Israeli snipers, explosive robots surround Kamal Adwan, ‘we are dying,’ hospital director tells Mada Masr

Beit Lahia’s Kamal Adwan Hospital, one of the last medical facilities in the increasingly desolate northeastern area of the Gaza Strip, has been under brutal attack by the Israeli military for the last 24 hours, according to Kamal Adwan Hospital Director Hossam Abu Safiya.

Abu Safiya told Mada Masr that the Occupation appears determined to kill everyone inside the hospital.

"Our lives are in grave danger," he said. "We are taking cover in the corridors with the patients. There are around 80 injured individuals and patients, and we cannot provide them with treatment amid all this shelling."

In the past hours, Abu Safiya said, the hospital has faced an all-out assault involving intensified shelling, gunfire from nearby snipers directed at the facility and the deployment of explosive-laden robots around it.

Anyone spotted within the hospital is being targeted, he continued, adding that despite Israeli orders for them to leave the facility, there is no safe way for anyone to leave, as any attempt to exit guarantees death.

"Occupation forces ordered us to evacuate the hospital," he said, "but they are not allowing us to leave, as they target anyone trying to exit. It’s clear they are determined to kill everyone left inside. Around 80 patients are at the risk of death at this moment."

Journalist Muhammad Sharif, who is present in the area, shared an image showing an individual on the ground outside the hospital gates who he said had been killed by Israeli forces, noting that no one had been able to retrieve the body due to the danger from ongoing fire.

Abu Safiya described patients and medical staff avoiding windows that are being targeted continuously. Explosive-loaded robots have been deployed and detonated around the hospital, he said, destroying several departments and scattering debris and shrapnel into the corridors to which patients and staff have withdrawn for cover.

"The shelling is unprecedentedly intense," he said, "and has been ongoing since dawn on Saturday.” The strikes started suddenly and without prior warning, Abu Safiya added, with the initial strikes targeting the intensive care and neonatal departments.

He said that the hospital has also run out of supplies, and that neither staff nor the patients have eaten for days as Israeli forces have imposed a siege on the area, blocking any aid from reaching the hospital. If the shelling and gunfire don’t kill them, he said, they will die from hunger and thirst.

"We are dying before the eyes of the world, and no one is intervening to stop this brutal assault," he said. "We hold the international community responsible for what is happening to us. Doctors and patients are dying every day while the world remains silent and does nothing."

"For over 70 days, we have been calling for help," he added, "but no one has responded. We are dying."

Meanwhile, Gaza’s Health Ministry Director General Mounir al-Barsh also told Mada Masr that the ministry’s appeals to the World Health Organization and UNRWA have gone unanswered.

"It is unacceptable for the world to stand silent while witnessing a massacre inside a hospital," Barsh said. 

Barsh added that "this is deliberate killing. For patients, leaving the hospital now means certain death." 

The Israeli military launched sweeping operations in northern Gaza in October, killing thousands and expelling tens of thousands of Palestinians from their homes in the northeast. 

The Gaza Government Media Office estimated earlier this month that over 3,000 Palestinians had been killed in Israel’s campaign on the north.

The United Nations, meanwhile, estimated that the campaign had displaced around 100,000 Palestinians from their homes in the north east into the already crowded Gaza City further west.