The Israeli military said on Monday that its forces had withdrawn from a hospital in the northern Gaza Strip after a three-day raid during which Palestinian health officials said nearly all of the medical workers at the complex were detained and two children died.
An Israeli military official said that Israeli forces had left the facility, Kamal Adwan Hospital, which is one of the last functioning hospitals in the area, after detaining nearly 100 people who they said were suspected of being militants. Israeli forces had stormed the hospital on Friday after firefights in the surrounding area, as the military continued a weekslong offensive in northern Gaza against Hamas fighters.
There were no major gun battles inside the hospital complex once troops entered, according to the Israeli military official, who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity, citing the sensitivity of the operation.
The Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Monday that Israeli forces had “detained or expelled all the medical staff” at the hospital, and that only one pediatrician remained there. The statement also called on international organizations to send medical teams to the hospital and urged people with surgical skills in Gaza to come to the hospital to save those who could be saved among the wounded and sick.
The Israeli military official added that Israeli troops had dismantled oxygen tanks at the hospital to ensure that they weren’t booby-trapped. “We haven’t damaged the medical infrastructure, but specific findings that we had there we had to dismantle, and that’s the reason we’ve seen damage,” he said.
Last Thursday, a U.N. World Health Organization team that visited the hospital to deliver supplies reported a chaotic scene, with injured people lying on the floors and medical staff overwhelmed. The next morning, the Gaza health ministry said that Israeli forces had stormed the complex and were “detaining hundreds of patients, medical staff and some displaced people,” and the W.H.O.’s director said it had lost contact with staff at the hospital.
Later on Friday, the health ministry said that the situation at the hospital was “alarmingly deteriorating” as Israeli troops searched it and fired shots, causing panic among the roughly 600 people inside. Two children in the intensive care unit died after generators stopped working during the Israeli military operation, the ministry said.
The Israeli military did not comment on the reports that patients had died. It said in a statement on Monday that the hospital had been provided with medical and other supplies, including fuel and blood, and that 88 patients, caregivers and staff members had been relocated to other hospitals in Gaza in recent weeks.
Israeli forces had previously besieged and raided Kamal Adwan Hospital last December and detained its director. This month, the Gaza health ministry said the hospital was one of three that the Israeli military had ordered to evacuate as its forces launched a new offensive targeting what it said was a Hamas resurgence in northern Gaza.
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