After a four-day blockade at Al Awda Hospital, a significant medical middle in northern Gaza, the Israeli army ordered sufferers and employees to evacuate on Wednesday after which raided the advanced, in keeping with Gazan well being officers.
Whereas a lot of the roughly 150 individuals who had been at Al Awda Hospital have been in a position to evacuate, about 30, together with sufferers in essential situation, their companions and medical employees, stayed behind, Dr. Medhat Abbas, a spokesman for the Gaza Well being Ministry, stated in a press release on Thursday.
The Israeli army declined to touch upon its operations round Al Awda, which is within the Tal Al-Zaatar space in northern Gaza. Israel withdrew from a lot of the north earlier within the yr, however has not too long ago returned to some areas to battle what it says are makes an attempt by Hamas to reconstitute its forces there.
The hospital’s performing director, Dr. Mohammad Salha, stated that he had instructed Israeli forces he wouldn’t transfer some essential sufferers with out ambulances. He stated he had remained there, together with a couple of medical employees, to make sure the secure evacuation of the sufferers.
“They’re crushing all the things, destroyed the doorways,” stated Dr. Salha. “They’re checking each single centimeter of the hospital,” he added in a voice message from contained in the hospital early Thursday morning.
Naji Ziadeh, a member of the hospital’s administrative employees, stated these on the hospital have been “besieged for 4 complete days, throughout which we lived indescribable horror.” He stated in a telephone interview {that a} tank had superior to the hospital’s entrance on Wednesday and that the troops used loudspeakers to order everybody to evacuate.
Israeli forces then started escorting sufferers and employees members out of the hospital and looking out them one after the other, Mr. Ziadeh stated. They have been then taken to a warehouse and requested to maneuver north to Gaza Metropolis.
Mr. Ziadeh stated that he “shed tears of anguish” whereas evacuating the hospital, the place he, like Dr. Salha, had been working and dwelling for the reason that conflict started. “It’s our house,” he stated.
Those that had been trapped contained in the hospital through the blockade, with little gas and no clear water, included two new child infants and their moms, who had delivered them by C-section, Dr. Salha stated. He added that employees members he was in contact with had evacuated to Gaza Metropolis and have been looking for shelter.
The dire circumstances on the hospital are a part of a sample that has performed out repeatedly throughout Gaza over greater than seven months of conflict. Israel has raided a number of hospitals after accusing Hamas, the armed group that led an assault into southern Israel on Oct. 7, of utilizing them for army functions, claims that Hamas and hospital directors have denied.
Like many medical services, Al Awda has come beneath repeated assault. In November, Médecins sans Frontières stated three docs, together with two of its employees members, have been killed in a strike on the hospital.
The hospital additionally confronted an almost two-week siege in December, throughout which a number of medical employees within the constructing, together with an M.S.F. surgeon, have been shot from the surface, the help group stated. The Israeli army then took management of the hospital and stripped and detained individuals for interrogation, M.S.F. stated.
The hospital’s director, Dr. Ahmed Muhanna, was a type of taken into Israeli custody and his whereabouts stay unknown, in keeping with ActionAid, one other nongovernmental group that helps the hospital.
Ameera Harouda contributed reporting from Doha, Qatar.
