MADRID 29 Dic. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Israeli Armed Forces reported this Sunday that in the takeover of the Kamal Aduan Hospital on Saturday, in the north of the Gaza Strip, 20 “terrorists” died and another 240 were detained. The hospital, considered by Israel as a barracks general of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), has been completely cleared of patients and staff and has been partially set on fire.
“About twenty terrorists were eliminated during the operation and powerful explosive devices planted by the terrorists were neutralized,” the Israeli Army reported in a statement. More than 240 “terrorists” from Hamas and Islamic Jihad were captured and taken to Israeli territory to “provide valuable intelligence for the war.”
The “focused anti-terrorist operation” has been carried out by the 401st Combat Brigade, under the command of the 162nd Division, and Unit 504 after a month of fighting in the surrounding area. “They launched a quick and secret attack and in less than an hour they surrounded the Kamal Aduan Hospital, in the heart of the Yabalia (refugee) camp,” according to the military statement.
Within the framework of the operation, the military “carried out a safe evacuation of the population from the hospital area” and after carrying out “extensive intelligence work” that pointed to the presence of “hundreds of terrorists inside the hospital and its surroundings “.
“This is one of the largest group arrests carried out at a single point since the start of the war. During the arrests several terrorists tried to impersonate patients, even hiding in ambulances, but they were identified by the troops and detained” , the Army has reported.
Among those detained are 15 militiamen who participated in the attack against Israeli territory on October 7, when some 1,200 people died. This attack was the trigger for the current Israeli military offensive that has cost the lives of more than 45,500 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip alone.
Israel has thus confirmed the arrest of the hospital director, identified by Palestinian sources as Dr. Hosam Abu Safiya. “He is suspected of being a Hamas member.” In addition, several members of Hamas’ anti-tank and engineering units have been detained.
The World Health Organization (WHO) denounces that the assault on the Kamal Aduan has occurred amid “access restrictions for the WHO and its collaborators” and that the hostilities “are destroying all our efforts and support to maintain the minimal operation of the center” in what he has interpreted as “a systematic dismantling of the health system in Gaza that represents a death sentence for tens of thousands of Palestinians.”
In addition, he has confirmed that the center has become inactive, depriving the northern Gaza Strip of its most important hospital, leaving the 75,000 Palestinians who still remain in the area without care.