Israel's military detained the director of one of the last functioning hospitals in northern Gaza as overnight attacks in the enclave killed nine people, including children, Palestinian medical officials said, as sirens sounded across Israel.
Gaza's Health Ministry said Saturday that Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, was arrested by Israeli forces. The announcement comes a day after Israeli troops stormed the hospital, forcing many staff and patients to strip naked in the winter weather, according to the ministry.
The Israeli military did not respond to questions about Dr. Abu Safiya. On Friday, he denied accusations that he had entered or set fire to the compound and said he was carrying out operations against Hamas infrastructure and militants in the area and had ordered people to leave the hospital.
He repeated claims that Hamas militants operate inside Kamal Adwan Hospital, but provided no evidence. Hospital officials have denied this.
The Kamal Adwan hospital has been attacked several times in the past three months by Israeli troops waging an offensive against Hamas fighters in the surrounding neighborhoods. The ministry said an attack on the hospital earlier this week killed five medical staff.
Israel's nearly 15-month bombing and offensive campaign has devastated Gaza's healthcare sector. The war has killed more than 45,400 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, and injured more than 108,000 people, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. Its count does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
Dr. Abu Safiya was detained on Friday along with dozens of hospital staff and taken to an interrogation center, the ministry said.
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On Friday, MedGlobal, the humanitarian organization where Dr. Abu Safiya worked, said he was the group's lead doctor and that it was gravely concerned about him. The group said the incident follows the arrest in October of five other members of its staff, calling it an “alarming and egregious pattern of attacking medical staff and spaces.”
Since October, Israel's offensive has virtually closed the areas of Jabaliya, Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza, destroying large parts of them. Tens of thousands of Palestinians were expelled, but thousands are believed to remain in the area where Kamal Adwan and two other hospitals are located.
Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas after the militants' Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel, in which they killed about 1,200 people and kidnapped about 250 more. Around 100 Israelis remain captive in Gaza and around a third are believed to be dead.
On Saturday, Israel continued attacks throughout Gaza. Overnight attack killed at least nine people in Maghazi, including women and children, report says Associated Press reporter who saw the bodies and the staff of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, where they were transferred.
Israel said its troops had also begun operating in the northern city of Beit Hanoun, after receiving intelligence that Hamas fighters and infrastructure were in the area.
Attacks against Israel also continued. Early Saturday morning, air raid sirens once again woke Israelis and the army said it intercepted a missile fired by Yemen's Houthi rebels.
Israeli warplanes again bombed key infrastructure in Yemen on Thursday. The Iran-backed Houthi rebels have also been attacking ships in the Red Sea and say they will not stop until Israel agrees to a ceasefire in Gaza.
