The hospital was raided by Israeli troops on Friday, the Gaza Health Ministry and the United Nations said, but Israel denied its military operations had stopped it from functioning.

On Tuesday (AEDT), the sides gave conflicting accounts of the situation, with Israel denying an assertion by the Gaza ministry’s spokesperson that its forces had detained the hospital director.

The ministry said the evacuated patients, including five who required kidney dialysis and three intensive care cases, were moved from the hospital to others in Gaza thanks to efforts of people like Gargavanis and other staff of the World Health Organisation, a UN agency.

The UN humanitarian office said on Monday the Israeli military operation in the hospital complex was ongoing.

Nasser Hospital is the latest health facility to become a theatre of war in the conflict between Israel and Hamas, now in its fifth month.

Israel says Hamas, the Islamist group that has run Gaza since 2007, uses hospitals for cover. Hamas denies this and says Israel’s allegations serve as a pretext to destroy the healthcare system.

The Gaza war was triggered by a Hamas attack on southern Israel on October 7 in which 1200 people were killed and 253 taken hostage, according to Israel.

Vowing to destroy Hamas, Israel has responded with an air and ground assault that according to Gaza’s tallies has killed more than 29,000 Palestinians and wounded more than 69,000. The war has displaced most of the enclave’s 2.3 million people and reduced much of it to rubble.

Ashraf al-Qidra, spokesperson for the Gaza Health Ministry, said Israeli forces had detained 70 staff and volunteers at the hospital, including its director Dr Nahed Abu Taeema.

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The Israeli army denied Taeema had been detained and said it was not aware of 70 other arrests.

The army had previously said it had apprehended hundreds of Hamas militants who were hiding in Nasser Hospital, some posing as medical staff, and had released images of weapons it said were found there.

“IDF [Israel Defence Forces] troops conducted activities against terror infrastructure and terrorist operatives at the Nasser Hospital,” a spokesperson said.

“In addition, the IDF operated in cooperation with the hospital director and the medical team in order to enable the continued functioning of the hospital. The troops also engaged in a dialogue with the director a few days ago.”

Reuters was unable to reach Taeema by phone.

COGAT, an Israeli Defence Ministry liaison agency involved in coordinating aid deliveries to Gaza, said Nasser Hospital had remained functional at all times during the army’s raids.

“We facilitated humanitarian aid and supplies to the hospital and coordinated a @UN team to evacuate the patients,” COGAT said on X.

It described the army’s actions as “a precise activity against the Hamas terror organisation at the Nasser Hospital, with a key objective to ensure that the Nasser hospital continues its operations”.

It listed items it said had been delivered to the hospital with its help, including diesel fuel, food and drinking water, a replacement generator and medicines donated by the WHO.

Hospitals in northern Gaza had been partially operating in recent weeks, but were now at risk of shutting down again, the Gaza Health Ministry said.

All European Union countries except Hungary warned Israel on Monday against launching an offensive in Rafah that they said would deepen the catastrophe of some 1.5 million refugees crammed into the city on the southern edge of Gaza.

“An attack on Rafah would be absolutely catastrophic ... it would be unconscionable,” Ireland’s Foreign Minister Micheal Martin said before a meeting of foreign ministers from the 27 EU member states in Brussels.

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After the talks ended, all but one of them called in a joint statement for “an immediate humanitarian pause that would lead to a lasting ceasefire, the unconditional release of all hostages and the provision of humanitarian assistance”.

The statement was issued for “foreign ministers of 26 member-states of the European Union” and diplomats said Hungary – a close ally of the Israeli government – was the sole country that did not sign up.

“We ask the Israeli government not to take military action in Rafah that would worsen an already catastrophic humanitarian situation and prevent the urgently needed provision of basic services and humanitarian assistance,” the ministers said.

Israel is preparing to mount a ground invasion of Gaza’s southernmost city, which it has called a last bastion of Hamas control after nearly five months of fighting.

Reuters

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