Jake Johnson
Common Dreams / December 27, 2024
The comments from emergency physician Mimi Syed came as the Israeli military forcibly evacuated Kamal Adwan Hospital, endangering patients and medical workers.
An American emergency and trauma physician currently working in Gaza warned Friday that the Israeli military’s evacuation order at a barely functioning hospital in the northern part of the enclave means “the end of humanity” there, as the dozens of patients receiving treatment at the besieged facility have nowhere safe to go and the healthcare system in the region has collapsed.
Mimi Syed, who is based in Olympia, Washington and is on her second stint in Gaza since Israel’s latest assault began last year, told Al-Jazeera that she “can totally imagine deaths taking place as a result” of Israel’s evacuation order at Kamal Adwan Hospital, given that patients who are reliant on electrical appliances cannot easily be transported.
Syed’s comments came as the head of Gaza’s health ministry said he has lost contact with Kamal Adwan, one of several northern Gaza hospitals that Israeli forces have encircled and attacked in recent weeks.
Citing a nurse and a journalist inside Kamal Adwan, CNN reported Friday that everyone inside the facility has “been ordered to leave the hospital and go to the yard of the compound.”
“Earlier on Friday, a video shared by nurse Walid Al Budi, who is also inside the hospital, showed a fire burning in the archive department of the hospital,” the outlet added. “Heavy gunfire can be heard in the background.”
Video footage posted to social media by Quds News shows patients and medical personnel walking south following the evacuation order at Kamal Adwan:
The forced evacuation came hours after an Israeli airstrike near Kamal Adwan killed dozens of people, including medical workers.
Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of Kamal Adwan, wrote in a social media post early Friday that Israeli forces are “burning all the operating departments in the hospital while we are still here.”
“The army evacuated the entire medical staff and the displaced people and arrested a number of the medical staff,” he added. “There are a large number of injuries among the medical staff.”
In an interview released earlier this week, Syed issued an “urgent plea for help,” saying Israel’s assault on Gaza’s overwhelmed and under-resourced hospitals and other civilian infrastructure “needs to stop.”
“I’m seeing civilian casualties on a regular basis,” said Syed. “Camps and tents are being struck with airstrikes routinely. We’re seeing children with traumatic amputations shrapnel injuries, open skull wounds with brain matter out.”
“We’re seeing so many children with kidney failure and gastritis that it’s leading to significant dehydration,” Syed added. “All of this is unnecessary.”
Jake Johnson is a senior editor and staff writer for Common Dreams
