IDF: 19 terrorists, no known civilians, killed in Gaza hospital raid; Hamas said 50 dead
Israel says 240 suspects arrested at Kamal Adwan — including its director and 15 participants in Oct. 7 onslaught; 700 civilians evacuated; IDF nears end of Jabalia operation
Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian is The Times of Israel's military correspondent
The Israel Defense Forces said Sunday that a military raid, completed Saturday, on Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza had killed 19 terror operatives, without any known civilian casualties, after Hamas-run health authorities previously claimed — and some international media reported — that 50 people had been killed, including hospital staff.
While providing new details on Sunday about the operation, army sources indicated that, with the raid complete, the IDF was close to wrapping up its operations in northern Gaza’s Jabalia area.
Kamal Adwan Hospital was described by the IDF as “Hamas’s last bastion in Jabalia,” after hundreds of terror operatives allegedly used the medical facility as a shelter from Israeli strikes.
According to the military, the terror operatives returned to Kamal Adwan after the IDF last operated in the medical center in late October.
The IDF said that, of 940 Palestinians who passed through an army checkpoint outside the hospital, 240 were detained for being alleged members of terror groups. In all, some 600 civilians and another 95 patients, caregivers, and medical personnel were evacuated from Kamal Adwan.
Of the 240 terror operatives, the IDF said that at least 15 participated in the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, which started the ongoing war. Several others are considered to be prominent commanders in the Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror groups, the military said.
Several operatives who carried out a deadly attack on troops in Jabalia earlier this month were also nabbed, the IDF added.
The IDF said some of the terror operatives posed as medical staff and patients, and some tried to leave on stretchers and in ambulances. Of a first group of 21 patients leaving the hospital, the military said that 13 turned out to be suspected terror operatives.
The director of the hospital, Hussam Abu Safiya, was also detained. The IDF said he is suspected of being a Hamas operative.
The IDF said that the Kamal Radwan raid marked one of the largest single arrest operations in Gaza since the beginning of the war.
The IDF has been operating in the Jabalia area since early October, facing relatively fierce resistance by remaining Hamas cells there, military sources said.
Over the last few weeks, the IDF operated in areas near Kamal Adwan, as part of efforts to clear routes to enable the raid on the hospital over the weekend. Numerous explosive devices were neutralized in the area surrounding the hospital, the IDF said.
Before launching the operation, the IDF said it enabled the evacuation of 350 patients, caregivers, and medical personnel to other hospitals, in an effort coordinated by the Defense Ministry’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT).
Palestinians evacuate from northern Gaza’s Kamal Adwan Hospital, in a video issued by the military on December 29, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)
The IDF said its 401st Armored Brigade approached the hospital from two directions on Friday morning, surrounding it within an hour. The soldiers also neutralized a large explosive device planted on a road leading to the medical center, according to the military.
At the same time, two Hamas cells attempted to flee from the hospital, and they were killed in drone strikes, the IDF said.
Within another hour, civilians sheltering at the medical center, along with patients, began to evacuate, following calls by the IDF to leave. As part of the evacuation, they passed through a military checkpoint, at which point those suspected of being terror operatives were taken into custody.
Meanwhile, the patients, caregivers, and medical personnel were taken to the nearby Indonesian Hospital, where the IDF delivered fuel, generators, and other medical equipment from Kamal Adwan.
After the hospital was cleared of all Palestinians, members of the Navy’s Shayetet 13 commando unit carried out “precise activities” inside the hospital, during which they located and captured weapons, including grenades, handguns, ammunition, and other military equipment, according to the IDF.
The IDF acknowledged that only a few weapons were found in the hospital itself, but said that numerous weapons were located and seized in apartments surrounding Kamal Adwan, which were used by Hamas as fighting positions, some of which were boobytrapped.
During the operation, three operatives launched RPGs at an armored personnel carrier from an area near the hospital, the IDF said. There were no injuries among the Israeli forces, and the operatives behind the attack were killed, according to the military.
The IDF said it did not fire directly at the hospital, did not target any medical staff, and was unaware of civilian casualties in the operation.
Kamal Adwan Hospital is now out of service after its staff, patients, and equipment — including generators and critical medical equipment — were transferred to the Indonesian Hospital, also located in Jabalia.
Before the evacuation, the IDF also operated at the Indonesian Hospital to ensure that no terror operatives were holed up there, military sources said.
The IDF said it has no plans to demolish Kamal Adwan following the raid there. A military source said troops would remain in the area of Kamal Adwan to “closely monitor” the hospital to ensure it does not return to serve as a base for terrorists.
Military sources said that there are still other operations to carry out in Jabalia against remaining Hamas cells, but, in general, the IDF is close to completing its mission there, following the hospital raid.
Israel has been at war against Hamas in Gaza — and other Iranian-backed forces that have joined the war — since October 7, 2023, when some 3,000 Hamas-led terrorists invaded Israel from the enclave, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 251 hostages.
Hamas has fought from within hospitals throughout the war and periodically hid some of the Israeli hostages kidnapped on October 7 inside them. International law generally prohibits targeting hospitals during wartime, but hospitals can lose this protection if used for military purposes.
Since October of this year, Israel has intensified its land and air offensive in northern Gaza, stating that its goal is to prevent Hamas from regrouping in the area.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
