Israeli Forces Cut Off Access to Kamal Adwan Hospital in Northern Gaza

Israeli forces massed at the entrance to a major hospital in the northern Gaza Strip on Friday, trapping more than a dozen medical personnel inside and all but putting one of the last functioning hospitals out of operation, according to a doctor and Palestinian news media.

For days, the Israeli military has bombarded the area around Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia, near the northernmost edge of the territory. Its advance with tanks toward the northern entrances cut off access to the hospital, according to Dr. Eid Sabbah, the head of nursing at the hospital.

“Now it is considered practically, because it is besieged, not operational,” said Dr. Sabbah, who had been at the hospital on Thursday. Many patients were receiving kidney dialysis on Thursday, he said, but they also left before the military cut off access. “The military has reached the entrances,” he said.

The blockade of Kamal Adwan came two days after the Israeli military ordered patients and staff at Al Awda Hospital near Jabaliya, another major medical center in northern Gaza, to evacuate on Wednesday and then raided the complex. About 30 people remained there, including medical staff and patients in critical condition who could not be transferred. Israeli forces destroyed doors and damaged equipment, Gazan officials said.

The Israeli military has repeatedly besieged and assaulted Gaza’s hospitals, contending that Hamas, the armed group that led the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, uses them as shields, with its fighters operating within the hospitals and from tunnels beneath them. Hamas and hospital administrators have denied the claims.

The Israel military has taken journalists on tours of one hospital it raided and provided documents it says proves its claims about Hamas and hospitals. But there has been no independent verification of the claims.