Occupation forces arrest at least 70 members of staff at south Gaza’s largest hospital

At least 70 members of medical staff at south Gaza’s largest hospital were arrested on Saturday by the Occupation forces, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qidra. 

Israel’s military said Saturday that it arrested around 100 people from the Nasser Medical Complex who were “suspected of terrorist activity.”

It claimed last week to have intelligence information that confirmed Hamas was holding Israeli prisoners in the hospital and that the bodies of dead prisoners were “possibly” held inside the hospital as well. 

The Israeli military forcibly evacuated at least 4,000 people from the hospital, many of whom were already displaced from their homes and taking shelter in the hospital amid Israel’s aggression on Gaza. 

It also displaced medical staff and patients who were forced to evacuate the hospital and flee to Rafah.

So far it has claimed to have found weapons in the medical complex and “medications with the names of Israeli hostages inside the hospital,” according to a Saturday report that was circulated by Israeli media.

Meanwhile, many of the medical staff are currently being held captive with their hands tied inside the hospital’s maternity ward where they are physically assaulted and stripped of their clothes, said Qidra on Sunday. 

Bedridden patients in need of urgent care were taken to an undisclosed location, he continued, and eight intensive care patients died due to the three-day electricity outage which cut off their oxygen supply.

Patients were initially confined into a single building at the complex after a three week offensive in which the Occupation surrounded, besieged and finally stormed the facility last week. 

The hospital no longer has access to clean water due to the electricity outage, the ministry’s statement also said. 

Israel’s military described the assault as a “precise and limited operation” targeting “the Hamas terrorist organization.” 

Since invading the hospital on Thursday, the Occupation said it has killed at least 35 individuals who it described as “terrorists.”