2023-12-18 09:05:02
The World Health Organization (WHO) has accused Israel of destroying a hospital in the north of the Gaza Strip. “The WHO is appalled by the effective destruction of the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza in recent days, rendering it inoperable and resulting in the deaths of at least eight patients,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote on the platform on Sunday evening X, formerly Twitter.
The patients, including a nine-year-old child, died because of inadequate medical care. Israel rejected the criticism. The Permanent Mission of Israel to the United Nations in Geneva accused Tedros on X of not mentioning that the Islamist Hamas had established itself in the Kamal Adwan Hospital. Before the Israeli army entered the area, a dialogue was held in coordination with the medical teams. The army had allowed a humanitarian window and most of the hospital had been evacuated.
According to the military, several dozen civilians refused to leave the area despite previous requests and warnings. 90 terrorists were arrested in the area. “Israel also destroyed the terrorists’ infrastructure and found numerous weapons and intelligence documents that were hidden in the incubators in the neonatal ward, among other places,” said the Permanent Mission of Israel to the UN.
Tedros wrote on X that many health care workers have reportedly been arrested. Many patients would have had to self-evacuate at great risk to their health and safety as ambulances would not have been able to reach the facility. “Gaza’s health system was already in ruins, and the loss of another even minimally functioning hospital is a major blow,” Tedros wrote. “The attacks on hospitals, medical staff and patients must stop. Ceasefire NOW.”
The news channel Al-Jazeera had previously reported that Israel’s army used a bulldozer to destroy the tents of displaced people in the courtyard of the Kamal Adwan Hospital, killing 20 people. Israel’s army rejected the allegations on Monday. Bodies had already been buried in the area. Contrary to what it claimed, the army “did not bury any civilians alive in the hospital area and is doing everything in its power to prevent civilians from being harmed.” Hamas operates one of its headquarters in the area of the hospital. According to the WHO, only 11 of 36 hospitals in the Gaza Strip are currently partially operational.
The army had previously announced that during its military operation in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli armed forces had uncovered Hamas’ largest tunnel system. The military said on Sunday that the facility was more than four kilometers long, around 50 meters deep and was located near the Erez border crossing between Israel and the sealed-off coastal area. According to media reports, the approximately three meter wide tunnel route ends in Jabalia. The refugee district in the north of the Gaza Strip is considered a Hamas stronghold.
In a statement published on Monday, the Palestinian Islamist organization Hamas wrote of “50 martyrs” as a result of an attack on houses in the settlement of Jabalia. A total of 110 people have been killed in the city since Sunday. The information could not be independently verified.
Meanwhile, the Israeli army said five soldiers were killed on Sunday. Accordingly, the number of soldiers killed in the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the war has risen to 126.
The war between Israel and Hamas has now been going on for ten weeks. Hundreds of fighters from Hamas, which the EU and the USA classify as a terrorist organization, entered Israeli towns on October 7th and committed atrocities against civilians there. According to Israeli figures, around 1,140 people were killed and around 250 people were taken hostage in the Gaza Strip.
In response, the Israeli army has since bombed targets in the Gaza Strip and launched a ground offensive. According to the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health, which cannot be independently verified, around 18,800 people have been killed so far.
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