During offensive, IDF transfers patients from north Gaza hospital to safer areas
17 patients, carers transferred from Kamal Adwan Hospital where IDF says Hamas active; hospital chief said hurt in air strike; military instructs residents of Shejaiya to evacuate
The Israel Defense Forces said Sunday that it had transferred over a dozen patients and caregivers from a northern Gaza Strip hospital as part of a campaign that has seen hundreds moved from the perilous area of the Palestinian enclave to safer regions.
It came as Hamas-linked authorities said the hospital director was seriously injured in a drone strike on his medical facility, and the military issued new evacuation orders to residents in areas of an eastern Gaza City suburb from where rockets were fired at Israel on Saturday.
The IDF said it transferred 17 patients and their caregivers from the Kamal Adwan Hospital to other medical centers in Gaza on Saturday.
Kamal Adwan is one of three hospitals in north Gaza that are reported to be barely operational, due to a shortage of emergency medical, food, and fuel supplies amid a widescale IDF operation in northern Gaza aimed at stopping Hamas from regrouping in the area.
“In accordance with the directive of the political echelon, the IDF, through COGAT’s Coordination and Liaison Administration for Gaza (CLA), continues to act in accordance with international law to facilitate and support humanitarian responses for Gaza residents, particularly in the medical field,” the IDF said in a joint statement with COGAT, which coordinates operations with the Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
The patients and carers were moved using two ambulances, the statement said.
The move was made as part of a drive “to protect residents along humanitarian evacuation routes and operational medical centers in the Gaza Strip,” the IDF said.
Over the past few weeks, 323 patients, caregivers, and medical staff have been transferred from hospitals in the northern Gaza Strip, it said.
In addition, Israel supplied the Kamal Adwan Hospital with 60,000 liters of fuel, 230 crates of medical supplies and medication, 180 blood units, and eight trucks of food and water in recent weeks, the statement noted.
Hamas health officials said Sunday an Israeli drone carried out a strike on Kamal Adwan Hospital, injuring its director Hussam Abu Safiya.
“This will not stop us from completing our humanitarian mission and we will continue to do this job at any cost,” Abu Safiya said in a video statement circulated by the health ministry on Sunday.
“We are being targeted daily. They targeted me a while ago but this will not deter us…” he said from his hospital bed.
Hospital staff have reported several strikes at the facility, while the World Health Organization chief said he was “deeply concerned about the safety and well-being of 80 patients, including eight in the intensive care unit” at Kamal Adwan Hospital.
Israel says Hamas has repeatedly used civilian areas like hospitals and schools as bases for their terror activities.
Meanwhile, new evacuation orders for the Shejaiya suburb of Gaza City posted by the Israeli army spokesperson on X on Saturday night were blamed on Palestinian terrorists firing rockets from that heavily built-up district in the north of the Gaza Strip.
“For your safety, you must evacuate immediately to the south,” the military’s post said. The rocket volley on Saturday was claimed by Hamas’ armed wing, which said it had targeted an Israeli army base over the border.
Earlier Saturday the IDF said it intercepted two rockets that were launched from the southern Gaza Strip at Israeli border communities. There were no reports of injuries.
Footage circulated on social and Palestinian media showed residents leaving Shejaiya on donkey carts and rickshaws, with others, including children carrying backpacks, walking.
Families living in the areas began leaving their homes after nightfall on Saturday and into Sunday’s early hours, residents and Palestinian media said — the latest in multiple waves of evacuations since the war began on October 7, 2023, when Palestinian terror group Hamas led a massive cross-border attack on southern Israel that killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, while 251 where taken as hostages to Gaza.
The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said Sunday that at least 44,211 people have been killed in more than 13 months of war, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says it has killed some 18,000 combatants in battle as of November and another 1,000 terrorists inside Israel on October 7.
Israel has said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas including homes, hospitals, schools, and mosques.
Vowing to stop Hamas from regrouping, Israel on October 6 began an air and ground operation in Jabalia and then expanded it to Beit Lahia.
Adding to the miseries of Gaza’s 2.3 million people, most of whom have been repeatedly displaced, heavy winter rain flooded hundreds of tents across the enclave, spoiling food and sweeping away plastic and cloth sheeting that had protected them against the elements.
The Palestinian Civil Emergency Service said thousands of displaced people were impacted by the seasonal flooding and demanded new tents and caravans from aid donors to shield them.
