Israeli troops also forced health care workers and patients to leave the facility, and destroyed critical medical supplies, according to a statement by Dr Hussam Abu Saifya, the hospital director. In the early hours of Friday, the Israeli military sent two plain clothed messengers into the hospital, who told people over a megaphone to evacuate, Abu Saifya added. The military detained a “large number” of young men in the two-hour raid, including health workers and Palestinians who had sought refuge, added Abu Saifya. Israeli quadcopters unleashed a blaze of “intense and direct fire” as military vehicles encircled the facility, Abu Saifya recalled, before corralling patients, displaced people and health workers in the courtyard and forcibly taking them to a checkpoint further south, towards Gaza City. “Initially, there was a series of airstrikes on the northern and western sides of the hospital, accompanied by intense and direct fire,” Abu Saifya said…
