On Friday, 27 December 2024, the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) have launched a ferocious and bloody attack on Kamal ‘Adwan Hospital, a main hospital in north Gaza providing medical services with limited medical and human resources due to the siege and recurrent attacks over a year and two months of aggression. In continuation of the ongoing genocide and blatant disregard for all international norms and laws, IOF have forcibly evacuated the hospital, violently burned its departments, carried out deadly attacks, and used explosive-laden robots to demolish nearby buildings. As a result, dozens of people were killed and injured, including medical staff.
In light of this serious crime, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) condemns the global silence and international double standards regarding Israeli atrocities, which violate the bedrock principles of international humanitarian law. By this global inaction, the international community is deemed complicit in the crime of genocide committed against the Palestinian people, without taking any measures to deter the perpetrators. PCHR asserts that such inaction grants Israel political cover equivalent to that provided by those supplying it with weapons to pursue its goal of depopulating north Gaza. This is achieved not only through relentless bombardment, mass killings, and brutal destruction of residential neighborhoods, starvation, and deprivation of basic life necessities, but also through the systematic destruction of the remaining frail healthcare system. This leaves civilians with no choice but forced displacement or death without access to hospitals or life-saving services.
PCHR is deeply concerned about the unknown fate of medical staff and patients following the Palestinian Ministry of Health1 (MOH) announcement that Dr. Hussam Abu Safia, Director of Kamal ‘Adwan Hospital in north Gaza, had been arrested along with several medical personnel and patients. According to PCHR’s field documentation, on Friday, IOF besieged Kamal ‘Adwan Hospital and intentionally burned all its departments, including medical warehouses. Afterwards, IOF stormed the hospital and detained the hospital administration, members of the medical staff, and critically ill patients, while ordered the transfer of some patients and injured, along with female medical personnel, to the Indonesian Hospital, which lacks basic medical resources and electricity. According to the MOH statement, on Saturday, 28 December 2024, the sick and injured at the hospital endured a harrowing night after being forcibly evacuated to the Indonesian Hospital under hellish humanitarian conditions with no water, electricity, blankets, food, and medical supplies, declaring a death sentence for these patients.
Upon her arrival in Gaza City after being forcibly evacuated along with her colleagues, Shorouq Saleh2, a nurse at Kamal ‘Adwan Hospital, described to the media how that IOF mistreated all patients and their companions. She stated: “We were surprised when the hospital was besieged, and the medical archive department was set on fire at dawn. The IOF called for the hospital director to evacuate the injured who were able to walk, along with their companions. I, alongside some medical personnel, got out with those injured. The soldiers ordered us to walk westwards through destroyed roads and headed to al-Fareed Hall near al-Fakhoura School. They separated the men from the women and took the women in groups. Women who refused to remove their clothing were beaten. The soldiers confiscated cellphones, and whoever refused was beaten. The soldiers searched everyone, even women were ordered to take off their clothing for inspection and made them wait for two hours. Afterward, they directed those who were allowed to leave to take a long and dirt road toward Gaza City. I don’t know anything about the rest of my colleagues who were left behind at the hospital with some patients.”
Hours before the evacuation of the hospital, the IOF bombed a building adjacent to the hospital, killing about 50 people, including three medical staff members, according to statements by the hospital’s director, Dr. Hussam Abu Safia. 3This coincided with the IOF’s detonating several explosive-laden robots around al-‘Awda Hospital in Tel al-Zaa’tar area. As a result, the hospital’s director and six medical personnel sustained minor injuries, in addition to causing severe damage to the hospital’s facilities and departments.
Since Friday, 27 December 2024, IOF have been rejecting attempts by United Nations (UN) teams to access parts of northern Gaza. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs4 stated that since early October 2024, most UN-coordinated attempts to access these areas have been denied. The few exceptions have faced significant impediments, which often prevent teams from accomplishing the work they set out to do.
PCHR affirms that the shutdown of hospitals in northern Gaza after being targeted by the IOF seems to be a death sentence for thousands of the injured and sick and falls under acts criminalized by Article 2 of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, particularly 2(c), which prohibits “deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part”.
In light of the above, PCHR calls on the international community to take urgent action to protect civilians in the Gaza Strip and save them from the threat of genocide that IOF continue to commit against about 2.3 million Palestinians. PCHR also urges to step up to stop Israeli plans aimed at forcibly displacing civilians from their homes, being carried out with no deterrence or any global pressures to stop them. PCHR demands effective measures to compel Israel to stop their targeted attacks on medical facilities immediately and to release the detained medical staff. PCHR also calls on international health organizations, particularly the World Health Organization (WHO), to fulfill their responsibilities and exert pressure to protect hospitals and ensure their continued operation in providing healthcare services in north Gaza, as well as to offer full assistance and support to them.
