Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
Israel’s army arrested the director of one of the last functioning hospitals in northern Gaza as overnight strikes in the enclave killed nine people, including children, Palestinian medical officials said, as sirens rang out across Israel.
The Ministry of Health of Gaza said on Saturday that Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, was arrested by Israeli forces. The announcement comes a day after Israeli forces stormed the hospital, forcing many staff and patients to strip outside in winter weather, according to the ministry.
Israel’s military did not respond to questions about Dr. Abu Safiya. On Friday, it denied claims that it had entered or set fire to the compound and said it was conducting operations against Hamas infrastructure and militants in the area and had ordered people out of the hospital.
It repeated claims that Hamas militants were operating at the Kamal Adwan Hospital, but provided no evidence. Hospital officials have denied that.
Kamal Adwan Hospital has been hit multiple times over the past three months by Israeli forces conducting an offensive against Hamas fighters in surrounding neighborhoods. The ministry said a strike at the hospital earlier this week killed five medical staff.
Israel’s nearly 15-month-old campaign of bombing and offensives has devastated Gaza’s health sector. The war has killed more than 45,400 Palestinians, more than half women and children, and injured more than 108,000 others, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health. The count does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
Dr. Abu Safiya was arrested with dozens of other hospital employees on Friday and taken to an interrogation center, the ministry said.
Get daily National news
Get the day’s top news, political, economic and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.
On Friday, MedGlobal, the humanitarian organization where Dr Abu Safiya worked, said he was a leading doctor for the group and was seriously concerned about him. The group said the incident follows the October detention of five other of its staff, calling it an “alarming and appalling pattern of targeting medical staff and spaces.”
Since October, Israel’s offensive has virtually sealed off the northern Gaza areas of Jabaliya, Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya and leveled large parts of it. Tens of thousands of Palestinians were forced out, but thousands are believed to remain in the area where Kamal Adwan and two other hospitals are located.
Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas after the October 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel, in which they killed around 1,200 people and kidnapped around 250 others. About 100 Israelis remain imprisoned in Gaza, about a third believed to be dead.
On Saturday, Israel continued its attacks on Gaza. An overnight strike killed at least nine people in Maghazi, including women and children, according to a Associated Press reporter who saw the bodies and staff at Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital where they were taken.
Israel said its forces also began operating in the northern town of Beit Hanoun, following intelligence that fighters and Hamas infrastructure were in the area.
The strikes also continued in Israel. Early Saturday morning, air raid sirens woke the Israelis again and the military said it intercepted a missile fired by Yemen’s Houthi rebels.
Israeli warplanes again bombed key infrastructure in Yemen on Thursday. The Iran-backed Houthi rebels have also attacked shipping in the Red Sea and say they will not stop until Israel agrees to a ceasefire in Gaza.
& copy 2024 The Canadian Press
