Israeli forces raided the Kamal Adwan Hospital on Friday, one of three medical facilities on the northern edge of the Gaza Strip, burning large sections and forcing dozens of patients and hundreds of others to leave, Gaza health officials said. The Israel Defense Forces denied entering or setting fire to the facility.
Gaza's Hamas-run Health Ministry said it had lost contact with staff inside the hospital in the northern city of Beit Lahiya.
"The occupation forces are inside the hospital now and they are burning it," Ministry Director Munir al-Bursh said in a statement.
The account could not be independently confirmed, The Associated Press said, because the Israeli military bars foreign journalists from the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli military said Friday that it had launched the operation to target Hamas militants near the hospital and had ordered people to leave the hospital but denied its troops had entered the hospital.
"While IDF troops were not in the hospital, a small fire broke out in an empty building inside the hospital that is under control," Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani, an Israeli military spokesperson, said Friday night. He said a preliminary investigation found "no connection" between military activity and the fire.
The military said in a statement the hospital had become "a key stronghold for terrorist organizations and continues to be used as a hideout for terrorist operatives." Hospital officials have denied that claim.
The AP said it does not have access to Kamal Adwan Hospital, but members of the Hamas police force have been seen at other hospitals, maintaining security and controlling access to parts of the facilities.
Since the war began between Israel and Hamas in October 2023, the Israeli military has frequently accused Hamas of using hospitals as command and control centers for attacks against its forces. Hamas has rejected those accusations.
Without providing details, the Israeli military said it had tried to mitigate harm to civilians and had "facilitated the secure evacuations of civilians, patients and medical personnel prior to the operation."
The hospital has been under intense pressure from Israeli forces for weeks. "The world must understand that our hospital is being targeted with the intent to kill and forcibly displace the people inside," Hussam Abu Safiyeh, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, said in a statement Monday.
The hospital announced Thursday that five of its staff members, including a pediatrician, had been killed in an Israeli strike. The Israeli military said it was not aware of a strike at the hospital and that the report of the staff deaths would be examined.
The World Health Organization has characterized conditions at the hospital as "appalling" and said it was operating at a "minimum" level.
Hamas said Israeli forces had stormed the hospital Friday.
"The occupation army stormed Kamal Adwan Hospital, forcing medical staff, patients, the wounded and displaced people to evacuate it," the militant group said in a statement.
Hamas also accused Israeli forces of isolating and detaining those evacuated. "Hamas holds the occupation fully responsible for the lives of patients, wounded and medical staff after they were cut off from communication, arrested and taken to an unknown location," the militant group added.
The war was triggered by Hamas' terror attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, in which 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken to Gaza as hostages, according to Israeli data.
Israel's subsequent campaign against Hamas in Gaza has killed more than 45,400 Palestinians, according to health officials in the territory. An additional 108,000 people have been wounded, the Health Ministry said.
Hamas has been designated as a terror group by the United States, Britain and other Western countries.
The majority of Gaza's population of 2.3 million people has been displaced as they continue to face threats of famine. The enclave itself is in ruins.
Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
