How Israel is Destroying a Hospital

CrossFireArabia
Features
December 22, 2024

The hospital bears the name of one of the leaders of the Palestinian revolution and the most prominent symbols of the Fatah movement

– Since the start of the military operation in northern Gaza on 5 October, the hospital was subjected to dozens of attacks

Major damage reported at Kamal Adwan Hospital, northern Gaza, following the Israeli occupation army's detonation of an explosive robot in the hospital's vicinity, alongside intense targeting of nearby civilian homes. pic.twitter.com/8DQcUFZgB6
— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) December 22, 2024

– The hospital director said the Israeli army treats this health facility as a “military target”

In the heart of the town of Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip, where the Israeli army is committing crimes of genocide and ethnic cleansing, the Kamal Adwan Hospital continues to operate with minimal of capabilities as the last stronghold of steadfastness in the face of the Israeli war machine.

#BREAKING| Israeli occupation forces are torching Palestinian homes in the vicinity of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza. pic.twitter.com/h2Gz648GmG
— Days of Palestine (@DaysOf_Pal) December 22, 2024

The hospital bears the name of one of the leaders of the Palestinian revolution and the most prominent symbols of the Fatah movement, and constitutes a last resort for patients and the wounded in the north who have not found an alternative that provides them with the minimum of medical and humanitarian services.

Since the Israeli army’s attack on the northern governorate on 5 October, which coincided with a comprehensive military siege, the hospital has been subjected to dozens of targeting operations with missiles and gunfire, as a health official said the Israeli army treats it as a “military target”.

Despite this, the hospital’s medical staff, consisting of two doctors at most and a small number of nurses, continued to perform their humanitarian duty, and refused to obey the army’s multiple orders to evacuate its buildings and leave the governorate despite the ongoing crimes against them.

Beit Lahia, like many other parts of the Gaza Strip, was subjected to a policy of “urban annihilation” of its architectural and cultural fabric through the implementation of comprehensive erasure operations and the complete destruction of homes, residential neighborhoods and infrastructure, and the elimination of the means of survival for Palestinians, according to a statement by the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor.

Timeline

The Kamal Adwan Hospital, the largest hospital in the Northern Governorate, which used to provide services to more than 400,000 people, is currently operating under conditions and lacking capabilities due to the Israeli targeting of it since October 2023, which Anadolu Agency monitored as follows:

Since the beginning of the war, the Israeli army continued to launch intensive raids on the hospital’s surroundings, in addition to blowing up buildings and residential areas next to it, which resulted in much damage in addition to deaths and injuries inside and outside the hospital.

2023:

– 14 October: An Israeli warning to evacuate the hospital of displaced persons, medical staff and patients.

– 4 December: An Israeli bombardment of the northern gate of the hospital results in the killing of 4 Palestinians

#Save_Kamal Adwan Hospital https://t.co/AR79OPiyU1
— 4827 (@sizoki1111) December 22, 2024

– 6 December: The Gaza Ministry of Health announces the forcible removal of Kamal Adwan Hospital from service and “with tank muzzles”.

– 8 December: Israeli tanks besiege the hospital, and army snipers climb onto surrounding buildings and fire towards the courtyards and patients’ rooms.

– 12 December: The Israeli army stormed the hospital after a tight siege and forced about 2,500 displaced people to evacuate the hospital after two days and arrested a number of medical staff

– 16 December: The army withdrew from the hospital after destroying the southern part of it, displacing the displaced people inside it, abusing its patients and suppressing the medical staff

2024

– Mid-January: Kamal Adwan Hospital partially resumed operations according to human rights reports

– March: Dozens of children died, some of them in Kamal Adwan Hospital due to famine in the north and a shortage of medical supplies and medicines.

– 19 May: The hospital went out of service again after heavy Israeli shelling targeted its surroundings and army vehicles advanced towards it and besieged it for days

– 28 May: Israeli shelling of a building in the hospital and the destruction of the electricity generators inside it.

– June: The hospital partially resumed operations with limited medical facilities and supplies

– 8 October: The Israeli army orders hospitals in the Gaza Strip, including Kamal Adwan, to evacuate within 24 hours, amidst a siege by military vehicles

– 19 October: The Israeli army shells the entrance to the Kamal Adwan Hospital laboratory, killing a Palestinian and wounding others

– 20 October: The Israeli shelling of the hospital resumes, and heavy gunfire is directed at its buildings, targeting its water tanks and electricity network

– 22 October: Israeli warnings to evacuate the hospital are renewed

– 25 October: The Israeli army storms the hospital and detains hundreds of patients, medical staff and displaced persons who have taken refuge inside its buildings

– 26 October: The army withdraws from the hospital, leaving behind Palestinian deaths and widespread destruction inside and outside, a day after storming it

– 31 October: The Israeli army shells the hospital, burning medicines and medical supplies it received from the World Health Organization days earlier

– 3 November: Israeli artillery shelling injures a number of children in the hospital’s nursery and shooting at its generators and water tanks

– 4 November: Israeli shelling of the hospital’s facilities and the injury of a number of Palestinian medical staff and patients

– 6 November: The death of wounded due to the lack of surgical specialties in the hospital, which began operating without electricity due to a lack of fuel

– 11 November: An Israeli drone shelled the hospital’s reception and emergency department, injuring 3 medical staff

– 22 November: Renewed Israeli shelling of Kamal Adwan Hospital, injuring a doctor and patients, and disrupting the electricity generators and the oxygen station

– 3 December: Israeli shelling of the hospital with bombs launched by “Quadcopter” drones, injuring 3 medical staff

– 4 December: The army shelled the hospital four times and the oxygen station stopped, threatening the lives of patients inside it

– 5 December: The Israeli army targeted the hospital several times, killing two Palestinians, one of whom was a child, and injuring two others

– 6 December: The Israeli army stormed the hospital for hours and forced Patients and medical staff evacuated and a number of them were arrested

– 7 December: The Israeli army targeted the hospital with a number of shells, resulting in the injury of medical staff and patients, the destruction of water, oxygen and fuel tanks, a power outage and the outbreak of fires in its facilities

How about doing something real to #StopIsrael other than worrying?

btw, it's not "bombardment near Kamal Adwan Hospital", the Israeli genociders fired directly at the ICU and the maternity ward last night. And they killed a 10 year old girl while she was leaving the hospital!! https://t.co/4tdTaUIGAq
— 𓂆 eman qasim (@EmanQasim) December 22, 2024

– 14 December: Explosive robots were detonated in the vicinity of the hospital, damaging its buildings and causing panic among patients and displaced persons

– 16 December 16: Israeli Quadcopter drones targeted the hospital

CrossFireArabia

Dr. Marwan Asmar holds a PhD from Leeds University and is a freelance writer specializing on the Middle East. He has worked as a journalist since the early 1990s in Jordan and the Gulf countries, and been widely published, including at Albawaba, Gulf News, Al Ghad, World Press Review and others.

Features

Israel’s Gaza Bombing Surpasses ISIS Days

CrossFireArabia
April 4, 2025

The nature of Israel’s crimes in the Gaza Strip must be denounced, particularly the crimes’ horrifying scope, methodical execution, and wide-ranging effects, which surpass those of armed groups like ISIS. While the crimes committed by ISIS have been widely denounced by the international community, the same community is now mostly silent—and therefore complicit—as Israel pursues a campaign of declared genocide that aims to exterminate the Palestinian people from their homeland.

For almost 18 months, this campaign has been running continuously.

Israeli occupation forces detonated a robot today (Thursday 3 April 2025) rigged with tonnes of explosives in the heart of the densely-populated Shuja’iyya neighbourhood in eastern Gaza City. The explosion occurred in an area packed with displaced civilians, though there was no military necessity and no combat activity in the vicinity. This act embodies the conduct of existing terrorist organizations, even surpassing them in brutality and disregard for human life, and bears no resemblance to the conduct of a state bound by international law, regardless of any attempts to distort or evade it.

21 killed

The explosion killed 21 Palestinians and injured around 100 others, the majority of them women and children. A full residential block was obliterated with its residents still inside, and this is not an isolated incident. Over recent months—particularly in the northern Gaza Strip—Israel has increasingly used explosive-laden robots in residential neighbourhoods during its ground incursions. At least 150 such detonations have resulted in the deaths of hundreds of civilians, mostly women and children, and caused wide-scale destruction to homes and other essential infrastructure.

A separate atrocity was committed on 23 March, when Israeli forces detained 15 Palestinian rescue workers from the Palestinian Red Crescent and Civil Defence, along with a United Nations staff member, before executing them extrajudicially—some while their hands were bound. Their bodies were dumped into a pit, and the ambulances they had been traveling in were destroyed. This incident is another blatant example of an intentional Israeli crime mirroring—and exceeding—the brutality of groups like ISIS, as it reveals a clear and deliberate intent to annihilate Palestinians both physically and through psychologically terrorizing residents across the Strip.

Euro-Med Monitor field teams have documented thousands of crimes committed by Israeli forces, constituting overwhelming evidence of mass atrocities. These crimes include an unprecedented pattern of violence in recent history, in terms of scale, deliberate targeting, and genocidal intent. A minimum of 58,000 Palestinians have been killed, the majority of them women and children, and most have been buried beneath the rubble of homes deliberately destroyed over their heads, while many were killed by sniper fire with clear intent. Over 120,000 individuals have been injured, and at least 39,000 children have been orphaned. The Gaza Strip’s infrastructure, including homes, hospitals, and schools, has been virtually obliterated.

Extermination Campaigns

These acts amount to one of the most extensive and systematic campaigns of extermination in contemporary history, underscoring the urgent need for international accountability, an end to Israeli impunity, and concrete action to halt further atrocities.

Israel’s methods in the Gaza Strip—particularly its mass killing of civilians—bear a striking resemblance to the tactics used by groups the international community has widely condemned as terrorist. However, the atrocities unfolding in the Strip are far more dangerous in terms of scale, brutality, and systematic intent, and cannot be understood merely as a function of violent methods or tools.

What is occurring in the Gaza Strip constitutes a full-scale genocide carried out by a state actor with international legal personality and obligations under international law to protect civilians. Instead, Israel is deploying its military, legal, judicial, and media apparatuses, and benefiting from broad international political protection, to carry out a systematic campaign of destruction against a defenceless population subjected to its settler-colonial and apartheid regime. Palestinians living under this regime are no longer subjected to exclusion, oppression, and intermittent bombardment, as in past years. Rather, Israel is now granted open legitimacy to pursue the extermination of Palestinians in the enclave—unchecked and without accountability.

These actions cannot be dismissed as random or extreme policies, but rather represent a fully-fledged model of organised state terrorism, driven by a comprehensive blueprint for annihilation and implemented in full view of the international community. These crimes are being committed with clear, declared intent to eliminate the Palestinian people as a national and collective entity, uproot those who remain on their land, erase their identity, and ultimately end their collective existence.

The shocking paradox is that these crimes—greater in scope, structure, and severity than those committed by proscribed armed groups—are not met with proportionate condemnation. On the contrary, Israel commits them under the very banner of international legitimacy. While quick to criminalise the actions of non-state terror groups, the international community has extended a false veneer of legality to Israel’s genocide, enabling its prolongation and offering total immunity to the perpetrators.

Ending this double standard is no longer a matter of choice, as it represents a direct assault on the foundations of international law and reveals a racist hypocrisy in the collective protection framework that must be addressed. Treating Israel’s crimes as exceptional and beyond accountability undermines the core principles of the global legal order and entrenches one of the most dangerous forms of impunity.

Stop the Israeli genocide

All states, both individually and collectively, must fulfil their legal obligations and take urgent action to stop Israel’s genocide in the Gaza Strip in all its forms. This includes implementing concrete measures to protect Palestinian civilians, ensuring Israel’s compliance with international legal norms and the rulings of the International Court of Justice, and guaranteeing full accountability for perpetrators of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

It is important to implement the arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court against the Israeli Prime Minister and Defence Minister at the earliest opportunity and ensurethese individuals’ transfer to international justice.

Furthermore, the international community must impose comprehensive economic, diplomatic, and military sanctions on Israel in response to its grave and systematic violations of international law. This includes an arms embargo; the cessation of all political, financial, and military cooperation; asset freezes of implicated officials; travel bans; and the suspension of trade privileges and bilateral agreements that provide Israel with economic benefits, enabling its continued crimes.

Finally, all relevant states and entities must hold complicit governments accountable, foremost among them the United States, along with other nations that provide Israel with direct or indirect support in executing its crimes. Any assistance or engagement in the Israeli military, intelligence, political, legal, or financial sectors, and/or cooperation with Israel’s media, contributes to the continuation of atrocities against the Palestinian people.

Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor

Features

‘In Gaza We Die a 1000 Deaths a Day’

CrossFireArabia
April 3, 2025

For over a year and five months, the people of Gaza have endured an unrelenting war of extermination—one that has robbed them not only of life’s comforts but of its very essence. Eighteen months of ceaseless suffering, where mere survival has become an act of defiance. The Israeli genocide in Gaza has drained every ounce of their strength—physically, mentally, and emotionally. And for those not granted the mercy of a single, swift death, every moment is a slow, agonizing descent into an unspeakable catastrophe. A never-ending cycle of death inflicted upon them by Israel—where one does not simply perish once, but dies a thousand deaths every day.

Under the relentless barrage of missiles raining down upon us, every passing moment is a gamble with fate. If we escape death today, there is no certainty that it will not claim us tomorrow—for in Israel’s eyes, we are all targets. As if the ceaseless bombardment were not enough, we are also stripped of life’s most basic essentials: food, water, electricity. Existence itself has been reduced to an endless procession of lines—one for a sip of clean water, another for a brief charge of a phone, yet another for a meager ration of humanitarian aid.

But among all these hardships, one of the most crushing has been the loss of cooking gas. With the suffocating blockade and the total closure of border crossings, the last fragile thread connecting us to a semblance of normalcy has been severed. Preparing a meal has become an ordeal, an insurmountable task that drapes every household in Gaza with the weight of exhaustion and despair.

The Cooking Gas Crisis: How It Began

Even before the total closure of Gaza’s crossings during Israel’s war of extermination, access to cooking gas was already scarce, failing to meet the population’s basic needs. Nowhere was this crisis felt more acutely than in the north, where gas barely trickled in—even during the rare moments when Israel allowed limited supplies into the south.

When a brief ceasefire was brokered—only to be swiftly shattered by Israel—residents of northern Gaza were once again left without their share. And the moment the ceasefire ended, the crossings were slammed shut once more, plunging people back into uncertainty, forcing them to navigate survival in the face of the unknown.

Malak Radwan, a resident of northern Gaza, recalls: “The first time we managed to get any cooking gas was after the ceasefire in February, 2025. But it didn’t come from our area—we had to depend on our relatives in the south to share what little they had.”

In southern Gaza, gas distribution operated through a system known as “Gas Lists,” where families were registered in a turn-based queue to receive their cylinders. Even then, the allocated amounts were woefully insufficient to meet the needs of the population. Yet, despite its scarcity and inflated cost, gas was still seen as a rare privilege—one that people clung to with gratitude.

But as the siege tightened and Israel’s total closure of the crossings dragged on, these lists became little more than illusions of hope—long, stagnant lines that might never move. According to the Government Media Office in Gaza, the Israeli occupation has prevented the entry of 18,600 aid trucks and 1,550 fuel trucks, including those carrying cooking gas, further exacerbating the suffering of the Palestinian people. Left stranded in uncertainty, families were forced to seek out alternative ways to cook, even as every other resource around them faded into oblivion.

Alternative Cooking Methods Amidst Catastrophe

They say necessity is the mother of invention, but what happens when all means of invention have vanished? Can the resort to primitive methods still be considered innovation in the face of such overwhelming disaster?

In Gaza, residents have been driven to rely on primitive cooking methods—each effort a dangerous gamble that weighs heavily on their bodies, their souls, and their fragile mental state.

Once, gathering around a coal fire to brew tea on a cold winter’s night was a beloved family ritual, a moment unmatched in its warmth. But now, that same fire has been forced upon us as a way of life—one that ignites not only our stoves but also the anguish in our hearts.

Yet, even firewood has become a distant luxury. Its price has soared, driven by the scarcity of trees, forcing some to scavenge shattered wood from the ruins of bombed homes or burn whatever fragments of furniture they have left. Never did we envision a day when we would be compelled to set our own belongings aflame just to prepare a meal.

“My fingers seem to melt with the fire every time I light it,” my mother sighs.

With firewood becoming prohibitively expensive, many have resorted to standing in yet another queue—this time in front of makeshift clay ovens, hoping to cook whatever food they have left. Umm Mohammad, a displaced woman from northern Gaza, has started her own small business: operating a clay oven where she bakes bread and prepares meals in exchange for a few Shekels.
“I began this work to support myself after losing everything during my displacement to the south. At the same time, I wanted to help those who have no means of cooking in their homes or tents,” she says.

For many families, even a few shekels are out of reach. The only remaining option is to rely on community kitchens—yet another queue to stand in, another obstacle in the endless struggle for survival. These kitchens provide just one meal a day, forcing many to subsist on cold canned food for the rest of their meals. Even the single meal was denied to them by the Israeli occupation. According to a report issued by the Government Media Office in Gaza, the Israeli occupation has directly targeted 60 charity kitchens and aid centers in a ruthless campaign aimed at starving the Palestinian people in Gaza. This has resulted in 80% of Gazan citizens losing their source of food.

The impact has been especially harsh on children and the elderly, who desperately need warm, nutritious food to sustain them.

And this is yet another burden we set aside amid the bleakness of our lives. Here in Gaza, the closure of border crossings is not the only barrier worsening the disaster of cooking gas shortages. As Gazans, we do not have the luxury of choosing our daily meals, nor do we have the privilege of enjoying a well-balanced diet. Every day, we are forced to go to the market, only to face the recurring frustration of missing food supplies. We are compelled to prepare meals we do not desire because no alternatives exist, and to eat unbalanced meals because we cannot afford anything better. Here, every moment we endure is a catastrophe in itself.

The Health and Social Consequences of the Gas Shortage

The crisis extends far beyond the inability to cook—it has dire implications for both health and society. Malnutrition has become rampant due to the lack of proper food preparation, leading to widespread cases of general weakness and anemia, especially among children.

Respiratory illnesses have also surged, as people are forced to burn wood and coal inside their homes, inhaling thick smoke with every breath. This has exacerbated the suffering of the sick and elderly.

Amani Al-Ghefari, a resident of northern Gaza, recounts her ordeal: “As someone with nearsightedness who wears corrective glasses, the smoke from burning wood has not only worsened my vision but has also caused a constant burning in my eyes, accompanied by migraines and relentless coughing. The most harrowing consequence, however, has been the physical strain—splitting firewood has taken a severe toll on my joints, leading to months of painful physical therapy.”

But the catastrophe is not limited to physical health—it has deeply scarred the psyche of every Gazan. Food is no longer just a means of sustenance; it has become a haunting memory of life before the genocide. The warmth of family gatherings around a meal has been replaced by a daily struggle for mere survival.
One mother confesses in anguish:
“I can no longer cook a warm meal for my children. I feel helpless, unable to provide for their most basic needs.”

Gaza’s Plea for Its Most Basic Rights

Amidst this suffering, numerous humanitarian organizations have made urgent appeals for aid to enter Gaza. The World Food Programme has expressed concern over the closure of 25 bakeries it supports in Gaza, due to a lack of fuel and flour. Yet, Israel continues its punitive policies, blocking fuel and essential supplies. Human rights advocates persist in calling for the immediate reopening of crossings and the unrestricted flow of aid to all areas of the Strip.

What is happening in Gaza is not merely a humanitarian crisis—it is an orchestrated catastrophe. Life as we knew it has been obliterated, and the suffering has surpassed all conceivable limits. Now more than ever, there is an urgent need for decisive international intervention to save the people of Gaza and to lift the inhumane siege that deprives them of even the most basic right—to cook their own food.

Silence is no longer an option. Every passing moment means more hunger, more pain, more devastation. Supporting Gaza is not just a humanitarian duty—it is a moral imperative that the world can no longer afford to ignore.

Quds News Network

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How Israel is Destroying a Hospital

CrossFireArabia

Related Posts

Israel’s Gaza Bombing Surpasses ISIS Days

‘In Gaza We Die a 1000 Deaths a Day’

The Cooking Gas Crisis: How It Began

Alternative Cooking Methods Amidst Catastrophe

The Health and Social Consequences of the Gas Shortage

Gaza’s Plea for Its Most Basic Rights

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