Since the beginning of October, the Israeli army has been conducting a brutal attack on the northern Gaza Strip, killing hundreds of Palestinians in Jabalia, Beit Lahiya, and Beit Hanoun and forcing around 70,000 to flee to Gaza City. As part of its campaign to cleanse the area of Palestinians, the army has besieged and bombarded the region’s three hospitals, pushing each of them to the brink of collapse without presenting any substantial evidence of the military necessity of these attacks.
Kamal Adwan Hospital, in Beit Lahiya, is barely functioning after weeks of sustained Israeli assault. At 2 a.m. on Oct. 25, the Israeli army closed in on the hospital — which had already been subjected to a military raid in December 2023 — and began bombing the building and its courtyards. Shells hit the third floor, destroying medical supplies that the World Health Organization (WHO) had delivered in the previous days, and damaging the hospital’s dialysis unit. The attack also cut off the hospital’s medical oxygen generator, resulting in the deaths of two infants in the intensive care unit.
A few hours later, Israeli troops stormed the hospital, ordering all patients and displaced Palestinians seeking refuge there to gather in the central courtyard. Hundreds were arrested or detained and subjected to questioning, including almost all the hospital’s staff.
Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, a pediatrician and the hospital’s director, refused to evacuate Kamal Adwan despite Israel’s threats. He was briefly detained during the raid, before returning to care for his sick and wounded patients. As he did so, an Israeli drone killed his 15-year old son, Ibrahim, who was sheltering at the hospital with the rest of his family. In a video from later that day, Oct. 26, Abu Safiya can be seen leading funeral prayers for his son in the hospital’s courtyard, choking back tears.
Israeli troops withdrew from the hospital on Oct. 28, and scores of victims from Israel’s continued attacks on the north have since flooded its waiting rooms and hallways. The hospital is currently accommodating more than 120 patients, but Abu Safiya is one of only two doctors and a handful of nurses left to care for them.
And still the attacks continue: on Oct. 31, Israeli forces struck the hospital again, destroying another recent delivery of WHO supplies. During a WHO delegation visit to hospital this past Sunday, Nov. 3 — part of an attempt to evacuate some patients — Israeli artillery fire targeted the pediatric ward, wounding a 13-year-old girl and several other people. On Nov. 4 and Nov. 5, the hospital came under fire yet again, wounding staff and patients and damaging water tanks.
+972 spoke with Abu Safiya, who is still inside the hospital, on Oct. 31. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Can you describe what is happening now at Kamal Adwan and the danger that you, your colleagues, and your patients face?
Since the beginning of the war, we have been suffering greatly from a shortage of medical supplies, personnel, and other equipment. We have been appealing to international health organizations to save the hospital, but unfortunately we have been subjected instead to an intense siege and direct shelling for nearly a month. Just moments ago, the third floor of the hospital was targeted. I do not know if it was artillery shelling or an airstrike, but the operating room and medicine stores were set on fire, and it was difficult to put it out.
The bombing of Beit Lahiya, Beit Hanoun, and Jabalia does not stop, and there are many wounded people arriving at the hospital, either carried on people’s shoulders or in animal-drawn carts. Ambulances are completely out of service after the Israeli army repeatedly targeted them. Because the number of wounded people [arriving at the hospital] is so high, we are forced to choose between them in order to treat the most severe cases. I never imagined that we would live such tragic moments inside the hospital.
What happened to you and the medical staff when Israel raided the hospital on Oct. 25?
The Israeli army does not know what it wants. They detained me for a few hours and interrogated me about whether there were fighters inside the hospital, and demanded that I evacuate the hospital completely, but I refused and assured them that there were only patients inside the hospital. But 57 of the hospital’s medical staff were arrested, and we still do not know anything about them [some have been released following this conversation, but the majority remain in Israeli detention]. So we are suffering from a severe shortage of doctors, especially surgeons. Right now, we only have pediatricians — it is a huge challenge to work under these circumstances.
I refused to leave the hospital and sacrifice my patients, so the army punished me by killing my son. I saw him die at the entrance gate — it was a great shock. I found a grave for him near one of the hospital’s walls, so that he could stay close to me.
The army has justified its attacks by claiming, without substantial evidence, that Hamas fighters are operating from within the hospital or in tunnels beneath it. What is your response to these accusations?
There are no [active] fighters in Kamal Adwan. Moreover, this is a hospital that receives patients from everywhere: we do not stand at the hospital gate and ask every wounded or sick person about their political affiliation. This is absolutely unreasonable. The hospital’s job is to provide medical services to all patients who need treatment.
We have lived through many wars, but we have never experienced anything like this: a war that crossed all red lines, where we cannot see any capacity of international humanitarian, judicial, or health institutions to intervene to stop it. Everything was permissible to kill and destroy, and what the health system in Gaza experienced is unprecedented.
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Can you describe the damage the hospital has sustained from repeated bombing?
The hospital was and remains severely damaged as a result of the army’s attacks. Most of the hospital’s departments are destroyed, including the operating room on the third floor. The bombing around the hospital does not stop, day or night.
We are very concerned about the continued targeting of the hospital, [which we see as] a deliberate attempt to take it out of service. I appeal again to the world to save the hospital and release the doctors from detention. We are a health institution that serves patients, whose conditions continue to deteriorate due to the lack of medicines. We need our doctors to treat the wounded, but the army does not agree to release them.
We are doing what we can and we will never stop. I will not back down from delivering my humanitarian message: my profession is my duty, and I must continue with it. I will stay inside the hospital until the last moment.
In a statement to +972, an Israeli army spokesperson said that soldiers had raided Kamal Adwan Hospital “based on precise intelligence indicating the presence of terrorists and terror infrastructure in the vicinity,” and claimed that “hundreds of terrorists were found hiding in the hospital, with some even posing as hospital staff.” The statement also claimed that “the son of the hospital director was involved … in terrorist activity and acting against IDF forces in the area,” and that “the hospital remains fully operational.” The only evidence the army presented to back up these claims was the recorded testimony of one Palestinian detainee under interrogation and photographs of several weapons purportedly found in or around the hospital.