Gaza: No evacuation order given before hospital strike, says WHO

“All night, there was heavy bombing around the Kamal Adwan Hospital”, said Dr. Rik Peeperkorn, the UN health’s agency Representative for the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

Speaking from the enclave to journalists in Geneva via video, he reported that an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) tank was seen outside the hospital at around 4am on Friday, while people were told to move out the health centre.

“There was no official evacuation order,” he maintained, but instead, rumours and panic.

“People started to climb the wall to escape, and this panic attracted IDF fire. There are reports of deaths and arrests.”

Emergency team thwarted

The veteran UN humanitarian worker explained that very few aid deliveries and emergency health teams have reached Kamal Adwan Hospital since the beginning of the Israeli military operation in Gaza’s far north in early October. This has left the facility without critical reserves, including fuel.

After seven weeks of unsuccessful attempts and denied requests for access, an international Emergency Medical Team (EMT) with basic supplies was finally deployed to Kamal Adwan “less than a week ago”, only to be told to leave again seven days later, explained Dr. Peeperkorn.

The team comprised two surgeons, two emergency nurses, one gynaecologist and one logistician. “They are just there, and within one week they are gone again. This is not only for me incomprehensible but also incredibly, incredibly sad,” said the senior WHO medic, who added that no surgeons remain at Kamal Adwan Hospital.

Missions denied or impeded

Since October 2023, 58 per cent of the 273 WHO-led missions inside Gaza have been either denied, cancelled or impeded.

This has added to the urgent but extremely difficult task of evacuating patients who need specialist medical support outside the enclave.

Since 7 Oct 2023 and the start of the war sparked by Hamas-led terror attacks in Israel, 5,325 patients have been evacuated from Gaza.

Evacuation crisis

Almost 5,000 travelled via the Rafah crossing before it was closed last 7 May, including 4,000 children. The UN health agency estimates that at least 12,000 patients across Gaza still need medical evacuation to survive.

At least 44,612 Palestinians have been killed and 105,834 wounded since the beginning of the war on October 7, 2023, according to the Palestinian health authorities. The majority of those killed were women and children.