Israel accused of bombing Kamal Adwan Hospital ICU risking patients, medics | Israel-Palestine conflict News

The director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, besieged by Israeli drones and tanks, appealed to the international community to intervene to protect the northern Gaza hospital, as Israel ordered patients and hospital workers to evacuate.

The hospital remains one of the few still functioning in the region, with only a few doctors left to treat patients amid severe shortages or complete exhaustion of basic medical supplies.

“We are now facing direct bombardment on the intensive care unit again,” Dr. Hossam Abu Safia said in a video statement on Saturday evening, calling on the international community to protect the hospital and its 66 patients, as well as the medical staff.

He added, “Nursery, maternity, and all hospital departments are being targeted by the occupation forces with all types of weapons, including sniper fire, tank shells, and quadcopters.”

“For more than an hour now, shells have been raining down on us from every angle, inclination and direction.”

“What we are seeing now is a deliberate attack on the health facility,” said Hani Mahmoud, Al Jazeera’s correspondent from nearby Deir al-Balah.

“The Israeli army ordered the hospital to be evacuated, but it also created a frightening environment that made people feel it was unsafe to leave.”

Mahmoud added that contact with those trapped in the hospital was cut off overnight.

Footage verified by Al Jazeera showed wounded Palestinians taking shelter in the hospital’s corridors, away from the windows, after Israeli forces opened fire on the facility. Despite this, Mahmoud said, “numerous injuries” were reported when bullets penetrated the walls, damaging equipment as well.

Al Jazeera Al Arabiya correspondents in Gaza said they lost contact with journalists inside the hospital amid the ongoing attack. According to the channel, Al Awda Hospital, located in Jabalia refugee camp, was also attacked.

Continued Israeli attacks on medical facilities, including Kamal Adwan’s, sparked a reaction from the head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who described them as “deeply disturbing.” He called for an “immediate ceasefire” in the area that has been under siege for more than 70 days.

More than 14 months of continuous Israeli attacks led to the destruction of the Strip and the displacement of approximately 2.4 million of its residents. More than 45,000 people were killed, most of them children and women, in the attack that sparked global condemnation.

Israel justifies its deadly attacks as a response to the Hamas-led attacks on October 7, 2023, in which nearly 1,100 people were killed and about 250 others were captured.

Abu Safiya said that Israeli forces use the pretext that the hospital is a combat zone to justify their attacks on the hospital.

He said: “We hold the world responsible for what is happening and our repeated calls,” adding that “there seems to be no response” to the calls of the international community.

34 Palestinians were martyred in one day

Health officials in Gaza said that Israel killed 34 Palestinians, including 19, since dawn on Sunday, during the past 24 hours.

Al Jazeera’s Mahmoud said Gaza had developed into a “killing box with attacks around the clock” with four children among five killed in the Israeli attack on Jabalia on Sunday.

At least eight people, including four children, were killed in another attack on a school that had been converted into a shelter for Palestinians displaced by the war. The Israeli army confirmed Saturday’s attack on the school, saying it targeted a “command and control center” belonging to Hamas.

At the same time, the humanitarian situation has deteriorated in Gaza, especially in the northern regions, which have been under military siege for weeks.

In a statement on the website Of them.

I faced Israel Accusations to Genocide Because of its prevention of aid and basic necessities to the Gaza Strip. In its latest report, Human Rights Watch said earlier this week that since October last year, Israeli authorities have “deliberately obstructed Palestinians’ access to the sufficient amount of water needed to survive in the Gaza Strip.”

“More than a million children, the entire population of Gaza, are affected by this war,” Rachel Cummings, Save the Children’s humanitarian director in Gaza, told Al Jazeera.

“We are seeing children being severely affected by this attack, but the medium and long-term impact is terrifying,” she said. “We provide immediate relief of suffering, but we know that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean.”

Since October, the World Food Program has requested food deliveries to areas of the country #Gaza‘s north Governorate (Beit Hanoun, Beit Lahya, Jabalia) 101 times.

97% were rejected or hindered on the floor, and this is the third approval.

– World Food Program (@WFP) December 21, 2024

The continuing attacks come at a time when Palestinian groups say a ceasefire agreement is “closer than ever.”

In a rare joint statement, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine said that a ceasefire in Gaza and a prisoner release agreement is possible provided that Israel does not impose new conditions in the negotiations.

On October 7 of last year, Palestinian fighters captured about 250 prisoners, including 96 still in Gaza, including 34 that the Israeli army says are dead.