A health official describes gunfire and artillery shells outside Kamal Adwan Hospital, where hundreds were trapped inside.
A senior Health Ministry official told Al Jazeera that terrified civilians are trapped inside Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza while Israeli forces surround the medical facility.
The ministry said on Tuesday that more than 100 people were killed in strikes close to the facility.
Mounir Al-Bursh, Director General of the Ministry of Health in Gaza, speaking from inside Kamal Adwan, said, “The Israeli occupation forces are besieging the hospital from all sides… We are being targeted by gunfire and artillery shells.”
“The sick, the wounded and those who have taken refuge in the hospital are afraid; “I was overwhelmed with terror,” he said.
Kamal Adwan’s footage showed bodies wrapped in white and lined up in rows in the courtyard of the medical complex. Witnesses said that anyone trying to leave was shot by Israeli snipers.
“We fear that a massacre will occur inside Kamal Adwan Hospital, as happened in [al-Shifa Hospital] And the [Indonesian Hospital]Al-Barsh said.
“They already killed us”
During the night, the wounded continued to flow into the hospital amid the constant shelling, their heads and faces covered in dust. The video shows hundreds of evacuees who took refuge there resting or being treated on the ground by medics with very limited resources.
“What do they want from us? They have already killed us. Our families and friends are dead,” a man at the medical facility told Al Jazeera.
Another man explained that he had moved to the hospital in the hope of finding a safe place from Israeli air strikes, but his words were suddenly interrupted by a loud explosion that could be heard very close away.
“We hoped we wouldn’t be left behind,” a woman shouted, her hands trembling and her voice filled with despair.
More than 1.1 million people were ordered in mid-October to evacuate the northern Strip and move south while Israeli forces advanced their ground offensive.
The fighting and air strikes stopped under a week-long truce to allow the exchange of prisoners held by Hamas during its attack on Israel on October 7 for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. The temporary cessation of fighting collapsed on Friday.
‘Stick to our land’
Since the end of the truce, Israeli forces have resumed attacks across Gaza with renewed intensity in the north, while also expanding their operations in the south.
Israeli attacks on Gaza have killed more than 15,900 Palestinians since October 7, after Hamas killed about 1,100 in Israel that day.
As international pressure mounts on Israel to show restraint in targeting civilians in the second phase of the war, dozens of deaths are being reported every night.
The Gaza Ministry of Health said that at least 158 people had been confirmed dead on Monday evening. Of these, more than 108 people were killed in raids near Kamal Adwan Hospital; 40 bodies were received to Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis. The ministry said last night that 349 people were killed.
The situation at Kamal Adwan Hospital mirrors the events that took place at Al-Shifa Hospital, the largest hospital in the Strip, where people seeking shelter, patients in critical condition, and doctors, some at gunpoint, were ordered to evacuate after several days of siege. . Israel denied doing so.
Al-Barsh said: “The hospital is being attacked by Israeli forces with the aim of evacuating everyone inside the hospital.” “We, the medical staff, are standing still. We stand with our sick and wounded.”
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