Palestinians gather following an Israeli attack on the courtyard of Kamal Adwan Hospital and its surrounding buildings in Beit Lahiya, Gaza, on December 25, 2024 (Photo by Anadolu)
Beit Lahiya, December 27 (RHC)-- Israeli forces have raided Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza on Friday morning, hours after airstrikes on a nearby building killed 53 people, including medical staff.
The military had earlier forced dozens of sick and injured patient to leave Kamal Adwan Hospital. According to reports, nearly 75 patients are in the courtyard of the facility, which has been under sustained attack for weeks.
Early Friday morning, Israeli forces intensified their operations around Kamal Adwan Hospital as tanks, supported by quadcopter machine guns, advanced deeper into the area.
Explosive devices, previously planted near the hospital, were detonated at the northern gate and the back entrance, causing significant damage and igniting fires in several nearby buildings, according to the report.
At approximately 7:15 a.m. (05:15 GMT), Israeli officers used loudspeakers to instruct the hospital director, along with the injured and patients, to evacuate the premises within 15 minutes.
The death toll from Thursday attacks against the premises and a nearby building has increased to 53 with hospital's director, Hussam Abu Safiyyah, saying that five staff members were among the casualties.
Early Friday morning, Israeli airstrikes targeted Gaza City and Rafah, killing at least nine Palestinians, including women and children. Local sources reported that four individuals were killed when Israeli forces bombed a house belonging to the Abu Beid family in the Shujaiya neighborhood, east of Gaza City.
In another attack in the Sedra area of Gaza City, a young girl was killed when her family’s home was struck. In Rafah, a woman succumbed to injuries sustained during an airstrike on her home in the Nassr neighborhood, east of the city.
Additionally, three Palestinians were killed and several others injured when an Israeli airstrike hit a house belonging to the Harara family near the al-Istijaba Mosque in Gaza City’s Sabra neighborhood.
On Thursday, Israel bombed al-Awda hospital, leaving the medical director there and six members of staff injured, according to the director of field hospitals in Gaza.
Earlier in the day, Israel targeted a clearly marked press vehicle just outside the hospital, killing five Palestinian journalists.
The spokesman for Iran’s Foreign Ministry strongly condemned the attack on the journalists’ vehicle as a “war crime.”
