Israeli army withdraws from northern Gaza hospital

Israeli forces withdrew from Kamal Adwan hospital complex in northern Gaza on Saturday, one day after storming it, while the Palestinian enclave's health ministry said the troops had detained dozens of male medical staffers and some of the patients.

Health officials said on Friday that Israeli forces had stormed the hospital, one of three medical facilities struggling to operate in the area, and also stationed forces outside it.

Footage circulated by the health ministry - which Reuters could not immediately verify - showed damage to several buildings after the Israeli forces withdrew.

Medics said at least 44 of the facility's 70-member team of the hospital had been detained by the army. It later said the army had released 14 of them, including the hospital's director.

Local reporters said Israeli forces separated male and female medical staff, forcing the former to remove their clothing, subsequently blindfolding them and taking them to an unknown area for interrogation. 

The health ministry said two children have died in the intensive care unit after the hospital’s generators failed and the oxygen station was targeted.

The Director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya's underage son was killed in an Israeli attack after the medical staffer refused to leave the complex.  Some reports said Dr. Abu Safiya was detained by Israeli forces. 

An Israeli military spokesperson declined to comment on the hospital report. On Friday the Israeli military said it operated in the area of the hospital based on intelligence "regarding the presence of terrorists and terrorist infrastructure" there.

Medics said at least two children had died inside the intensive care unit after Israeli fire hit the generators and oxygen station in the facility on Friday.

Medical staffers have refused Israeli army orders to evacuate the hospital or leave their patients unattended. Before the army raid, medics said at least 600 people had been in the hospital, including patients and their escorts.

"The safety and lives of patients who are left inside Kamal Adwan Hospital without medical staff and much needed medication are at risk now," said Marwan Al-Hams of the health ministry.

Three nurses were injured during the raid and three ambulance vehicles were destroyed, the ministry said.

Israeli military strikes on the towns of Jabalia, Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza have so far killed around 800 people during a three-week offensive, the Gaza ministry added.

Israel says its forces returned to northern Gaza to root out Hamas fighters who regrouped there. The Israeli military said on Friday that three of its soldiers were killed in combat in the north of the Gaza Strip.

Senior Hamas official Basem Naim said Israel's incursions in northern Gaza and storming Kamal Adwan Hospital were a violation of international humanitarian law that it could not have committed without "the protection of Western countries".

The Israeli military said on Saturday it had expanded the humanitarian-designated area of Al-Mawasi in the southern Gaza Strip, where the army has in the past told Palestinians to go when forced to evacuate their homes.