Saudi Gazette report

RIYADH — Saudi Arabia strongly condemned the burning of a hospital in the Gaza Strip by the Israeli occupation forces.

In a statement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed Saudi Arabia’s condemnation and denunciation in the strongest terms of the burning of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza on Friday and the forced evacuation of patients and medical staff.

“These acts constitute a violation of international law, international humanitarian law, and the most fundamental humanitarian and ethical norms,” the ministry said in a statement carried by the Saudi Press Agency.

Israeli soldiers stormed and burned Kamal Adwan Hospital on Friday after ordering dozens of patients and hundreds of displaced people to evacuate the medical complex, which has been severely damaged in recent days.

The Ministry of Health in Gaza said that contact with staff inside Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia, which has been under heavy attack by Israeli forces for weeks, had been lost. The hospital has been under a tightening Israeli blockade imposed on parts of northern Gaza since October, when the military said it had launched an offensive to stop Hamas from regrouping there.

Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan hospital, said that approximately 50 people had been killed, including five medical staff, in a series of Israeli air strikes targeting the vicinity of the hospital. He said a building opposite the hospital was targeted by Israeli warplanes, leading to the death of a pediatrician and a lab technician, as well as their families. He said a third staff member who worked as a maintenance technician was targeted and killed as he rushed to the scene of the first strike.