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The Nasser Medical Complex was Gaza’s largest operating hospital until last week. (Credit: Abed Zagout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Israeli forces forced doctors and other health professionals to leave Nasser Hospital in Gaza, strip to their underwear, and wait in the cold for hours, before the military allowed five doctors to return to the building to treat patients . Patients, a witness told CNN on Monday, while the Israeli military reported it had arrested hundreds of Hamas fighters at the hospital, some of whom were posing as doctors.

According to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), they also found medicines bearing the names of Israeli hostages inside the hospital, and posted a video of soldiers showing boxes of medicines that had inscriptions and sometimes photographs on the boxes. To.

The witness spoke to CNN in a rare telephone interview from the Nasir hospital area, where there are few ways to communicate with the outside world.

The source said that when the IDF took control of the hospital last week, they broadcast a message saying: “Doctors, come out.”

When the doctor came out and ordered him to take off his clothes, he protested against the cold conditions.

According to the witness he ordered the doctors, “Take off your clothes.”

The doctors then took off their clothes in the cold and were left outside for several hours, before Israeli soldiers selected five doctors to return to the compound and care for the patients. The witness does not know what happened to the other doctors.

This left five doctors to treat about 150 patients in the old building of the complex, the witness said.

The witness, who was inside the hospital, asked not to be identified for fear of retribution.

The source indicated that the hospital had no electricity, and patients were dying every day due to the Israeli blockade of the hospital.

He also reported that the atmosphere was filled with the smell of rotting dead bodies. “Four patients have died in the last few days and (Israeli) forces have not allowed them to take patients out of the building and the smell is very unpleasant,” the witness said.

Food and water are scarce, he said. When World Health Organization (WHO) officials arrived on Saturday, “we said: ‘If you don’t bring food and water, we will die,'” the witness said.

After this, WHO brought some water and canned goods like tuna, but there were no carbohydrates like bread or rice, the witness said. “They (patients) can’t eat it without bread,” he said.

On Sunday, WHO evacuated 14 patients who needed oxygen.

Nasser was Gaza’s largest operating hospital before last week’s IDF raid.

Gaza’s health ministry said on Sunday that about 70 health workers at the medical compound had been arrested by Israeli forces and 80 patients had been transferred to an undisclosed location outside the hospital.

The IDF did not immediately respond to CNN’s question about medical staff being forced to take off their clothes in the cold, but the description is similar to reports from other hospitals in Gaza where Israeli soldiers have been admitted.