On Friday, Israeli forces attacked Kamal Adwan Hospital, one of three medical facilities in the far north of the Gaza Strip, setting fire to large sections and ordering dozens of patients and hundreds of others to leave, officials said.
Elsewhere in Gaza, Israeli strikes killed at least 25 people, including 15 people in a single house in Gaza City, doctors and the civil emergency service said.
Gaza's Health Ministry said contact had been lost with staff at the Beit Lahiya hospital, which has been under heavy pressure from Israeli forces for weeks.
“The occupation forces are now inside the hospital and are burning it,” ministry director Munir Al-Bursh said in a statement.
The Israeli military said it had tried to limit damage to civilians and had “facilitated the safe evacuation of civilians, patients and medical personnel prior to the operation,” but gave no details.
In a statement, it said that fighters from the Hamas group, which previously controlled the Gaza Strip, had operated out of the hospital throughout the conflict.
Youssef Abu El-Rish, the Hamas-appointed deputy health minister, said Israeli forces had set fire to the surgical department, the laboratory and a warehouse.
like him Indonesian and Al-Awda hospitals, Kamal Advan has been repeatedly attacked by Israeli forces who have been attacking the northern edge of the Gaza Strip for weeks, Gaza medical staff say.
HUNDREDS ORDERED TO LEAVE THE HOSPITAL
Bursh said the army had ordered 350 people to leave Kamal Adwan and head to a nearby school housing displaced families. Among them were 75 patients, their companions and 185 members of medical staff.
Abu El-Rish said soldiers were transferring patients and medical staff to the Indonesian Hospital, which had already been put out of service due to severe damage and had been evacuated by Israeli forces a day earlier.
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Images circulating in Arab media, which Reuters could not immediately verify, showed smoke rising from the Kamal Adwan area.
Much of the area around the northern towns of Jabalia, Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya has been systematically cleared of inhabitants and razed, fueling speculation that Israel intends to keep the area as a closed buffer zone after the fighting in Gaza ends.
Israel denies this and says its campaign aims to prevent Hamas militants from regrouping.
On Thursday, health officials said five medical staff, including a pediatrician, had been killed by Israeli fire in Kamal Adwan. The Israeli military said it was not aware of an attack on the hospital and that the doctors' death report would be examined.
In a statement, Hamas blamed Israel and the United States for the fate of the hospital's occupants.
Israel's campaign against Hamas in Gaza has killed more than 45,300 Palestinians, according to health officials in the enclave. Most of the population of 2.3 million has been displaced and much of Gaza is in ruins.
The conflict was triggered by the Hamas attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, in which 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage to Gaza, according to Israeli counts.