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Israeli soldiers have detained four Palestinian patients who were on their way to the Indonesian Hospital for treatment, in the latest attack on wounded civilians and the healthcare sector.

Since Israel attacked and raided the north Gaza Kamal Adwan Hospital, patients were forced to the Indonesian Hospital, which has been rendered out of function due to incessant Israeli shelling.

The head of the World Health Organisation (WHO), Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, confirmed the patients were detained.

"Four patients were detained during the transfer. We urge Israel to ensure their health care needs and rights are upheld” he said in a statement.

The WHO was facilitating the transport of the patients who planned for them to eventually get treatment at the Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.

The UN has since said the WHO is planning a mission to the Indonesian Hospital to move the evacuated patients to southern Gaza for further care.

Gaza’s ministry of health also announced that one of the patients who was detained had been in a critical condition and that seven patients and 10 medical staff remained at the Indonesian hospital.

Israel has been routinely attacking hospitals in the Gaza Strip since the start of the war in October 2023, claiming Hamas members are using it despite providing no evidence to back the statements.

On Friday, Israeli forces raided the Kamal Adwan Hospital burning large portions of it and forcing out medical staff and patients. The hospital was one of the biggest in the area and one of the few partially functional ones in the entire Strip.

The hospital’s director, Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, was also arrested from the hospital, triggering widespread calls from rights groups for his release.

"We at Amnesty are extremely concerned over the fate and wellbeing of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital who was detained by Israeli forces along with others during a raid on the hospital on 27 December," Secretary-General Agnes Callamard wrote on X.

The attacks on Kamal Adwan Hospital which have now put it out of use have put the lives of around 75,000 Palestinians in the north at risk, particularly as no functioning ambulances are left in the area and there is a severe shortage of medical equipment.

Since October, Israel has put north Gaza under a full siege, cutting it off from all emergency humanitarian aid while pounding it from the ground and from above.

Palestinian medical staff have for months been urging for humanitarian aid and intervention from the international community as the healthcare situation deteriorates dramatically.

The director of Al-Awda Hospital, Mohammed Salha, told CNN on Monday that his medical facility has little fuel left and is over capacity when it comes to patients.

"We have one surgeon who is only performing when a case is in a life-threatening situation," Salha��said.

"The health system in the north is completely deteriorated," he added. "We are working to save what is left."

Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 45,484 Palestinians and wounded over 108,090 others since 7 October 2023. The war on the enclave has levelled entire neighbourhoods and plunged the Strip into a deep humanitarian crisis.