Destruction of last hospital spells the “end of humanity” in northern Gaza – Day 447

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Destruction of last hospital spells the “end of humanity” in northern Gaza – Day 447
Israeli forces set fire on Friday to Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia in northern Gaza, which is the largest hospital in the area and serves over 400,000 citizens. (WAFA)

Compilation of news reports – IAK staff

Israeli army sets fire to north Gaza’s last functioning hospital

According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, Israeli troops ordered patients and medical staff to take off their clothing and forced them out of the hospital in the extremely cold weather. 

The Israeli army had ordered 350 people to leave Kamal Adwan for a nearby school sheltering displaced families. This included 75 patients, their companions, and 185 medical staff.

Footage showed barely clothed Palestinians walking in line with their hands up after being forced out of Kamal Adwan Hospital. 

At least 50 people have been killed around the besieged medical facility since Thursday evening. Witnesses “confirmed that the Israeli military had conducted field executions in [the hospital’s] vicinity.”

Several intensive care patients were confirmed dead after the forced evacuation, according to medical sources.

Youssef Abu el-Rish, Gaza’s deputy health minister, said Israeli forces had set fire to the surgical department, laboratory and a storehouse in the hospital.

The fire then “spread to all buildings” in the medical complex, according to a separate statement by the enclave’s Health Ministry.

American doctor Mimi Syed, an emergency physician currently on her second medical mission inside Gaza, told Al Jazeera that the Israeli military’s order to evacuate the Kamal Adwan Hospital spells the “end of humanity” in northern Gaza, as no health facility will now be operating in the area.

The Israeli military said it had made efforts to mitigate harm to civilians and had “facilitated the secure evacuation of civilians, patients and medical personnel prior to the operation” but gave no details.

It said in a statement:

Kamal Adwan Hospital serves as a Hamas terrorist stronghold in northern Gaza, from which terrorists have been operating throughout the war.

After nearly 15 months of attacks, Israel has yet to provide any compelling evidence that Hamas operatives have been present in this or any other hospital.

NOTE: The use of the word “terrorist” for a group that resists occupation and oppression is a political, not fact-based choice. In reality, international law supports the efforts of resistance groups against an occupying power, the UN extending that right to the point of armed resistance.
Hamas has clearly and openly stated that its enemy is not the Jewish people, but the supremacist ideology of Zionism – the ideology under which Israel dispossessed 750,000 Palestinian people and exiled them to Gaza and other locations. 

Outcry After Biden Admin Pushed for Retraction of Northern Gaza Famine Report

Veteran human rights expert Kenneth Roth said Thursday that the withdrawal of a report on imminent famine in northern Gaza negates “the whole point” of the office that produced the analysis: “to have a group of experts make assessments about imminent famine that are untainted by political considerations.”

The decision by the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) to retract its December 23 alert on the rapidly spiraling starvation crisis in the northern part of the besieged enclave came after the U.S. ambassador to Israel, Jack Lew, publicly criticized the report.

FEWS NET, which is funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), said in its report that Israel’s “near-total blockade of humanitarian and commercial food supplies” for nearly 80 days has made it “highly likely that the food consumption and acute malnutrition thresholds for famine… have now been surpassed in North Gaza Governorate.”

The report referenced the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, the United Nations-backed assessment that classifies famine as “phase 5” and declares famine in a region once more than 30% of children under age five are acutely malnourished, more than two people per 10,000 die each day from starvation, or once 20% of households face an extreme lack of food.

On Thursday, a note on the group’s website said the “December 23 Alert is under further review and is expected to be re-released with updated data and analysis in January.”

FEWS NET is hardly the first group to warn of impending famine in northern Gaza, where Israeli troops have been carrying out a ground offensive since early October and where nearly all humanitarian aid has been cut off for thousands of Palestinians who are trapped in the region (continue reading here).

Palestinians including children are frantic with hunger, as they wait to receive food distributed by charitable organizations in Khan Younis, Gaza on November 29, 2024
Palestinians including children are frantic with hunger, as they wait to receive food distributed by charitable organizations in Khan Younis, Gaza on November 29, 2024 (Abed Rahim Khatib/Anadolu Agency)

Israel will withdraw from Lebanon when it is good and ready

Israel Friday said the two-month deadline for its troop withdrawal from southern Lebanon, stipulated in a cease-fire agreement, is “not a sacred date.”

The cease-fire between Israel and Lebanon, which took effect on Nov. 27, 2023, stipulates that Israel should complete its withdrawal within 60 days.

The Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation quoted on Friday unnamed Israeli security officials as saying: “The two-month timeline for the withdrawal of Israeli forces from southern Lebanon is not a sacred deadline, and the implementation of the withdrawal depends on field developments.”

The officials added: “The plans presented to the US mechanism, which coordinates between the Israeli and Lebanese armies and UNIFIL (United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon), include gradual timelines based on steps taken by the Lebanese army.”

They also stated that Israel had informed the US that the withdrawal would only take place after the necessary conditions are met, without providing further details.

The Israeli army reinforces its air and ground forces in the Golan Heights in response to ongoing situation in Syria on December 06, 2024, in Israel
The Israeli army reinforces its air and ground forces in the Golan Heights in response to ongoing situation in Syria on December 06, 2024, in Israel (Israel Defense Forces (IDF) – Anadolu Agency)
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STATISTICS OCTOBER 7, 2023 – DECEMBER 27, 2024:

Palestinian death toll from October 7, 2023 – December 27, 2024: at least 46,320* – 45,484 in Gaza; in the West Bank, Israeli soldiers and/or settlers have killed at least 836 Palestinians (~172 of them children).

Thousands of those killed in Gaza have yet to be identified, and an estimated 11,000 more are still buried under rubble.

According to a report in the Lancet, by multiplying the reported deaths by five, it is possible to reach a conservative estimate of total deaths (including indirect causes like starvation and lack of medicine). Using the latest figure from AFP (45,484), it is reasonable to estimate at least 227,420 total deaths in Gaza since October 7th, 2023.

According to a recent report by the UN Human Rights Office of identified fatalities in Gaza, about 44% were children. It is reasonable to estimate that 20,013 of known direct deaths and 100,065 of the total deaths are children.

Since Israel launched an extermination campaign in northern Gaza in early October, over 4,000 Palestinians have been killed or are missing and another 12,000 wounded.

Palestinian injuries from October 7, 2023 – December 27, 2024: at least 114,590 (including at least 108,090 in Gaza and 6,500 in the West Bank, including 830 children). [It remains unknown how many Americans are among the casualties in Gaza.]

Reported Israeli death toll from October 7, 2023 – December 27, 2024: ~1,595 (~1,139 on October 7, 2023, of which ~32 were Americans, and ~36 were children); 417*** (or 392) military forces since the ground invasion began in Gaza (updated: Dec 17); 43 military and civilians in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Israel) and~10,000 injured.

NOTE: It is unknown at this time how many of the deaths and injuries of Israelis on October 7 were caused by Israeli soldiers.

ADDITIONAL STATISTICS: Since October 7th, 2023:

  • At least 49 Palestinians have died in Israeli prisons (at least 30 from Gaza).
  • At least 43 Palestinians have died due to malnutrition (at least 37 of them children)**.
  • About 1.9 million of Gaza’s 2.3 million population are currently displaced.
  • About 345,000 Gazans are currently experiencing catastrophic levels of food insecurity.

*The Ministry’s figures have been contested by the Israeli authorities, although they have been accepted as accurate by Israeli intelligence services, the UN, and WHO. These data are supported by independent analyses, comparing changes in the number of deaths of UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) staff with those reported by the Ministry, which found claims of data fabrication implausible.

Previously, IAK did not include 471 Gazans killed in the Al Ahli hospital blast since the source of the projectile was being disputed. However, given that much evidence points to Israel as the culprit, Israel had previously bombed the hospital and has attacked many others, Israel is prohibiting outside experts from investigating the scene, and since the UN and other agencies are including the deaths from the attack in their cumulative totals, if Americans knew is now also doing so.

**Euro-Med Monitor reports that Gaza’s elderly are dying at an alarmingly high rate. The majority die at home and are buried either close to their residences or in makeshift graves dispersed across the Strip. There are currently more than 140 such cemeteries. Additionally, according to Euromed, thousands have died from starvation, malnourishment, and inadequate medical care; these are considered indirect victims as they were not registered in hospitals. 

***The figure does not include the reportedly 59 Israeli soldiers – nearly 17% of the total Israeli military deaths – killed due to friendly fire in Gaza and other military-related accidents. 

† For most of the conflict, women and children accounted for about 70% of deaths in Gaza, with children making up a little over 40% of those killed, according to official statistics.

Find previous daily casualty figures and daily news updates here.

Hover over each bar for exact numbers. Source: IsraelPalestineTimeline.org

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