fight the flames.
“Unfortunately, this water was mixed with chlorine and other substances, resulting in burns on their hands and faces,” Al Batsh said, adding one patient died in the fire.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) told CNN that “there was a small fire in an empty building inside the hospital that is under control,” adding that it is “unaware” of allegations that the fire was caused by IDF gunfire. It added that its troops “are operating in the area of the hospital and not inside of it.”
Bd-pratidin English/Fariha Nowshin Chinika
