Israeli forces evacuate Kamal Adwan hospital as Gaza’s last major northern facility goes out of service

# Israeli forces evacuate Kamal Adwan hospital as Gaza’s last major northern facility goes out of service

Israeli forces have forcibly evacuated Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza and detained medical staff, according to the Hamas-run health ministry and the World Health Organization. The move leaves the area without its last major hospital, the WHO said.

The BBC report says the hospital director, Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, was among those taken for questioning by the Israel Defense Forces. The IDF accused him of being a Hamas terrorist operative, but did not provide evidence in the packet. Israel said it had carried out an operation against what it described as a Hamas stronghold.

Eid Sabbah, the head of the nursing department, told the BBC that the military ordered evacuation around 7am and gave the hospital about 15 minutes to move patients and staff into the courtyard. He said Israeli troops then entered and removed the remaining patients. The report says 15 critical patients, 50 caregivers and 20 health workers were transferred to the nearby Indonesian Hospital.

The condition of that substitute facility is itself uncertain. Doctors warned the Indonesian Hospital was not equipped for the incoming patients, and Gaza's deputy health minister told the BBC it was closer to a shelter than a hospital. The WHO said it was appalled by the raid and said an urgent mission was being planned to move patients south for medical care.

The operation unfolded amid a tightening blockade on northern Gaza. The UN has said the area has been under near-total siege, with aid deliveries heavily restricted and between 10,000 and 15,000 people believed to remain there. The hospital had repeatedly issued pleas for protection, warning that it was being shelled and hit by explosives.

Israel said the hospital was being used as a command centre by militants, and on Saturday said it had apprehended 240 combatants. It also said weapons had been found and confiscated. Those claims, if true, are part of Israel's broader argument that medical sites have been exploited by armed groups. The packet, however, does not provide independent verification of the assertions.

The stakes are medical as much as military. When the last major hospital in an area stops functioning, the ability to treat wounds, manage chronic illness and stabilise critical patients collapses. That affects not only war casualties but also civilians whose conditions become harder to manage as supplies and staff disappear.

The WHO and Palestinian health authorities are trying to move survivors of the evacuation toward some form of care, but the report suggests options are badly limited. The broader picture is one of a health system under siege, with even the best-known remaining facility in the north now out of service.