Dozens evacuate from Gaza’s Kamal Adwan Hospital following strikes
Dozens of Palestinians evacuated northern Gaza’s Kamal Adwan Hospital on May 21st following a resurgence of Israeli airstrikes that have persisted since December, the New Arab reported.
Israel’s war on Gaza has provoked the forced departure of countless Palestinians. On May 15th, Amnesty International declared the country’s being responsible for the evacuation of nearly two million civilians an “appalling record” of displacement.
Though some families have chosen to remain in their places of residence before ultimately being forced to move from one site to another, such as Hadia Al-Attar’s family, who have moved countless times within the Jabalia camp. The family has lost more than 15 relatives to airstrikes and around 25 are missing.
“With every displacement, I lose a brother, relative or a friend,” said Hattia. “I am no longer willing to bear another loss […] I have not struggled with my family throughout this period for us to die so easily.” She recalled helping her brother move their elderly mother onto a medical bed to escape from inside Kamal Adwan Hospital.
Kamal Adwan was established in 2002, becoming the second largest hospital in the northern Gaza Strip. The region’s largest — the Indonesian Hospital — shut down in November, leaving only Kamal Adwan and Al Awda hospitals.
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Israel has targeted multiple hospitals in Gaza, claiming that they act as Hamas strongholds. Prior to October 7th, the World Health Organization reported that there were 36 hospitals in the region. Now, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus revealed that there are just 10 “minimally functioning.”
On December 12th, an Israeli occupation of the hospital left patients executed, displaced, and arrested. Kamal Adwarn once had 334 members of the medical staff — including doctors, pharmacists, nurses, technicians and administrators. It provided assistance to Jabalia, Beit Lahia and Beit Hanoun.
A significant portion of the hospital’s patients and medical personnel decided to evacuate Kamal Adwan after the recent attacks, for fear of Israel committing “more massacres against those present there, similar to the Al-Shifa and Nasser hospitals.”
An elderly Palestinian woman, Om Mohammed, recalled that “there were Israeli snipers everywhere” during May 21st’s attack. “We were afraid that we would be killed and our bodies would be left to decompose in the streets as happened to many residents here months ago,” she said.
Kamal Adwan’s director, Hussam Abu Safeia, was himself displaced. “We decided to evacuate the hospital after three people were injured on Tuesday evening in front of the hospital departments,” he said. “We do not want what happened in the hospital last December to be repeated or for the Israeli occupation to commit more massacres here.”
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“We tried to stay as long as possible and provide our medical services to patients in the northern Gaza Strip,” he added, “but we will not allow the occupation the opportunity to kill more and more medical staff, patients, and even the displaced.”
Though Abu Safeia suspects that dozens of patients and medical staff are still stuck in Kamal Adwan — having to remain behind because of particularly severe medical conditions. The WHO is currently working to secure their exits.
“If the World Health Organization did not succeed in evacuating the patients, this means that they have been condemned to death,” said Abu Safeia.
Deputy medical coordinator of the international organisation in Gaza, Mohammed Abu Mughasib, stressed “if the Rafah border crossing does not open soon, there will be a major disruption.” “It will affect the medical activities that we carry out in the Gaza Strip,” he said. “This applies to all actors, not just Doctors without Borders.”
“What does Israel want from us?” asked Hattia. “What does the world want from us? Do they want to exterminate us and get rid of our existence? Why all this hatred against the Palestinians in Gaza? And why all this shameful silence of the Arabs and the world?”
The New Arab
