Israeli forces have raided the Kamal Adwan Hospital, one of three medical facilities on the northern edge of Gaza, torching 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, medics and the civil emergency service said.
The Palestinian health ministry said contact with staff inside the hospital in Beit Lahiya, which has been under heavy pressure from Israeli forces for weeks, had been lost.
"The occupation forces are inside the hospital now and they are burning it," ministry director Munir Al-Bursh said in a statement.
The Israeli military claimed it had tried to limit harm to civilians and had "facilitated the secure evacuation of civilians, patients and medical personnel prior to the operation", but gave no details.
In a statement, it claimed fighters from Hamas - which previously controlled Gaza - had operated from the hospital throughout the war.
Youssef Abu El-Rish, the deputy health minister, said Israeli forces had set fire to the surgical department and laboratory and a storehouse.
Like the Indonesian and Al-Awda hospitals, Kamal Adwan has been repeatedly attacked by Israeli forces who have been attacking the northern edge of Gaza for weeks, Palestinian medical staff said.
Hundreds ordered to leave north Gaza hospital
Palestinian health ministry director Munir Al-Bursh said the army had ordered 350 people to leave Kamal Adwan for a nearby school sheltering displaced families. They included 75 patients, their companions, and 185 medical staff.
Mr Abu El-Rish said soldiers were transferring patients and medical staff to the Indonesian Hospital, which had already been put out of action by heavy damage and had been evacuated by Israeli forces a day earlier.
Footage circulating on Palestinian and Arab media, which Reuters could not immediately verify, showed smoke rising from the area of Kamal Adwan.
Much of the area around the northern towns of Jabalia, Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya has been cleared of people and systematically razed, fuelling speculation that Israel intends to keep the area as a closed buffer zone after the fighting in Gaza ends.
Israel denies this, claiming its campaign is to prevent Hamas militants from regrouping.
Health officials yesterday said five medical staff, including a paediatrician, had been killed by Israeli fire at Kamal Adwan. The Israeli military said it was unaware of a strike at the hospital and that the report of the medics' death would be examined.
In a statement, Hamas blamed Israel and the United States for the fate of the hospital's occupants.
Israel's war 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 war was triggered by Hamas' attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken to Gaza as hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel violates ceasefire with airstrikes on Syria-Lebanon border
Israeli jets struck seven crossing points along the Syria-Lebanon border, aiming to cut the flow of weapons to Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.
Israeli troops also seized a truck mounted with a 40-barrel rocket launcher in southern Lebanon, part of a haul from various areas that included explosives, rocket-propelled grenade launchers and AK-47 automatic rifles, the military said.
The commander of the Israeli Air Force, Major General Tomer Bar, claimed Hezbollah was trying to smuggle weapons into Lebanon to test Israel's ability to stop them.
"This must not be tolerated," he said in a statement.
Under the terms of a 27 November ceasefire agreement, Israel is supposed to withdraw its troops from southern Lebanon in phases while unauthorised Hezbollah military facilities south of the Litani River are to be dismantled.
However, each side has accused the other of violating the agreement, intended to end more than a year of fighting that began with Hezbollah missile strikes on Israel in the aftermath of the Hamas-led attack of 7 October 2023.
The United Nations peacekeeping force in Lebanon yesterday called for Israeli forces to withdraw, citing what it said were repeated violations of the deal.
Israel, which destroyed large parts of Hezbollah's missile stocks during weeks of operations in southern Lebanon, has claimed it will not permit weapons to be smuggled to Hezbollah through Syria.
Israel has also conducted attacks against Houthi movement in Yemen in recent days and pledged to continue its campaign against militant groups across the region.
