The UAE has strongly condemned the Israeli occupation forces’ destruction of Kamal Adwan Hospital and the forced evacuation of patients and medical staff in northern Gaza.
In a statement on Friday (December 27), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) expressed the UAE’s firm rejection of this egregious act, which breaches international humanitarian law, and condemned the ongoing systematic destruction of Gaza’s remaining healthcare infrastructure.
The Ministry reaffirmed the UAE’s stance, urging an immediate halt to hostilities and emphasizing the need to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure under international law and treaties, ensuring they are not targeted during conflicts.
It also voiced deep concern over the worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza, which threatens additional civilian casualties, and warned of the looming humanitarian disaster.
Burning Of Kamal Adwan Hospital
On Friday, Israeli forces raided and set fire to Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, forcing hundreds of patients and staff to evacuate. The facility was the last operational hospital in the area. Approximately 350 individuals, including all patients and staff, were evacuated, and all communication with the medical facility was severed. The Israeli army claimed that the hospital had been used by Hamas as a stronghold, which Hamas has denied, asserting that the evacuation was conducted safely. However, the Israeli army has not provided proof to support these allegations, which have been made in similar past incidents involving hospitals.
Meanwhile, Medical sources told Al Jazeera that at least five staff members at the hospital were burned alive during the attack.
Shorouk al-Rantisi, a medical staff member working in the laboratory at Kamal Adwan Hospital, told Al Jazeera about her experience of being forcibly displaced by the Israeli military. After the order to evacuate the facility was issued to Director Hussam Abu Safia, the staff was directed to al-Fareek Square, where men and women were separated.
The Gaza Health Ministry reported that patients and wounded individuals who were forcibly evacuated from Kamal Adwan Hospital to the Indonesian Hospital last night are in “a very miserable and difficult situation.”
The Israeli army destroyed the infrastructure before the forced evacuation, it added in a statement.
“We appeal to all concerned institutions and parties urgently to find a solution for the patients and the injured people who are currently in the Indonesian Hospital,” the ministry said.
Iran Condemns “Barbaric Aggression”
Iran’s Foreign Ministry has condemned the actions of Israel’s military against the Kamal Adwan Hospital, describing the attack as the latest example of a “war crime, crimes against humanity, and an egregious violation of international law and its norms.”
The Israeli attacks are part of an “ongoing genocide in occupied Palestine”, ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said in a statement. “The silence of relevant international institutions regarding this crime is unjustifiable and makes them internationally responsible,” he said.
