CNN
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Israeli forces arrested a hospital director and dozens of staff after raiding the last major functioning health facility in northern Gaza, the ministry of health in the territory says.
The World Health Organization said the raid on Kamal Adwan – which has come under Israeli assault for months – put the facility out of service, warning on Friday that some patients , including those on ventilators, remained inside.
The whereabouts of Kamal Adwan’s director, Dr. Abu Safiya, and other staff are unclear, friends and colleagues say. Eyewitnesses told CNN that Dr. Safiya was assaulted before being detained on Friday.
On Friday, Dr. Safiya said in a post on social media that Israeli forces were besieging the facility, “and issuing orders for its evacuation.” Multiple nurses have said staff and patients were then ordered to leave the hospital and gather outside.
Once outside, staff and patients were separated by gender and both men and women were told to remove their clothes, two nurses told CNN. “Those who refused to remove their clothing were beaten,” Shorouq Saleh Al-Rantisi, a nurse working in the laboratory, said on Friday.
After hours of being held, they were forced to move to the nearby Indonesian Hospital, the staff said, a facility the WHO has described as “destroyed and nonfunctional.”
Another nurse told CNN on Friday that Israeli forces interrogated staff “one by one” inside a truck outside the hospital.
“All the young men who were at the hospital have been arrested, including my husband,” she told CNN.
The Israel Defense Forces said earlier that it had begun “targeted operations” around the hospital based on intelligence “regarding the presence of terrorist infrastructure and operatives” there, but did not offer any proof of the claim.
The IDF said it had helped evacuate staff and patients ahead of the operation. CNN reached out again on Friday to the Israeli military asking for comment on allegations that men and women were forced to strip.
Several staff also reported a large fire breaking out. A nurse from the hospital, Rawiya Al Batsh, told CNN that the blaze broke out in the hospital after Israeli strikes on the building, with staff forced to use water from a kidney dialysis machine to fight the flames.
“Unfortunately, this water was mixed with chlorine and other substances, resulting in burns on their hands and faces,” Al Batsh said, adding one patient died in the fire.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) told CNN that “there was a small fire in an empty building inside the hospital that is under control,” adding that it is “unaware” of allegations that the fire was caused by IDF gunfire. It added that its troops “are operating in the area of the hospital and not inside of it.”
An audio message from staff at Kamal Adwan said that surgical departments, laboratory, maintenance, and emergency units have been completely burned.
The WHO has previously said that Israeli authorities have repeatedly denied humanitarian access to Kamal Adwan Hospital and just this week said that a request to deploy international emergency medical teams was denied by Israeli authorities, “despite the need for immediate surgical interventions for injured patients.”
Some patients were taken to Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. CNN footage shows patients who had arrived from Kamal Adwan Hospital, including women, children and those with special needs.
In the video, a man with special needs is trying to explain what happened to him, making signs of gunfire and gestures indicating that he has been beaten on his arms and face. He arrived alone and his bare feet are covered in dust.
The patient’s name is Khaled Hazzaa, according to another man stood nearby who says he is Hazzaa’s nephew. The man says they had not seen each other for 82 days until Al Shifa Hospital called him. Hazzaa was being treated at Kamal Adwan Hospital, the man says.
Another woman CNN spoke to at Al Shifa Hospital said she arrived at Kamal Adwan hospital for treatment two days ago after her house was hit in an Israeli strike and her son was killed. During the raid on Friday, Fatmeh Al Najjar also said that men and women were interrogated and then soldiers “took us in military vehicles and left us at Abu Sharekh roundabout. From there, they told us to walk south.”
Khader Al Za’anoun of Wafa, the official Palestinian news agency, contributed to this report.