The Israeli military launched a new offensive against alleged terrorist activity in northern Gaza, focusing on a hospital it says has been a “center of gravity” for Hamas throughout the war.
Troops moved north to the area around Kamal Adwan hospital outside of Beit Hanoun after concluding operations in Rafah last week, according to the Israel Defense Forces, and were met with two long-range rockets fired out of the region.
“Urgent warning to all those who have not yet evacuated the area specified in the map, and the Beit Hanoun area in particular,” Col. Avichay Adraee, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman, said on X Saturday.
Hamas has previously launched missiles in the face of IDF advances to prevent capture.
“This area has been warned many times in the past,” Adraee added. “The IDF operates in this area with force.”
The IDF last targeted Hamas activities in the hospital in October.
“The area has once again become a center of gravity for terrorist organizations and serves as a shelter for terrorists,” the IDF said in a post on Telegram.
The military said it worked with local officials and international organizations to evacuate patients and staff and move those receiving treatment to other hospitals.
Reports previously stated the IDF stormed and forcibly removed patients, and set fire to the hospital, which the IDF denied, the Times of Israel reported.
The World Health Organization condemned the raid on Saturday, saying that the hospital, which is the last major hospital operating in northern Gaza, is now out of service and parts were left severely damaged.
The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry claimed on Saturday that Israeli forces detained the hospital’s director, Hussam Abu Safiya, but a post on Instagram later denied he was arrested.
“All that is being circulated about Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya being arrested is false news,” a statement published to his Instagram story said.
Hamas has used protected facilities like hospitals throughout the war, including to hide Israeli hostages kidnapped in the Oct. 7 massacres.
The IDF published footage in October of a hospital staffer saying Hamas terrorists had swarmed the Kamal Adwan hospital, according to reports.
“They are in the courtyards, at the gates of the buildings, in the offices of Kamal Adwan hospital,” the worker said. “They operate ambulances to transport their wounded military operatives, and to transport them for their missions, and this is instead of using the ambulances for the benefit of civilians.”
Further north, Hamas called on Palestinians in the West Bank to mobilize against an “unprecedented” level of “aggression” from the Palestinian Authority, the governing body in the region.
Hamas accused PA security forces, which have been engaged in ongoing counter-terrorism operations, of “coercing” Palestinians into supporting a crackdown on West Bank terror groups, the Jerusalem Post reported.
Meanwhile, Israel carried out airstrikes Friday on the Syria-Lebanon border, where it says weapons have been transferred to Lebanese terror outfit Hezbollah.
“These strikes are an additional part of the IDF’s effort to target weapons smuggling operations from Syria into Lebanon, and prevent Hezbollah from re-establishing weapons smuggling routes,” the military announced.
The strikes came a day after Lebanon’s army accused Israel of violating a ceasefire agreement.
With Post wires
