| Conflict: | Kamal Adwan Hospital siege |
| Partof: | the Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip |
| Place: | Kamal Adwan Hospital, Beit Lahia |
| Status: | nonoperational |
During the Israel–Hamas war, the Kamal Adwan Hospital, a hospital in the Gaza Strip, Palestine, was besieged by the Israel Defense Forces.
The Kamal Adwan Hospital was a site of conflict during the 2023 Israel–Hamas war following the Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip. Israel's targeting of Kamal Adwan came amidst a broader Israeli targeting of health facilities in the Gaza Strip. On 3 December, the IDF struck in the vicinity of Kamal Adwan hospital, killing at least four people according to Al-Jazeera.[1] On 11 December, the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital stated Israel had killed two mothers and their newborn babies when Israel targeted its maternity ward.[2] According to UN News, the "maternity department was reportedly hit during shelling and two mothers were killed".[3] As of August 2024, the Kamal Adwan Hospital houses the only functioning neo-natal ICU left in Gaza[4]
On 12 December, Israel raided the Kamal Adwan Hospital.[5] [6] The head of pediatrics stated the IDF had ordered all men and boys above age sixteen to leave the hospital to be searched.[7] 70 medical staffers were arrested and taken to an unknown location.[8] The head of the World Health Organization, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, stated he was "extremely worried" about the situation at Kamal Adwan.[9]
The IDF released a video claiming that it showed alleged terrorists near Kamal Adwan reportedly surrendering their weapons.[10] These claims were quickly challenged by family members who identified their non-combatant relatives.[11]
On 14 December, the Gaza Health Ministry reported that 2,500 internally displaced persons had been forcibly evacuated, and that IDF soldiers had prevented medical staff from continuing support to 12 babies in intensive care and ten emergency department patients, leading to two deaths.[12] Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stated patients had evacuated Kamal Adwan hospital, resulting in the deaths of patients, including a nine-year-old.[13]
On 16 December, Israeli bulldozers crushed people sheltering outside the hospital.[14] One reporter described "a terrifying massacre and unspeakable scenes" and stating, "Dozens of displaced, sick and wounded people were buried alive".[15] A man stated his 25-year-old son had been buried alive by IDF bulldozers at Kamal Adwan and in the same report the IDF was accused of necroviolence by running over corpses with a bulldozer.[16] Director general of the Gaza Health Ministry, Munir al-Bursh, claims to have been shot at by Israeli forces while giving a press conference in front of the hospital, and that Israeli forces arrested 70 medical professionals.[17]
Israel claims that the hospital was used to shelter terrorists, arguing that this invalidated the protection provided by the Geneva Conventions.[18] Israel claims to have arrested 80 Hamas operatives in the base and had found weapons in the location. Staff reported the Israeli troops shooting at doctors and setting dogs to maul handicapped patients.[19]
The hospital's director, Ahmed Kahlout, was arrested following the IDF's takeover of the hospital. Following an interrogation by the Israel Defense Forces, the Israeli military reported that he had confessed that the hospital was being used as a military operations center. He is reported to have said that he joined Hamas in 2010 at the equivalent rank of a brigadier general and that many hospital staff members, including doctors, nurses, paramedics, and others, also served as members of Hamas's al-Qassam brigades. According to Kahlout, Hamas concealed weapons within the hospital and integrated its operations into its functions.[20] [21] [22] [23]
The Gaza Health Ministry said that "Kahlot’s confessions were extracted under the use of force, coercion, torture and intimidation."[24] The Ministry of Health said that Kahlout works for the Military Medical Services, a branch of the Ministry of the Interior and that the rank of brigadier general was part of the ranking system used by the Interior Ministry.[25]
In May 2024, Israel bombed the vicinity of the hospital, which the World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stated on 19 May was "deeply worrisome".[26] Adhanom Ghebreyesus stated on 21 May that the hospital had been attacked four times in the prior twenty four hours.[27] The same day, the hospital was evacuated, though patients connected to machines were unable to be evacuated.[28] Medics stated on 22 May that missiles hit the hospital's emergency department.[29] On 24 May, Israeli forces massed outside the hospital entrance, leading the hospital's head of nursing to state, "It is considered practically, because it is besieged, not operational".[30] The hospital was hit twice by artillery.[31] On 25 May, the head of pediatrics stated Israeli forces were still surrounding the hospital.[32] Upon Israel's withdrawal from the Jabalia refugee camp, Gaza’s Hamas-run civil defense agency stated that the Israeli military had destroyed the hospital's main electrical generators.[33] [34] [35] In August 2024, officials at Kamal Adwan Hospital warned that the hospital was at risk of closure due to lack of fuel and medicine, putting 11 children at risk of death.
Palestinian health minister Mai al-Kaila called for a probe into Israeli actions at Kamal Adwan.[36] The Council on American–Islamic Relations called for a United Nations international probe.[37] Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stated WHO was appalled at the hospital's "effective destruction".[38] The United Nations called for an investigation.[39]