# Israeli drone strike at Kamal Adwan Hospital kills 16-year-old boy
*Event date: 2024-12-05*
An Israeli drone strike on the hospital compound in northern Gaza killed a 16-year-old boy in a wheelchair and wounded at least 12 other people, including medical staff, according to Arab News. The report said the strike hit the entrance to the reception and emergency area of Kamal Adwan Hospital, one of the main medical facilities still operating in the north.
The victim was identified as Mahmoud Abu Al-Aish, a patient being taken in a wheelchair to the radiology department when the drone strike hit. Hospital director Dr. Hossam Abu Safiya said the strike deliberately targeted patients and staff at the entrance, and he described the scene in a video posted on social media as “the injured treating the injured.” The quote underlines how quickly ordinary medical care was turned into a trauma scene.
The report also says Abu Safiya himself had been wounded in a previous drone strike on the hospital last month. That detail matters because it shows the facility has already been repeatedly hit during Israel’s military campaign in northern Gaza. Arab News said Kamal Adwan Hospital had been struck multiple times over the previous two months, and that in October Israeli forces raided the hospital, saying militants were sheltering there. Hospital officials denied that claim.
The broader humanitarian context is bleak. The United Nations humanitarian office estimated that up to 75,000 people remain in the northern towns of Beit Hanoun, Beit Lahiya and the Jabaliya refugee camp, while the area has been almost completely sealed off from aid for two months. The World Health Organization was able to reach the hospital on Monday and deliver fuel, blood supplies, essential medical items and food, which shows how fragile the medical supply line has become.
Even with that aid, the hospital remained exposed. The Arab News account makes clear that the strike landed where patients and staff were gathering, not far from the emergency entrance. The injury count of at least 12, including medical workers, means the attack worsened the pressure on a hospital already trying to function under siege-like conditions.
For readers, the main point is simple and serious: a child patient in a wheelchair was killed at a hospital entrance, a dozen more people were wounded and a medical facility serving one of the most isolated parts of Gaza was again turned into the scene of a deadly strike.
