Israel bulldozes, 'buries alive' dozens at Gaza's Kamal Adwan Hospital

Israeli forces stormed and bulldozed parts of Kamal Adwan Hospital in North Gaza on Saturday, burying alive and killing dozens of patients and injured displaced Palestinians, according to a video uploaded by Al-Jazeera videographer and reporter Anas al-Sharif.

The video from al-Sharif suggests that the courtyard, which contained many tents set up by refugees, was deliberately bulldozed by Israeli forces before people had a chance to escape.

In the video, an emotional al-Sharif explains that Israeli forces had currently withdrew, but that “a major despicable act occurred at Kamal Adwan”. The video then cuts to scenes of the destroyed courtyard, with earth and bricks overturned into mounds, under which are dead bodies.

“This is the crime committed by the Israeli forces in Kamal Adwan’s yards.”

He then turns the camera to what looks like a dismembered limb, saying: “This is the body of an injured refugee who was in the hospital … the Israeli bulldozers ran him over.”

“We cannot describe the situation … tens of bodies run over by Israeli bulldozers,” al-Sharif says as he pans around the yard, showing more crushed heaps of rubble and body parts.

"Dozens of displaced, sick, and wounded people were buried alive. The occupation [Israeli] bulldozers trampled the tents of the displaced people in the hospital yard and brutally crushed them,” he adds. 

According to witnesses, there were dozens of people taking refuge in the yard when Israeli forces attacked. “They are now under the rubble,” the videographer says.

Though the exact number of dead is not given in the video, al-Sharif indicates that he has only been able to cover a small part of the destruction at Kamal Adwan.

In a particularly gruesome scene, the video shows a kitten eating what al-Sharif calls “the flesh of martyrs’ bodies”.

Al-Sharif says that though he does not want to show these scenes, he feels he must so the world knows about “the atrocities Israel commits against our people”.

The contents of the video cannot at this time be independently verified by The New Arab.

Kamal Adwan has been under direct siege for nine days in a row, with reports of the Israeli forces shooting at anything within its vicinity. The structure now appears to be almost completely destroyed. 

One of Israel’s main tactics in its war on Gaza has been to systematically target hospitals, not just to make them dysfunctional , but also to stop Gazans from seeking refuge within them. It has claimed, without presenting any credible evidence, that Hamas uses them as “command centres”.