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Israel defends attack on northern Gaza hospital at UN meeting
Israel’s deputy UN ambassador Jonathan Miller says more than “240 terrorists were apprehended, including 15 who participated in the October 7 massacre” in southern Israel in 2023, justifying its attack on Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza last week.
The hospital’s director, Dr Hussam Abu Safia, was also detained in the raid.
“We suspect him of being a Hamas operative as hundreds of Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists were hiding inside the Kamal Adwan Hospital under his management. He is currently being investigated by Israeli security forces,” Miller said.
The World Health Organization expressed deep concern about Abu Safia, WHO representative Rik Peeperkorn said. “We have lost contact with him since and call for his immediate release.”
More pressure needed on Hamas over alleged activity in Gaza hospitals
Dan Perry, a journalist, author, and former chairman of the Israeli Foreign Press Association, says there should be more evidence provided by Israel’s army about Palestinian fighters allegedly inside Gaza hospitals – the justification it continually uses to attack health centres.
“That said, I can’t simply dismiss them [the allegations] as irrelevant. International law is a bit fuzzy when it comes to what to do when armed terrorists take over medical facilities and are hiding among genuine patients and using it as their main operating base,” Perry told Al Jazeera.
“They [Israel’s army] have supplied some evidence – whether it’s enough or not is in the eye of the beholder. In my perspective, I’d like to see equal maybe greater pressure on Hamas to stop playing these games.”
There have been 136 Israeli attacks on 27 Gaza hospitals in recent months “inflicting significant casualties among doctors, nurses, medics, and other civilians”, according to a UN report released last week.
Any attack on a medical facility is a war crime under international law.
Israeli claims that Hamas operates in Gaza hospitals are ‘lie after lie’
Mansour Shouman, a Palestinian journalist and humanitarian worker, told Al Jazeera he lived with his family at both the al-Shifa and Nasser hospitals during Israel’s war on Gaza.
During this time, he said, “none of us could see any evidence” of Hamas operating in the health facilities.
He described the destruction of hospitals by the Israeli military as part of the “General’s Plan”, a strategy to forcibly empty northern Gaza of its population.
Shouman said the Israeli army understands hospitals are a vital lifeline for civilians as they’re the only places with fuel, electricity and the internet, which means displaced people gather inside.
Israel’s claims of Palestinian fighters taking over health facilities are “lie after lie”, he added.
“These are civilians, these are doctors, nurses and patients. There is no evidence that Hamas, or any other resistance fighters, have taken these hospitals as centres for their command or control.”
Indonesian Hospital out of service amid Israeli attacks: Health Ministry
The Gaza Health Ministry says in a statement released on Telegram the medical facility in the northern Strip “no longer provides any services to patients or the wounded”.
It said the North Gaza governorate has three public hospitals, Kamal Adwan, Beit Hanoon and the Indonesian Hospital, all of which have been taken out of service by Israel’s offensive.
Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya was cleared of patients and staff and it was severely burned by the Israeli army last week.
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