GAZA CITY: Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli strikes around a major hospital in the northern city of Beit Lahia killed 29 people on Friday after a senior Hamas official said that international mediators have resumed negotiating over a potential ceasefire in the besieged Palestinian territory.
Kamal Adwan Hospital, one of northern Gaza’s last functioning health centres, was hit by several strikes in the morning, the agency and the hospital director said.
“There was a series of air strikes on the northern and western sides of the hospital, accompanied by intense and direct fire,” said hospital director Hossam Abu Safieh, adding that four staff were killed.
Mahmud Bassal, the civil defence agency’s spokesman, said, “At least 29 people were killed and dozens were wounded… since dawn on Friday as a result of the continuing Israeli shelling around Kamal Adwan Hospital.”
The Israeli army has not yet responded to AFP requests for comment on the strikes.
Bassal told AFP that the Israeli army entered the hospital, evacuated patients and arrested several Palestinians.
Abu Safieh said that following the latest raid, no surgeons were left at the facility.
Beit Lahia has been the site of an intense Israeli military operation for the past two months that has again escalated in recent days, forcing thousands to flee amid bombing, the civil defence agency said.
Israeli forces have stormed the Kamal Adwan on several occasions since the start of the war nearly 14 months ago. The hospital said its intensive care unit director Ahmad al-Kahlut was killed in an air strike late last month.
The latest strikes came just days after the UN’s World Health Organization said an emergency medical team had reached the hospital for the first time in 60 days.
Dr Faradina Sulistiyani, a surgeon on the team, told AFP from Gaza City that all seven of her team members left the premises on foot as the bombing went on.
Israeli Bombing Causes Panic
Rik Peeperkorn, the WHO representative in the Palestinian territories, told reporters from Geneva he had “extremely concerning information” from the Kamal Adwan.
He said the Israeli army was first spotted outside the hospital at 4:00 am (0200 GMT).
He said that the international medical team said that “panic caused by the bombing and shelling, along with the panicked crowd inside the hospital” caused Gazans and the team to leave the hospital despite there being “no official evacuation order”.
Peeperkorn said that a “substantial amount” of people including patients and staff remained in the hospital, which is still “minimum operational”.
With little to no aid reaching the Kamal Adwan since the start of the Israeli operation in Gaza’s besieged north in early October, the hospital had run out of most supplies, including fuel.
The Israeli army says its operation in the far north aims to keep Hamas fighters from regrouping there.
Rights groups have accused it of pursuing a plan to evacuate or starve all those remaining there, which Israel denies.
Israeli government spokesman David Mencer said on Thursday that displaced Palestinians would not be allowed to move back to Gaza’s north as long as the military operations are ongoing.
Since October 7, 2023, Israel’s military campaign in Gaza has resulted in at least 44,612 deaths, mostly civilians, according to data from the territory’s health ministry, which the UN considers reliable.
Hamas Says International Mediators Resume Ceasefire Talks
On Thursday, international mediators resumed talks between Hamas and Israel over a potential ceasefire in Gaza, Basem Naim, an official in Hamas’s political bureau, told The Associated Press. The official expressed optimism that an agreement to bring an end to the 14-month conflict could soon be achieved.
Ceasefire negotiations were halted last month when Qatar withdrew from talks involving mediators from Egypt and the United States, citing frustrations over stalled progress between Israel and Hamas.
ALSO READ: UN Says Syria Fighting has Displaced 280,000 Since November 27
However, in recent days, there has been a “reactivation” of diplomatic efforts aimed at halting the fighting, securing the release of hostages held in Gaza, and freeing Palestinian prisoners in Israeli custody.
Earlier negotiation rounds centred on proposals for a phased ceasefire, with an initial six-week pause in hostilities serving as the cornerstone.
During this preliminary phase, female, elderly, and sick hostages held in Gaza would be released in exchange for Palestinian prisoners detained by Israel.
Under the proposed plan, Israel would scale back its military presence during the initial ceasefire period, allowing displaced Palestinians to return to their homes.
Simultaneously, both sides would initiate discussions on the next phase, which would include a full withdrawal of Israeli forces, the release of all remaining hostages, and negotiations on a permanent resolution to the conflict.
A third and final phase would centre on rebuilding efforts and long-term reconstruction in the region.
