The attack disrupted oxygen supplies to the hospital’s 150 wounded patients, as well as 14 newborn babies [Getty]
Israeli forces bombed the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Gaza’s northern city of Beit Lahia on Friday, killing and injuring patients and medical staff, and severely damaging a vital oxygen station and intensive care unit.
It comes amid a devastating assault on Gaza, including the northern refugee camp of Jabalia where dozens of civilians have been killed.
The attack on the Kamal Adwan Hospital caused disruptions to vital oxygen supplies to 150 patients, as well as 14 newborn babies.
Images broadcast by Al Jazeera showed a child patient who had suffered wounds from the shelling of the hospital, while Palestinian media reported children being killed and medical staff wounded in the bombing.
“It is not possible to perform urgent operations for the many wounded,” hospital director Hussam Abu Safiya told Al Jazeera on Thursday.
“There are more than 15 cases that require surgery that we cannot perform in the hospital.”
Early on Friday, hospital staff and patients were forcibly expelled from the facility by Israeli forces, who ordered them to gather in the courtyard, the Palestinian Wafa news agency reported. Several people were detained by the army.
The attacks on the Kamal Adwan Hospital come amid a 21-day siege on northern Gaza by Israeli forces, who are forcing Palestinians to move southward. Hospitals in other areas of northern Gaza have also come under attack, including Jabalia’s Al-Awda Hospital and the Indonesian Hospital in Beit Lahia.
On Thursday, Israeli forces bombed 11 houses in the Jabalia refugee camp, killing and wounding at least 150 people.
Elsewhere, attempts to resume ceasefire talks have got underway, with Hamas sending a delegation to Cairo on Thursday to meet with Egyptian officials.
An Israeli delegation headed by Mossad chief David Barnea also travelled to Egypt to meet with newly-appointed Egyptian intelligence chief Maj. Gen. Hassan Mahmoud Rashad.
Barnea is set to travel to Qatar on Sunday as part of attempts by mediators to restart the negotiations.
Talks broke down in August, amid demands by Israel that the Philadelphi Corridor between Gaza and Egypt be indefinitely occupied by their forces.
Hamas, which said it had largely accepted a ceasefire plan forwarded by US President Joe Biden in late May, and accused Israel of evading a resolution.
Israel’s war on Gaza has killed 42,847 people and wounded a further 100,544, according to Gaza’s health ministry.