• Red Cross says healthcare in Palestinian enclave ‘obliterated’
• 27 killed in 24 hours; five more Palestinians die in Israeli detention

GENEVA: The WHO chief called on Monday for the immediate release of Hossam Abu Safiyeh, director of Gaza’s Kamal Adwan Hospital, who is being held by Israel’s military following a major raid on the facility.

The Friday-Saturday assault on Kamal Adwan in Beit Lahia left northern Gaza’s last major health facility out of service and emptied of patients, the World Health Organisation said.

“Hospitals in Gaza have once again become battlegrounds and the health system is under severe threat,” WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X. “Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza is out of service following the raid, forced patient and staff evacuation and the detention of its director. His whereabouts are unknown. We call for his immediate release.”

Israel’s military said on Sunday that its forces had killed approximately 20 Palestinians and apprehended 240 in the raid, calling it one of its “largest operations” conducted in the territory.

The military also said forces had detained Abu Safiyeh, suspecting him of being a Hamas fighter. When asked if he had been transferred to Israeli territory for further questioning, the military did not offer an immediate comment.

Tedros said the patients in critical condition at Kamal Adwan had been moved to the Indonesian Hospital, “which is itself out of function”.

“Amid ongoing chaos in northern Gaza, WHO and partners today delivered basic medical and hygiene supplies, food and water to Indonesian Hospital and transferred 10 critical patients to Al-Shifa Hospital,” he said.

“We urge Israel to ensure their health care needs and rights are upheld.”

He said seven patients along with 15 caregivers and health workers remained at the “severely damaged” Indonesian Hospital, “which has no ability to provide care”.

“Al-Ahli Hospital and Al-Wafa Rehabilitation Hospital in Gaza City also faced attacks today and both are damaged,” Tedros added.

“We repeat: stop attacks on hospitals. People in Gaza need access to health care. Humanitarians need access to provide health aid.”

‘Obliterated’

The International Committee of the Red Cross said on Monday the healthcare system in northern Gaza had been “obliterated” by fighting in the conflict, with hospitals rendered “completely inoperable”.

“Repeated hostilities in and around hospitals have obliterated the healthcare system in northern Gaza, putting civilians at an unacceptably grave risk of going without lifesaving care,” the ICRC said in a statement.

It called for the respect and protection of medical facilities in line with international humanitarian law.

“This protection is a legal obligation and a moral imperative to preserve human life,” it added, saying hospitals were a lifeline for those sick or wounded in conflict.

The Al-Awda Hospital, previously supported by the ICRC with supplies, was now absorbing more pressure as one of the few functioning medical facilities in northern Gaza, the Geneva-based organisation said.

The ICRC said it remained committed to supporting healthcare services wherever possible, including doing what it could to ensure the protection of medical responders and civilian access to health care, as well as facilitating movements of medical personnel and equipment.

Detainees dead

The health ministry in Gaza said on Monday that 27 people were killed in the Palestinian territory in the past 24 hours, taking the overall death toll of the war to 45,541. The ministry also said in a statement that at least 108,338 people had been wounded in more than 14 months of conflict.

Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority’s ministry for detainees and the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club announced on Monday that they had received reports of the deaths of five Gazans in Israeli detention.

Amani Sarahna, a spokesperson for the Prisoners’ Club, confirmed to AFP that two of the five died on Sunday, while the remaining three died earlier.

According to the two organisations, 54 Palestinian detainees have died in Israeli prisons since the start of the war in Gaza.

Published in Dawn, December 31st, 2024