Israeli forces have detained the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, situated in the northern Gaza Strip, as tensions grip the area. Gaza health authorities say the WHO affirmed the facility could not function after an Israeli attack. The health ministry in Gaza under Hamas control has claimed that Israeli forces have taken many medical personnel, including the director of the hospital, Dr Hossam Abu Safiyeh’ to an interrogation center.
Further, the Gaza Civil Defense Agency said Dr. Abu Safiyeh had been kidnapped along with Ahmed Hassan al-Kahlout, the northern director of the agency. “This occupation has dismantled the medical, humanitarian, and civil defense infrastructures in the north,” said Mahmud Bassal, the agency’s spokesperson, in a statement to a news agency.
On Friday, the Israeli military stated that it had begun an operation close to Kamal Adwan Hospital, claiming that the building was serving as a ‘terrorist base.’ However, the Palestinian militant group of Hamas dismissed the accusations, claiming that their personnel did not take part in the hospital. They accused the Israeli forces of having forcibly raided the compound.
The World Health Organization even stated concern and said that the military operation has indeed caused interruptions to the hospital operations, which served as a need of the population of the northern Gaza Strip. This is not an isolated incident but a part of the large and tragic tendency in the Gaza Strip, as both medical and civil servants there are working under significant pressure as a result of continuing conflict.
This prompted humanitarian organizations to request urgent actions that guarantee the security of health structures and workers despite the arrangements that international law dictates the protection of healthcare in warfare. It reveals the increasing difficulty of the civilian population in Gaza to receive adequate health and humanitarian assistance.
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