Urgent MAP statement on evacuation of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza.

The development comes as new testimony reported yesterday by Physicians for Human Rights Israel detailed the abuse of Kamal Adwan’s former director, Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, who has remained in Israeli detention without charge or trial since Israeli forces detained him during a raid on the hospital in December 2024.

Kamal Adwan Hospital had only just resumed services in March, providing primary healthcare and emergency care for between 100 and 120 patients a day, including children, women and the elderly.

Fikr Shalltoot, Medical Aid for Palestinians Gaza Director, said: “Once again, Israeli forces are driving one of the few hospitals providing daily medical care to patients in northern Gaza out of service.

We had been looking forward to seeing Kamal Adwan return to the full capacity it had before. Instead, the vital services that have only just been restored have been suspended while healthcare workers are being forced to evacuate and severely ill patients are forced to leave.

This is the same hospital where Dr Hussam Abu Safiya continued treating patients until Israeli forces detained him. He refused to abandon his patients then. Today, those same patients and his colleagues are once again being forced out of the hospital. And while Kamal Adwan is being forced to close, Dr Abu Safiya remains in detention and faces allegations of abuse. This should horrify us.”

MAP is calling for:

• The immediate protection of Kamal Adwan Hospital, its patients and healthcare workers, and an end to all attacks and threats against healthcare facilities.
• The UK Government to press Israel to end the arbitrary detention and mistreatment of healthcare workers like Dr Abu Safiya and take concrete action to hold those responsible to account.
• An immediate end to Israel’s attacks on healthcare in Gaza. The UK Government must use its influence to demand an end to these attacks and suspend all arms transfers to Israel, including the supply of F-35 components, while pursuing accountability for those responsible.

[ENDS]

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Medical Aid for Palestinians works for a future where every Palestinian has access to a comprehensive, effective and locally-led system of healthcare, and the full realisation of their rights to health and dignity. We have worked for more than 40 years in the occupied Palestinian territory and in Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon.