How Israeli raids on northern Gaza hospitals compound the enclave’s healthcare emergency

Analysis How Israeli raids on northern Gaza hospitals compound the enclave’s healthcare emergency
According to the Palestinian health ministry, more than 1,000 medical workers have been killed. (AFP)
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Updated 06 January 2025
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How Israeli raids on northern Gaza hospitals compound the enclave’s healthcare emergency

How Israeli raids on northern Gaza hospitals compound the enclave’s healthcare emergency
  • Kamal Adwan Hospital was raided by Israeli forces on Dec. 27, dealing a fresh blow to Gaza’s already devastated health system
  • Israel alleged the facility was a “Hamas terrorist stronghold,” detaining its director Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, patients, and other staff

DUBAI: For months, prominent Palestinian pediatrician Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya had been pleading with the international community to protect medical staff and patients at the Kamal Adwan Hospital amid repeated Israeli assaults.

As one of just two functioning hospitals in northern Gaza, Kamal Adwan served as a lifeline for thousands in need of medical assistance under an Israeli siege that has blocked the delivery of food, shelter materials, and medical supplies since Oct. 5.

However, the pleas of Dr. Abu Safiya, the hospital’s director, fell silent on Dec. 27 when Israeli forces stormed the facility and detained him along with patients and other medical staff, alleging it was a “Hamas terrorist stronghold.”

Since early October 2024, Israel has intensified its siege on northern Gaza, mounting a series of operations intended to root out Hamas fighters. The raid on Kamal Adwan knocked the hospital out of action, dealing a fresh blow to northern Gaza’s already devastated healthcare system.




Since early October 2024, Israel has intensified its siege on northern Gaza. (AFP)

The following day, health officials said Israeli forces targeted Al-Awda Hospital, severely damaging the last functioning facility in northern Gaza. The hospital had been overflowing with patients after the Indonesian Hospital was reportedly put out of service earlier in the month.

On Dec. 29, the Palestinian health ministry said Israeli strikes had left two facilities in Gaza City — Al-Ahli Arab Baptist Hospital and Al-Wafaa Hospital — with significant damage.

“Hospitals have once again become battlegrounds, reminiscent of the destruction of the health system in Gaza City earlier this year,” the World Health Organization said in a statement.

Israel has long accused Hamas of using civilian hospitals for military purposes, employing patients and medical staff as human shields — a claim that the Palestinian militant group that governs Gaza has consistently denied.

In its latest raid on Kamal Adwan Hospital, the Israeli military said its troops had killed 20 “terrorists” and detained 240 others, including Dr. Abu Safiya on suspicion of being “a Hamas terrorist operative.”




Israel has long accused Hamas of using civilian hospitals for military purposes. (AFP)

On Friday, Israel confirmed it was holding Dr. Abu Safiya, but did not specify where. In a statement, the Israel Defense Forces said he was “currently being investigated by Israeli security forces” as he was suspected of being a “terrorist” and for “holding a rank” in Hamas.

Israel launched its military operation in Gaza in retaliation for the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on southern Israel that killed some 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and saw around 250 taken hostage, including many foreign nationals.

The air and ground campaign in Gaza has caused the death of some 45,400 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, and left 108,000 wounded, according to the Palestinian health ministry. Around 100 Israelis remain captive in Gaza, but a third are believed to be dead.

Kamal Adwan Hospital has been the target of around 50 recorded attacks on or near the facility since early October 2024, according to the WHO.

The latest raid left the hospital’s laboratory, surgical unit, engineering and maintenance department, operating theater, and medical store severely damaged by fire.




Healthcare workers around the world joined an online solidarity campaign. (AFP)

Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani, an Israeli military spokesperson, denied troops had entered the facility or started the fire.

“While IDF troops were not in the hospital, a small fire broke out in an empty building inside the hospital that is under control,” he said. A preliminary investigation had found “no connection” between the military operation and the fire, he added.

Dr. Abu Safiya’s detention has sparked global outcry as UN agencies, rights groups, and non-governmental organizations demanded his immediate release.

A viral image of Dr. Abu Safiya, believed to depict his final moments before his arrest, shows him walking alone, dressed in his white lab coat, among the rubble of a devastated street towards Israeli tanks.

Healthcare workers around the world joined an online solidarity campaign, prompting the launch of a petition calling on the US to pressure Israel to release Dr. Abu Safiya and stop targeting hospitals, medical staff, and patients.

Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, urged global medical professionals to cut ties with Israel in protest at the arrest.

“For each Palestinian life that should and could have been saved in Gaza, we have been put to the test. And we have failed, over and over,” she posted on X. “We must not fail again. All of us must do all we can to save Dr. Abu Safiya.”

According to the Palestinian health ministry, more than 1,000 medical workers have been killed and more than 300 detained since the war between Israel and Hamas began on Oct. 7, 2023, while some 130 ambulances have been knocked out of action.




Israel launched its military operation in Gaza in retaliation for the Oct. 7, 2023. (AFP)

The whereabouts of Dr. Abu Safiya and his staff remains unknown, although several released detainees told CNN he was being held at the Sde Teiman military base — a facility close to the Gaza border notorious for allegations of abuse, which Israel denies.

Dr. Abu Safiya rose to prominence for documenting the challenges facing healthcare professionals in Gaza since the war began, including shortages of staff and medical supplies.

In an earlier raid on Oct. 25, he was briefly detained and questioned after refusing multiple orders to leave Kamal Adwan Hospital. The Israeli army had stormed the facility, detained many patients and 57 hospital staff, according to Gaza health authorities.

During that Israeli operation, Dr. Abu Safiya’s 15-year-old son was reportedly killed in a drone strike at the hospital gate. Dr. Abu Safiya insisted on continuing to tend to his patients, and continued to do so even after he was wounded in an attack on Nov. 23.

“We are suffering from a severe shortage of doctors, especially surgeons,” he said at the time. “Right now, we only have pediatricians — it is a huge challenge to work under these circumstances.”

On Dec. 31, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights published a report detailing the destruction of Gaza’s healthcare facilities. The report found that 27 hospitals and 12 other medical facilities had suffered 136 strikes between Oct. 7, 2023 and June 30, 2024.

The UN warned that the strikes caused “significant damage to, if not the complete destruction of, civilian infrastructure,” and pushed the healthcare system in the Palestinian territory to the “brink of total collapse.”




In its report, the UN labeled Israel’s claim that Gaza’s hospitals are being used by Hamas for military purposes as “vague” and “insufficient.” (AFP)

Just 17 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals remain partially functional, according to the WHO’s latest figures.

In its report, the UN labeled Israel’s claim that Gaza’s hospitals are being used by Hamas for military purposes as “vague” and “insufficient.”

A day earlier, UN human rights experts said the backing of allies has enabled Israel to continue committing “genocidal acts” and defying international law. They stressed that Israel needed to be held accountable for “inflicting maximum suffering” on Palestinian civilians, particularly in northern Gaza.

They noted the siege, “coupled with expanding evacuation orders, appears intended to permanently displace the local population as a precursor to Gaza’s annexation.”

Israel said the siege was aimed at preventing Hamas from regrouping.

As ceasefire talks continue, the Palestinian health ministry has called on the international community to intervene to protect healthcare professionals, secure the release of detainees, and facilitate a safe environment in which the sick and injured can receive treatment.

The closure of Kamal Adwan Hospital leaves a population of some 75,000 Palestinians in the north without access to medical care — a crisis exacerbated by bitter winter conditions and shortages of food, medicine, and shelter.

More than 90 percent of Gaza’s 2.3 million Palestinians have been repeatedly displaced, according to aid agencies, with many now enduring winter temperatures in squalid tent camps, often flooded by heavy rain, in south and central Gaza.

For those who have remained in northern Gaza, hospitals are no longer an option for shelter.

“As if the relentless bombing and the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza were not enough, the one sanctuary where Palestinians should have felt safe in fact became a death trap,” Volker Turk, the UN human rights chief, said in a statement.




The closure of Kamal Adwan Hospital leaves a population of some 75,000 Palestinians in the north without access to medical care. (AFP)

Health officials say the loss of Kamal Adwan Hospital, in particular, will leave civilians in northern Gaza without treatment at the very moment they are most vulnerable.

In a post on X, Palestinian surgeon Dr. Ghassan Abu Sitta said hypothermia, malnutrition, and injury had become the triad of death.

“This means that people will die of hypothermia at higher temperatures, will starve to death much quicker, and will succumb to less severe wounds.”

 


Syrian Druze say govt mission of peace devolved into rampage

Syrian Druze say govt mission of peace devolved into rampage
Updated 9 sec ago
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Syrian Druze say govt mission of peace devolved into rampage

Syrian Druze say govt mission of peace devolved into rampage
  • Syria’s defense minister had declared a ‘complete ceasefire’ in Sweide late Tuesday morning, but locals said the announcement had little effect on the ground
  • Thousands of the city’s residents fled, seeking safety nearer the Jordanian border

SWEIDA: The mainly Druze residents of the Syrian city of Sweida had hoped the arrival of government forces on Tuesday would spell an end to deadly sectarian clashes with local Bedouin tribes.

Instead they spoke of executions, looting and arson as government troops and their allies rampaged through Druze neighborhoods, prompting thousands from the religious minority to flee.

“Government forces entered the city on the pretext of restoring order... but unfortunately they indulged in savage practices,” said Rayan Maarouf, editor in chief of the Suwayda 24 news website.

“There have been cases of civilians being killed... dozens of them... but we don’t have precise figures,” he added, blaming government fighters and their allies.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, government forces executed 12 civilians in a guesthouse in the city, in just one incident among many said to have taken place in the area.

Syria’s defense minister had declared a “complete ceasefire” in the city late Tuesday morning, but locals said the announcement had little effect on the ground.

An AFP correspondent who entered Sweida shortly after government forces reported dead bodies left lying on deserted streets as sporadic gunfire rang out.

“I’m in the center of Sweida. There are executions, houses and shops that have been torched, and robberies and looting,” one Sweida resident holed up in his home told AFP by phone.

“One of my friends who lives in the west of the city told me that they entered his home, chased out his family after taking their mobile phones and then set fire to it,” added the resident, who asked not to be identified for fear of retribution.

AFP correspondents saw smoke rising over several areas of the city of some 150,000 people.

Another resident said he had seen armed men in civilian clothes “looting shops and setting fire to them.”

“They’re firing indiscriminately, I am afraid to leave the house,” he said, adding that he regretted “not leaving before they arrived.”

On Tuesday, government forces entered Sweida with the stated aim of ending the sectarian violence that had claimed more than 100 lives earlier this week.

But the Observatory, Druze leaders and witnesses said they entered the city accompanied by Bedouin fighters, and joined with them in attacking the Druze.

One AFP video showed Bedouin fighters riding through the streets on a government tank, brandishing their weapons in celebration.

The fighters toppled several statues in public squares, AFP images showed. Hard-line Islamists believe such representations of the human form to be idolatrous.

Unverified video footage circulating on social media showed armed men forcibly shaving off the moustache of an elderly Druze, a grave insult in the community.

The Israeli military said it had carried out several air strikes on the forces that entered Sweida.

An AFP correspondent saw one Syrian army vehicle in the city center that had taken a direct hit. Several bodies were left dangling over its sides.

The Israeli military said it was acting to protect the Druze, although some analysts have said that was a pretext for pursuing its own military goals.

Thousands of the city’s residents fled, seeking safety nearer the Jordanian border, Maarouf said.

In the nearby village of Walgha, an AFP correspondent found a group of displaced civilians sheltering in a mosque.


UN’s Syria commission urges deescalation amid Suwayda clashes, warns against Israeli airstrikes

UN’s Syria commission urges deescalation amid Suwayda clashes, warns against Israeli airstrikes
Updated 12 min 27 sec ago
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UN’s Syria commission urges deescalation amid Suwayda clashes, warns against Israeli airstrikes

UN’s Syria commission urges deescalation amid Suwayda clashes, warns against Israeli airstrikes
  • Clashes in southern region between Bedouin tribal forces and Druze-affiliated armed groups have killed dozens, including women and children
  • Ministry of Defense says at least 18 soldiers have been killed; residents describe widespread killings, abductions, arson, looting, and surge in hate speech

NEW YORK CITY: The UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic expressed grave concern on Monday about escalating violence in Suwayda Governorate in the south of the country.

Clashes there between Bedouin tribal forces and Druze-affiliated armed groups have left dozens dead, including women and children.

More than 100 people have reportedly been injured in recent days, as fighting intensifies and the Syrian Interim Government deploys security and military forces to the area. The Ministry of Defense said at least 18 soldiers had been killed. Local residents describe widespread killings, abductions, arson, looting, and a surge in hate speech, both online and in public.

The UN commission urged all parties to immediately cease hostilities and engage in dialogue to deescalate the situation. It emphasized the obligation of the government to uphold human rights and protect all civilians, without discrimination, and called for the provision of safe passage for those attempting to flee the violence, along with access for humanitarian aid efforts.

The commission also expressed alarm over reports of Israeli airstrikes in the region, warning that any third-party interventions risked expanding the conflict and compounding the suffering of the Syrian population.

It said it was investigating alleged violations of international human rights and humanitarian laws linked to the recent unrest, and its findings would be published in a forthcoming report.


US ambassador asks Israel to investigate death of US citizen in West Bank

US ambassador asks Israel to investigate death of US citizen in West Bank
Updated 11 min ago
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US ambassador asks Israel to investigate death of US citizen in West Bank

US ambassador asks Israel to investigate death of US citizen in West Bank
  • “There must be accountability for this criminal and terrorist act. Saif was just 20 yrs old,” Huckabee said
  • Israel’s military previously said Israel was investigating the incident

WEST BANK: US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said on Tuesday he has asked Israel to “aggressively” investigate the death of an American citizen who was beaten to death in the West Bank.

“There must be accountability for this criminal and terrorist act. Saif was just 20 yrs old,” Huckabee said in a post on X.

The Israeli embassy in Washington did not immediately provide comment. Israel’s military previously said Israel was investigating the incident.

US citizen Sayafollah Musallet, 20, also known as Saif, was severely beaten in the incident on Friday evening in Sinjil, north of Ramallah, the Palestinian Health Ministry said.


His family, from Tampa, Florida, said in a statement that medics tried to reach him for three hours before his brother managed to carry him to an ambulance, but that he died before reaching the hospital.

“We must honor his memory by speaking out against violence and working toward a future of peace and dignity,” US Representative Kathy Castor, who represents Tampa, said in a post on X. “The Administration must work with our international partners to ensure the protection of Americans abroad.”

Some members of the US House of Representatives have condemned the killing of Musallet, and others have called on the US State Department to investigate the incident.

The department did not immediately respond to those calls.

Settler violence in the West Bank has risen since the start of Israel’s war against Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza in late 2023, according to rights groups.


UN rapporteur calls for global action to stop ‘genocide’ in Gaza

UN rapporteur calls for global action to stop ‘genocide’ in Gaza
Updated 22 min 49 sec ago
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UN rapporteur calls for global action to stop ‘genocide’ in Gaza

UN rapporteur calls for global action to stop ‘genocide’ in Gaza
  • Francesca Albanese says ‘Israeli economy is structured to sustain the occupation that has now turned genocidal‘

BOGOTA: The United Nations’ special rapporteur for Gaza and the West Bank said Tuesday that it’s time for nations around the world to take concrete actions to stop what she called the “genocide” in Gaza.

Francesca Albanese spoke to delegates from 30 countries meeting in Colombia’s capital to discuss the Israel-Hamas war and ways that nations can try to stop Israel’s military offensive in the territory. Many of the participating nations have described the violence as genocide against the Palestinians.

“Each state must immediately review and suspend all ties with the State of Israel ... and ensure its private sector does the same,” Albanese said. “The Israeli economy is structured to sustain the occupation that has now turned genocidal.”

The two-day conference organized by the governments of Colombia and South Africa is being attended mostly by developing nations, although the governments of Spain, Ireland and China have also sent delegates.

Israel has adamantly rejected genocide allegations and called them “antisemitic” and “blood libel.”

Analysts say it’s not clear whether the conference’s participating countries have enough leverage over Israel to force it to change its policies in Gaza, where more than 58,000 people have been killed in Israeli military operations following a deadly Hamas attack on Israel in 2023.

“The United States has so far failed to influence Israel’s behavior … so it is naive to think that this group of countries can have any influence over (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu’s behavior or on the government of Israel,” said Sandra Borda, a professor of international relations at Bogota’s Los Andes University. She said, however, that the conference will enable some nations of the Global South to clarify their position toward the conflict and have their voices heard.

The conference is co-chaired by the governments of South Africa and Colombia, which last year suspended coal exports to Israeli power plants, and includes the participation of members of The Hague Group, a coalition of eight nations that earlier this year pledged to cut military ties with Israel and to comply with an International Criminal Court arrest warrant against Netanyahu.

For decades, South Africa’s ruling African National Congress party has compared Israel’s policies in Gaza and the West Bank with its own history of oppression under the harsh apartheid regime of white minority rule, which restricted most Blacks to “homelands” before ending in 1994. South Africa’s current argument is rooted in the sentiment that Palestinians have been oppressed in their homeland as Black South Africans were under apartheid.

The gathering comes as the European Union weighs various measures against Israel that include a ban on imports from Israeli settlements, an arms embargo and individual sanctions against Israeli officials, who are found to be blocking a peaceful solution to the conflict.

Colombia’s Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs Mauricio Jaramillo said Monday that the nations participating in the Bogota meeting, which also include Qatar and Turkiye, will be discussing diplomatic and judicial measures that can be taken to put more pressure on Israel to cease its attacks.

The Colombian official described Israel’s conduct in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank as an affront to the international order.

“This is not just about Palestine” Jaramillo said in a press conference. “It is about defending international law… and the right to self determination.”


Video shows Palestinians caught in gunfire near GHF aid hub in Gaza

Video shows Palestinians caught in gunfire near GHF aid hub in Gaza
Updated 21 min 27 sec ago
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Video shows Palestinians caught in gunfire near GHF aid hub in Gaza

Video shows Palestinians caught in gunfire near GHF aid hub in Gaza
  • Red Cross says field hospital nearby received 132 patients, most with gunshot wounds
  • 875 people have been killed trying to reach aid sites in past 6 weeks, UN says

LONDON: A video shared on social media captured the moment terrified Palestinians were caught in gunfire as they tried to reach an aid hub in Gaza at the weekend.

The footage shows a large number of people packed into an area near a sand dune when gunshots fly over their heads. They drop to the floor in panic as the bullets hit the dune just meters from a group trying to take cover.

The video was filmed on Saturday near a distribution site run by the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation in Rafah in the south of the territory, according to BBC fact-checkers.

The Israeli- and US-run organization began aid distribution operations in the territory in May. It has been widely condemned for the high number of civilian deaths near to its sites.

The UN said on Tuesday that at least 875 people had been killed near aid points in Gaza in the past six weeks, mostly at those run by the GHF.

Reports from the weekend said at least 31 Palestinians were shot dead on Saturday as they tried to access a GHF hub near Rafah. The Red Cross said its field hospital nearby received 132 patients, with the overwhelming majority suffering from gunshot wounds. The wounded told hospital staff they had been trying to reach food aid.

 

 

“Since the establishment of new food distribution sites on May 27, the field hospital has treated over 3,400 weapon-wounded patients and recorded more than 250 fatalities,” the International Committee of the Red Cross said.

“This figure exceeds all mass casualty cases treated at the hospital in the 12 months preceding May 27. This situation is unacceptable. The alarming frequency and scale of these mass casualty incidents underscore the horrific conditions civilians in Gaza are enduring.”

BBC Verify said it was unable to ascertain if the deaths took place at the exact scene of the video but said the images were taken 750 meters from the GHF’s Secure Distribution Site 2.

Satellite images taken a day later showed crowds gathered at the same spot with Israeli military vehicles stationed 350 meters away. The broadcaster said it spoke to journalists in Gaza and studied images from Planet Labs PBC to help verify the footage.

An Instagram post shows a victim in hospital recovering after being at the scene where the video was shot. He said he arrived in the area at about 7:30 a.m. and after two hours Israeli tanks and drones opened fire on the crowd.

“The gunfire at us was random,” he said. “Everyone threw themselves to the ground to take cover as bodies fell around them.”

The GHF told the BBC the video was not taken “in the vicinity of our site” but it was “trying to determine if it was involving an actual queue to our site which could be 1.5-2 km away.”

Chris Doyle, director of the London-based Council for Arab-British Understanding, told Arab News that the GHF hubs were “not food distribution centers but death traps.”

“That major international actors have not taken significant steps to stop this abomination in Gaza is an outrage,” he said.

Mustafa Barghouti, president of the Palestinian National Initiative, described the video as a “tragic scene.”

“The Israeli army shooting live ammunition at hungry Palestinians who were trying to get humanitarian aid from the so called ‘Gaza Humanitarian foundation center’,” he wrote on X.

The GHF started operating in Gaza after Israel imposed an 11-week blockade on humanitarian aid entering the territory, which has been decimated by an Israeli military campaign since October 2023.

The GHF system largely bypasses the traditional aid distribution mechanisms run by the UN.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has described the GHF model as “inherently unsafe” and said it was killing people.