After several hours of communication outages, the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza told CNN that Israeli troops were still on the ground and described the situation as “really scary.”
In an interview with CNN shortly after 3pm ET on Friday, the hospital’s director, Dr. Hassam Abu Safiyah, said Israeli troops were still present at the hospital and said that “heavy shelling” of the building had “broken glass everywhere.” “It shattered into pieces and the door broke,” he said in detail. ”
“We all gathered in one place, and the military called me. When I came down, they put me in a tank and started interrogating me about my statements and my contacts with the media. ” said Abu Safiyah.
Abu Safiyah said Israeli forces are now “searching all rooms, evacuating the displaced people and removing 44 personnel.”
The Gaza Ministry of Health said at least 600 staff, patients and family members were currently hospitalized and said the situation was “deteriorating” at an alarming rate.
He said the Israeli military had cut off the hospital’s electricity and solar power supplies and prevented staff from accessing the well.
Abu Safiyah said Israeli forces blew up the hospital’s oxygen supply, killing two children who were on ventilators.
He said children living in the nursery school also had to be urgently transferred to the ICU area because Israeli forces opened fire on the facility. Three nursing staff at the hospital sustained injuries to the face, neck and chest from sniper fire. A cleaner was also shot in the face.
“The situation is extremely tragic and frightening, and the bombing continues,” Abu Safiyah said.
In an earlier statement on Friday, the Israeli military said it was operating in the area of Kamal Adwan Hospital “based on intelligence information regarding the presence of terrorists and terrorist infrastructure.” The military claimed to have helped evacuate patients to the area several weeks ago.
COGAT, the Israeli agency that manages the flow of aid to the Strip, announced on Friday that several patients and their attendants had been evacuated from the facility with assistance from the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund and the World Health Organization. Hospitals were also provided with fuel, blood units and medical equipment.
But WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on the X program that the hospital had about 200 patients and hundreds more seeking shelter.
