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One of the last functioning hospitals in northern Gaza has been forcibly evacuated by the Israeli military, medics say, after Israeli strikes reportedly killed dozens of people in the area around the medical facility.
Id Sabbah, chief of nursing at Kamal Advan Hospital, told the BBC that at around 07:00 on Friday, the military gave the administration 15 minutes to evacuate patients and staff to the courtyard.
After that, Israeli troops entered the hospital and took out the remaining patients, he said.
The Israeli military said on Friday afternoon that they were conducting an operation in the area of the hospital, which they described as a “Hamas terrorist stronghold”.
Israeli forces “facilitated the safe evacuation of civilians, patients and medical personnel” from the hospital before the operation began, the report added.
The military does not say where the patients will be moved. But an Israeli official said earlier this week that they intended to transfer those at Kamal Advan Hospital to a nearby Indonesian hospital, which was evacuated by the military on Tuesday.
“It’s dangerous because there are patients in the intensive care unit who are in a coma and need ventilators, and moving them will put them at risk,” Dr Sabah said.
“If the Army intends to continue transporting these patients, they will need specialized equipment.”
It came hours after the hospital’s director, Kamal Advan, said about 50 people had been killed, including five medical workers, in a series of Israeli air strikes on the hospital’s surroundings.
A statement by Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya said that a building opposite the hospital was targeted by Israeli warplanes, killing a pediatrician and a laboratory assistant, as well as their families.
He said a third employee, who was working as a maintenance technician, was targeted and killed when he rushed to the scene of the first strike.
The two hospital orderlies were 500 meters (1,640 feet) from the hospital when they were targeted and killed in another strike, the statement continued, and their bodies were left on the street and no one could reach them.
On Friday morning, the Israeli military said it was “not aware of any strikes in the area of the Kamal Advan hospital” and was looking into reports of casualties.
The Kamal Advan Hospital in Beit Lahia is under a tightening Israeli blockade imposed on parts of northern Gaza since October, when the military said it launched an offensive to prevent Hamas from regrouping there.
The UN said the area was under “almost complete siege” as the Israeli military restricted access to aid supplies to the area, where an estimated 10,000 to 15,000 people remain.
In recent days, hospital administrators have called desperately for their protection, as they say the facility is regularly targeted by Israeli shelling and explosives.
Oxfam said efforts by aid agencies to bring supplies to the area since October had been unsuccessful due to “deliberate delays and systematic obstruction” by the Israeli military.
