BEIRUT, December 14. /TASS/. The Israeli occupying forces, in their takeover of the Kamal Adwan Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip, have detained over 70 medical workers and patients, spokesman for the Gaza Ministry of Health Dr. Ashraf Al-Qudra reported on his page on X (formerly "Twitter").

"Among those detained after the storming of the hospital is its director Ahmed Al-Kahlut," he said. "The soldiers are not allowing us to assist patients, and as a result, two people who were hospitalized with wounds in the emergency room have died." As Al-Qudra noted, the power outage led to the shutdown of life support equipment, posing a threat to seriously ill people.

According to him, the occupying military forced more than 2,500 refugees who had taken shelter in the hospital to leave. "The Israeli authorities intend to transfer the rest of the staff and patients to the Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, which lacks the necessary therapeutic services," spokesman for the Gaza Ministry of Health stressed. "For a number of patients, this is tantamount to execution."

According to the World Health Organization, 22 hospitals in the northern Gaza Strip are not functioning due to military operations, and 2 more are partially operating. In the southern enclave, 7 out of 10 hospitals continue to operate. According to the Ministry of Health, the number of Palestinians killed in Gaza since the beginning of the military escalation (October 7) due to Israeli air raids and shelling has risen to 18,600, with another 50,600 injured.