Still wrecked from past Israeli raids, hospitals in northern Gaza come under attack again

The last three hospitals still partially functioning in northern Gaza have been encircled by Israeli troops and caught amid fighting for weeks

They were built to be places of healing. But once again, three hospitals in northern Gaza are encircled by Israeli troops and under fire.

Bombardment is pounding around them as Israel wages a new offensive against Hamas fighters that it says have regrouped nearby. As staff scramble to treat waves of wounded, they remain haunted by a war that has seen hospitals targeted with intensity and overtness rarely seen in modern warfare.

All three were besieged and raided by Israeli troops some 10 months ago. The Kamal Adwan, al-Awda, and Indonesian hospitals still have not recovered from the damage, yet are the only hospitals even partially operational in the area.

Medical facilities often come under fire in wars, but combatants usually depict such incidents as accidental or exceptional, since hospitals enjoy special protection under international law. In its yearlong campaign in Gaza, Israel has stood out by carrying out an open campaign on hospitals, besieging and raiding at least 10 of them across the Gaza Strip.

It has said this is a military necessity in its aim to destroy Hamas after the militants’ October 7, 2023 attacks. It claims Hamas uses hospitals as “command and control bases” to plan attacks, to shelter fighters and to hide hostages. It argues that nullifies the protections for hospitals.

Major Hamas base

Most prominently, Israel twice raided Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital, the biggest medical facility in the strip, producing a video animation depicting it as a major Hamas base, though the evidence it presented remains disputed.

The Israeli military has never made any claims of a Hamas presence at al-Awda. In recent weeks, the hospital has been paralysed once again, with Israeli troops fighting in the nearby Jabalia refugee camp. Its director Mohammed Salha said last month that the facility was surrounded by troops and was unable to evacuate six critical patients. “We are reliving the nightmares of November and December of last year, but worse,” Mr. Salha said. “We have fewer supplies, fewer doctors and less hope that anything will be done to stop this.”

The military says it takes all possible precautions to prevent civilian casualties.

Last year, fighting was raging around al-Awda when, on November 21, a shell exploded in the facility’s operating room. Dr. Mahmoud Abu Nujaila, two other doctors, and a patient’s uncle died almost instantly, according to international charity Doctors Without Borders.

By December 5, al-Awda was surrounded. For 18 days, coming or going became “a death sentence,” Dr. Mohammed Obeid said. Survivors and hospital administrators recounted at least four occasions when Israeli drones or snipers killed or badly wounded Palestinians trying to enter. Two women about to give birth were shot and bled to death on the street, staff said.

Men forced to strip

On December 23, troops stormed the hospital, ordering men ages 15 to 65 to strip and undergo interrogation in the yard. Mazen Khalidi, whose infected right leg had been amputated, said nurses pleaded with soldiers to let him rest rather than join the blindfolded and handcuffed men outside. They refused.

The hospital’s director, Ahmed Muhanna, was seized by Israeli troops; his whereabouts remain unknown. One of Gaza’s leading doctors, orthopedist Adnan al-Bursh, was also detained during the raid and died in Israeli custody in May.

Several blocks away, on October 18 artillery hit the upper floors of Indonesian Hospital, staff said. People fled for their lives. They had already been surrounded by Israeli troops, leaving doctors and patients inside without enough food, water and supplies.

Tamer al-Kurd, a nurse at the hospital, said around 44 patients and only two doctors remain. On Saturday, the Israeli military said it had facilitated the evacuation of 29 patients from Indonesian and al-Awda hospitals.

The Indonesia-based group that funds the hospital denied any Hamas presence. “If there’s a tunnel, we would know. It’s ridiculous,” Arief Rachman, a hospital manager from the Indonesia-based Medical Emergency Rescue Committee, said.

After besieging and raiding the hospital, the military did not mention or show evidence of the underground facility or tunnels it had earlier claimed.

Kamal Adwan Hospital, once a linchpin of northern Gaza’s health system, was burning on Thursday of last week. Israeli shells crashed into the third floor, igniting a fire that destroyed medical supplies, according to the World Health Organisation.

On October 25, Israeli troops stormed the hospital after what an Israeli military official described as an intense fight with militants nearby. During the battle, Israeli fire targeted the hospital’s oxygen tanks because they “can be booby traps,” the official said.

Israeli forces withdrew after three days, during which Palestinian health officials said nearly all of Kamal Adwan’s medical workers were detained, an Israeli drone killed at least one doctor and two children in intensive care died.

The hospital’s director, Dr. Ahmed al-Kahlout, remains in Israeli custody. The military released footage of him under interrogation saying he was a Hamas agent and that militants were based in the hospital. His colleagues said he spoke under duress.

In a report last month, a U.N. investigation commission determined that “Israel has implemented a concerted policy to destroy the health-care system of Gaza.” It described Israeli actions at hospitals as “collective punishment against the Palestinians in Gaza.”

Published - November 04, 2024 10:39 am IST