"Hamas stronghold"

Israel evacuates large Gaza hospital: 240 arrests

(Bild: AFP)

Israel's army says it has captured 240 suspected Hamas fighters during the storming of the Kamal Adwan hospital in the Gaza Strip. Among them is the director of the hospital, the army announced. He is suspected of being a Hamas "terror cadre".

The Israeli forces had attacked the hospital on Friday morning. According to the army on Saturday evening, the operation has since ended. According to the army, a command center of the Hamas terrorist organization was active in the hospital.

In the clinic and the surrounding area, 240 fighters from the Islamist Hamas and its ally Palestinian Islamic Jihad had been captured. Some militiamen had disguised themselves as patients, others had offered armed resistance. The information could not be independently verified.

The army had emphasized that it had spared civilians, patients and hospital staff in its actions and had acted in accordance with international law. According to medical circles in the Gaza Strip, there were several casualties during the operation. A nurse who has since been released reported on the Arabic television channel Al-Jazeera that Israeli soldiers had beaten the prisoners with sticks. This information could not be independently verified either.

WHO sharply criticizes Israeli army
The World Health Organization (WHO) complained on X that the Kamal Adwan Hospital had been put out of operation during the operation - the last major health facility in the north of the coastal area. It had been completely evacuated by Saturday evening, a spokesman said. The last remaining 15 patients, 50 nurses and 20 other employees were taken to the Indonesian Hospital in the Gaza Strip on Friday evening. However, the hospital did not have the necessary equipment and materials to provide adequate care for the patients, the WHO explained.

The organization expressed its "horror" at the Israeli army's deployment in the hospital and complained that it was no longer in contact with the hospital director. The Israeli army is systematically dismantling the healthcare system in the Gaza Strip, which is a death sentence for tens of thousands of Palestinians, the WHO wrote on X.

Shells fired from Gaza towards Israel
According to Palestinian reports, nine people were killed in an Israeli attack in the central part of the Gaza Strip. A house in the refugee district of Al-Maghazi was hit, according to medical sources. As a result, two shells were fired towards Israel from the north of the Gaza Strip in the afternoon. There were rocket alerts in the greater Jerusalem area and southern Israel as a result.

The two missiles were intercepted, according to the Israeli military. There were initially no reports of casualties or damage. Rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip, which has been the scene of fierce fighting for more than a year, have become rare in recent months. In the greater Jerusalem area, among others, the warning sirens had recently been wailing in the night - due to a rocket attack by the Houthi from Yemen. Since the beginning of the Gaza war, the militia has repeatedly fired missiles at Israel in solidarity with Hamas.