Two Palestinian women, one of whom is a nurse at Kamal Adwan Hospital, recount horrific details of their conditions of detention in the hospital, which Israeli occupying forces forcibly evacuated patients and doctors and set on fire and destroyed in the northern Gaza governorate. . They, along with other women and men, were beaten, insulted and stripped naked.
The women who arrived in Gaza City, the closest to the north of the Strip, traveled more than 8 kilometers on foot in difficult conditions.
On Friday, the government media office in the Gaza Strip announced that the occupying army had burned and destroyed the Kamal Adwan Hospital, leading to its decommissioning, with medical teams and the injured being transported to an unknown destination.
Stripping
Palestinian nurse Shorouk Al-Rantisi, who was forced to leave Kamal Adwan Hospital after the Israeli army assault, said: “We were surprised that the army besieged the hospital and burned the archives, while the fire spread to the rest of the departments. »
She added: “We informed the army to evacuate the hospital and the injured who could walk were asked to leave the area. We then went out with some of the medical staff and covered a very long distance on foot. .”
She pointed out that the army separated the men from the women, then took us into groups and forced us to undress. Those who refused to undress were beaten and cell phones were also confiscated.
She added that the soldiers forced the women to undress as they did the men, in a scene full of sarcasm and ridicule.
The doctor confirmed that the soldiers carried out careful inspections, then sat them down for one to two hours before allowing them to travel long distances.
She continued: “There was continuous surveillance from a military jeep in front of us and another behind us, until they left us in an area near Gaza City. »
She stressed that she “knows nothing about the rest of the people who were in the hospital, but that there are around 25 to 30 people who were requested by the army, and no one knows their fate anymore.”
At gunpoint
While citizen Maha Masoud described to Anatolia what had happened, saying: “At midnight, the occupying army began a military operation near the hospital, and at dawn the soldiers stormed and forced us to leave at gunpoint. »
She said: “The occupation soldiers began calling from inside their tanks to Dr. Hossam Abu Safiya, director of the hospital, to evacuate patients, medical staff and displaced people.”
Maha, who was moved inside the hospital, added: “They asked everyone to go out to the square, without any consideration for our humanitarian conditions.”
She explained that the hospital was completely evacuated and those present were transferred to a nearby area in difficult conditions and extreme cold.
She continued: “They did not take into account our humanitarian situation. On the contrary, they treated us brutally. The soldiers attacked us, asked the women to take off their hijabs, stripped the men naked and attacked them mercilessly.
Regarding their exit from the northern Gaza Strip, Maha said Israeli tanks continued to accompany the displaced people from the moment they left the hospital until they reached the nearest point on the outskirts of the Gaza Strip. Gaza City.
She said: “The soldiers warned us not to look back while walking. »
Maha added: “On the way out, there were children, disabled people and injured people crying because of the severity of the pain and the difficulty of the situation, but the soldiers did not care about their condition and did not gave them no help. “.
Cruel siege
Regarding their siege inside the hospital, she said they suffered from hunger, lack of water and a severe siege, noting that they refused to leave despite the harsh conditions, until that the occupying army forces them to do so by force.
The military operation included the arrest of medical staff, patients and displaced people. Among the detainees were journalist Muhammad al-Sharif and his father, trapped inside the hospital.
Al-Sharif was known for his continued coverage of the Israeli genocide in northern Gaza, despite the risks.
Doaa Al-Sharif, the sister of journalist Muhammad, confirmed through her account on the Facebook platform that the occupation army arrested her brother and father inside Kamal Adwan Hospital.
On Friday, the occupying army announced the launch of a military operation in the area of Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia.
The army said in a statement: “The forces of the 401st Brigade Combat Team, under the command of the 162nd Division and under the intelligence direction of the Military Intelligence Service and the General Security Service (Shin Bet ), started working over the past few hours at the Kamal Adwan Hospital area in Jabalia.
In its statement, the military acknowledged the evacuation of hospital patients, staff and nearby residents through what it called “specific evacuation routes.”
More than once, displaced Palestinians have reported being targeted, killed and arrested on evacuation routes and routes determined by the occupying army, and the occupation army has also set up checkpoints there. military and security for inspection.
Since the attack by the occupying army on the northern governorate on October 5, coinciding with a military siege, the hospital has been subjected to dozens of attacks with missiles and gunfire, an official from the health having declared that the army was treating him as a “military target”. “.
This operation caused almost the entire health system to be out of service, according to statements by government officials, in addition to stopping the work of the civil protection apparatus and ambulances belonging to the Palestinian Red Crescent.
With American support, Israel has been committing genocide in Gaza since October 7, 2023, leaving more than 153,000 Palestinian martyrs and wounded, mostly children and women, and more than 11,000 missing, amid massive destruction and famine which killed dozens of children and the elderly, in one of the worst humanitarian disasters in the world.