Gaza ministry: 5 patients die as power lost in hospital raid
Israeli special forces were combing the southern Gaza Strip’s largest hospital in search of hostages’ remains Friday, as Gaza officials announced that a power outage at the medical center had caused the deaths of five Palestinians in the critical care unit.
While the raid has rendered the hospital, Nasser Medical Center, barely functional at a time when the overall health system in Gaza is struggling, the Israeli military announced that it had arrested 20 people who it said had participated in the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel.
Gaza’s Health Ministry said electric generators had cut out and all power was lost at the hospital but did not specify the reason. The ministry said on Facebook that the Israeli military was in control of the complex, which it entered early Thursday. On Friday, the World Health Organization said it was urgently requesting access there.
The Israeli military said in a statement Friday that during its search of the hospital, it had detained dozens of people for questioning. It also said its troops had found mortar shells and grenades belonging to Hamas in the area.
The Israeli military said later that during the search, troops had found medication bearing the names of Israeli hostages. The source of the drugs and how they were used was “being looked into,” the military said. While Israel and Hamas reached a deal last month that would allow medications to be delivered to Israeli hostages, it was unclear if any had reached the captives.
The goals of the raid on the hospital were to check intelligence that the bodies of two hostages were there, to arrest or kill Hamas fighters, and to detain the family members of senior Hamas officials, said an intelligence official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity under protocol.
Since Tuesday, Israeli forces have interrogated all people leaving the hospital to determine whether they are Hamas members, according to three security officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to communicate with the media.
As of Friday night, the army had not announced that it had found the bodies of hostages.
Neither the Israeli statements nor those of Gaza authorities could be independently verified. Communications with people inside the Nasser complex, in the city of Khan Younis, have been spotty since Israel’s military pushed onto its grounds, smashing through the perimeter and entering the compound as explosions and gunfire rang out.
Ashraf al-qidra, a spokesperson for the Gaza Health Ministry, said in an interview that 186 patients, 95 health professionals and 176 other people were still in the hospital. Among the remaining patients, al-qidra said 18 were in particularly concerning condition.
Before the raid began Thursday, the WHO had reported that the hospital had 402 patients, including around 80 in intensive care.