Israel detains director of northern Gaza hospital

DEIR AL BALAH, Gaza Strip — Israel’s army detained the director of one of northern Gaza’s last functioning hospital, Palestinian medical officials said Saturday. Israel’s military said that Hamas terrorists were using the facility and said over 240 people were detained.

The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry said Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, was arrested Friday along with dozens of other staff and taken to an interrogation center.

Israel’s military on Saturday confirmed it detained the hospital director for questioning and called him a suspected Hamas operative. It said it encircled the hospital and special forces entered and found weapons in the area. It said terrorists fired on its forces and they were “eliminated.” An Israeli military spokesman, Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, later told journalists that most of those detained are Hamas operatives.

The Israeli military statement Saturday said 350 patients along with medical personnel had been evacuated from Kamal Adwan in recent weeks, and another 95 patients, caregivers, and medical personnel were evacuated to the Indonesian Hospital during the operation. It also said it had provided fuel and medical supplies to both hospitals.

Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas after the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack on southern Israel in which they killed around 1,200 people and abducted some 250 others. Some 100 Israelis remain captive in Gaza, and around a third are believed to be dead.

Strikes also continued in Israel. Air raid sirens sounded early Saturday and the military said it intercepted a missile fired by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi terrorists.