Israel Destroyed North Gaza Hospital’s Water Tanks With Remote-Controlled Robots

Northern Gaza’s Kamal Adwan Hospital underwent its worst night yet of Israeli attacks on Friday, the facility’s director has said, with Israeli forces destroying most of the hospital’s remaining water tanks and creating “catastrophic” conditions for the facility.

In a statement on Friday, Hussam Abu Safiya, the hospital’s director, said that Israeli forces had detonated remote-controlled robots rigged with explosives in places “alarmingly close” to the hospital on Friday night. The explosions blew out windows and doors in the facility and took out the majority of the little water supplies the hospital has left on its rooftop, Safiya said.

“Tonight was one of the most difficult nights we have faced,” said Safiya. Israel has been besieging the hospital for weeks now, evidently seeking to destroy it and the rest of the hospitals in northern Gaza as part of its ethnic cleansing campaign there.

Israeli forces have also continuously carried out drone strikes, with one killing a nurse near the hospital and another killing a doctor from Kamal Adwan who was en route to another hospital in the region on Thursday. Friday’s attacks have injured three medical staff, Safiya said.

“As of now, heavy bombing persists throughout the night, accompanied by ongoing destruction of buildings. It is a catastrophic scene, with airstrikes and artillery shelling occurring with unprecedented intensity and frequency,” said the hospital director.

According to Safiya, there are 72 patients left at the hospital, which is in need of urgent assistance due to Israeli forces depriving north Gaza of humanitarian aid for two months now. Just last week, officials had reported that there were over 100 patients at the facility.

Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor noted when reporting on Israel using booby-trapped robots in north Gaza in October that using such weapons is a violation of international law, as they constitute weapons that cause indiscriminate damage to civilians and civilian infrastructure. Deliberately targeting civilian buildings like hospitals is also a violation of international law.

The operational ability of Kamal Adwan is rapidly deteriorating due to Israel’s attacks. Last week, Israel carried out another brutal raid of the hospital, evacuating all of the hospital’s patients and staff and forcing an Indonesian emergency team dispatched to the hospital to flee, leaving the hospital with no surgeons despite the huge numbers of people needing surgery in north Gaza as a result of Israeli strikes. Israel killed four physicians in the raid.

Israeli forces have also systematically targeted the facility’s most critical infrastructure, bombing its water supplies, oxygen generators and fuel tanks, and killing numerous staff.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), Israeli forces have continued to deny aid organizations access to the hospital, worsening the already catastrophic situation.

“Despite dire conditions in Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, WHO was denied three times in the last four days to access the hospital to deliver medical supplies and fuel; transfer critical patients to Al-Shifa Hospital; and deploy an international emergency medical team,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Thursday. “We urge for the immediate facilitation of humanitarian missions to the hospital, and an end to hostilities!”