By Quds News Network
Gaza (Quds News Network)- Gaza’s Health Ministry confirmed on Saturday that Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, has been abducted by Israeli occupation forces following a raid on the last remaining medical facility in the area.
In a statement on Saturday morning, the Ministry said Abu Safiya has been arrested by the Israeli forces. Abu Safiya’s fate was unknown.
On Friday morning, Israeli soldiers stormed Kamal Adwan Hospital, torching large sections and ordering hundreds of people to leave.
The Ministry said that contact had been lost with staff inside the hospital in Beit Lahiya, which has been under siege and heavy pressure from Israeli forces for weeks. It had no information on the fate of patients who were inside, it added.
The Israeli army issued a statement confirming it launched a raid on the Kamal Adwan Hospital, claiming without evidence that the medical facility “serves as a Hamas terrorist stronghold in northern Gaza”.
The Ministry said Kamal Adwan is “suffering from a stifling siege, as the operating and surgery departments, laboratory, maintenance, ambulance units and warehouses have been completely burned”.
The Ministry also added , “the [Israeli] occupation army is forcibly transferring patients and the injured under the threat of weapons and gun barrels to the Indonesian Hospital, which lacks medical supplies, water, medicines, and even electricity and generators.”
Munir al-Bursh, the director of the Ministry, said the Israeli army had ordered 350 people to leave Kamal Adwan for a nearby school sheltering displaced families. This included 75 patients, their companions, and 185 medical staff.
Last night, the Ministry reported that Israeli forces took dozens of Kamal Adwan Hospital staff, including Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, to a detention center for interrogation. This followed threats made against the director, warning him of arrest if he did not comply with their orders.
“Too Late”
On Monday, Abu Safiya urged the international community to act “before it is too late”, calling the situation “horrifying”.
He said obeying an Israeli order to empty the facility would be “next to impossible” because nearly 400 civilians remain inside, including babies who need oxygen and incubators.
“The bombing continues from all directions, affecting the building, the departments and the staff. This is a serious and extremely horrifying situation,” Abu Safiya said.
Abu Safiya said: “The world must understand that our hospital is being targeted with the intent to kill and forcibly displace us,” adding that the Israeli bombing did not stop throughout Sunday night, destroying homes and surrounding buildings.
“We urge the international community to intervene quickly and stop this fierce assault on us to protect the healthcare system, the workers and the patients within it,” the hospital director said.
The hospital was running out of any meaningful medical care, given the hardship and the fact the past two months have been very strict in terms of what can enter the northern part of Gaza as there is a complete siege, military siege, on the area with no humanitarian aid – medical supplies, water, or life-sustaining resources – available to people there because of the ongoing deliberate prevention by the Israeli military.
28 December 2024
Source: countercurrents.org