The sound of tanks rolling through the streets outside Kamal Adwan Hospital woke everyone up, already on edge after months of direct Israeli attacks.

Then came the loudspeakers ordering everyone to evacuate the sick, wounded, medical staff and displaced people seeking shelter, early Friday morning.

It was clear that the medical complex in Beit Lahia in northern Gaza was about to face an Israeli raid, like many before it, as Israel appeared to be systematically destroying all healthcare facilities in Gaza.

It did not matter that the hospital, according to the World Health Organization, was the last major health facility functioning in northern Gaza, an area that Israel has stiflingly besieged and destroyed in its ongoing war.

Nor was it a refuge for hundreds of Palestinians whose homes were destroyed by Israel and who had nowhere else to go.

Numbers written on their chests

At approximately six in the morning, patient Izzat Al-Aswad heard the Israeli forces summoning Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of the hospital, via loudspeakers.

Dr. Abu Safiya returned and told the people at the hospital that they had received orders to evacuate. Abu Safiya himself, who has been a rare voice exposing what Israel is doing to the hospital, has been detained by Israel, which has refused to release him despite calls from the United Nations, humanitarian NGOs and international health organizations to do so.

Shortly afterward, Al-Aswad said Israeli soldiers asked all the men to strip to their underwear to allow them to leave.

Al-Aswad narrated over the phone that the men were shaking and afraid, many of them were injured, and they were ordered to walk to a checkpoint set up by the Israelis about two hours away.

At the checkpoint, they gave their full names and were photographed.

After that, one of the soldiers wrote a number on their chest and neck indicating that they had been searched.

Some of the men were taken for interrogation.

“They beat me and the men around me,” Al-Aswad said. “They hit injured people like me directly on our wounds.”

Shorouk Al-Rantisi, 30 years old, a nurse in the Kamal Adwan Laboratory Department, was among the women who were discharged from the hospital.

The women were told to walk to the same checkpoint, which was located at a school, and then wait for hours in the cold.

“We could hear the men being beaten and tortured. It was unbearable.”

Then the searches began.

Al-Rantisi said: “The soldiers were dragging the women by their heads towards the inspection area.” “[They] They shouted at us and demanded that we take off our hijab. Those who refused were severely beaten.”

“The first girl summoned for inspection was asked to get naked. When she refused, one of the soldiers beat her and forced her to lift her clothes.

She said: “A soldier dragged me by the head, then another soldier ordered me to lift the upper part of my clothes, then the lower part, and check my identity.”

Abandoned patients

Al-Rantisi said the women were eventually taken, left at the roundabout, and told they could not return to Beit Lahia.

“How can we leave and abandon patients? “None of us ever thought about leaving until we had to,” she said by phone.

Israel attacked the hospital for several weeks before the raid.

Al-Aswad said: “The hospital and its yard were bombed relentlessly, day and night, as if everything was normal.”

“The quadcopters fired on anyone moving in the courtyard… and targeted electric generators and water tanks, while medical staff struggled to care for patients.”

Al-Aswad added that the night before the raid was “terrifying,” as Israeli attacks were everywhere, including the “Ambassador” building.

Eyewitnesses said about 50 people were there, including nurses from the hospital. He added: “No one was able to save them or recover their bodies. They are still there.”

The lions and the men who were not interrogated were released after a full day of abuse and humiliation.

He said: “The soldiers ordered us to go west of Gaza City and never return.” “We walked through the destruction and rubble, feeling cold, until people came to meet us near Gaza City and offered us help and blankets.”

“Betrayal” and “Abandoned”

Al-Rantisi said the Israeli raid exacerbated the “global silence and abandonment” that Palestinians in Gaza have faced throughout more than a year of continuous Israeli attacks that have killed more than 45,000 people.

She said: “Over more than 60 days of continuous bombardment – quadcopters, artillery, and targeted strikes on generators.”

“Dr. Hossam’s pleas were not answered until the hospital was stormed and emptied. How could the world allow this to happen?”

Fadi Al-Atawneh (32 years old) said bitterly over the phone: “I feel that we have all been betrayed.”

Al-Atawneh said: “I was injured, so I stayed in the hospital, hoping that the World Health Organization would evacuate us or protect us, but that never happened.”

“I am deeply saddened by what happened to us and the fate of Dr. Abu Safiya. We were left alone to face this aggression.”