WHO denounces 'destruction' of Kamal Adwan Hospital
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The head of the World Health Organization denounced the "destruction" of the Kamal Adwan Hospital after the IOF raided it, committing a massacre.
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Israeli forces bulldozed parts of Kamal Adwan Hospital, burying alive and killing Palestinians. (AP)
On Sunday, the Director-General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, condemned in a post on X, the destruction of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza.
He reported that at least eight patients, including a 9-year-old child, had tragically lost their lives.
.@WHO is appalled by the effective destruction of Kamal Adwan hospital in northern #Gaza over the last several days, rendering it non-functional and resulting in the death of at least 8 patients.
— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) December 17, 2023
Many health workers were reportedly detained, and WHO and partners are urgently…
Tedros said: "We learned that many patients had to self-evacuate at great risk to their health and safety, with ambulances unable to reach the facility," adding "We are extremely concerned for the well-being of the internally displaced people who are reportedly sheltering in the hospital building."
It is worth emphasizing that Al Mayadeen's correspondent in Gaza reports that the occupation forces callously buried numerous displaced and wounded individuals alive in the courtyards of Kamal Adwan Hospital, crushing their tents with bulldozers.
This comes after an earlier statement by the WHO on Sunday, describing the emergency department at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza as a "bloodbath" as "Israel's" war strategy hits hospitals and medical complexes.
Members from the WHO and UN agencies were able to deliver limited medical supplies to the hospital on Saturday, but highlighted the "severe shortage of food and water" on its grounds, as thousands of displaced Palestinians sought shelter in it.
"The team described the emergency department as a 'bloodbath', with hundreds of injured patients inside, and new patients arriving every minute," the WHO said, adding that "patients with trauma injuries were being sutured on the floor... (and) no pain management is available".
Kamal Adwan Hospital massacre
Earlier on Friday, the Ministry of Health in Gaza reported that the occupation destroyed the electrical generators belonging to Kamal Adwan Hospital, rendering its capacity for operation largely restricted.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health said that the Israeli occupation arrested five wounded Palestinians being attended to at the hospital this morning, adding that the occupation controls the volume, quality, and destination of medical aid being brought into the Gaza Strip, including its hospitals.
The spokesperson for the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza, Ashraf al-Qudra, reported that on December 14, Israeli occupation forces raided Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip, one of the largest medical facilities in the Strip.
Al-Qudra mentioned that the occupation forces obstructed medical teams from delivering healthcare to ten injured individuals in the emergency department, resulting in the unfortunate death of two of the wounded.
He further added that the occupation forces compelled medical teams to gather the wounded and care for children exclusively on the hospital's second floor while restricting access to water, food, electricity, and movement between departments.
Al-Qudra also explained that the occupation detained over 70 medical staff and wounded, including the hospital's director, Dr. Ahmad al-Kahlot. Additionally, he mentioned that the occupation forces evacuated approximately 2,500 displaced people from inside the hospital to shelter centers, all under the threat of bombardment.
Read next: IOF take head of Kamal Adwan Hospital, 70 staff to unknown location
Furthermore, he highlighted that the occupation deprived 12 children in intensive care of milk, attributing the loss of their lives to the interruption of electricity and the cutting off of their life support equipment.
Earlier this week, the World Health Organization representative in the occupied Palestinian territory, Richard Peeperkorn, reported on December 12 that more than two-thirds of the 36 hospitals and over 70% of primary healthcare facilities in Gaza are currently non-operational.
"In just 66 days, the health system has gone from 36 functional hospitals to 11 partially functional hospitals — one in the north and 10 in the south … Besides that, just 29% of primary healthcare facilities are functional," Peeperkorn told a UN briefing in Geneva.
