Tánaiste Micheál Martin has said that he is "deeply concerned" by reports from the World Health Organization that an attack by Israeli forces had put the last major hospital in north Gaza out of action.
The assault on Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza's Beit Lahia area began early on Friday, and the WHO said it left the area's last major health facility emptied of patients and staff.
Israel's military said today that its forces had killed around 20 Palestinian militants in the raid, calling it one of its "largest operations" conducted in the territory.
"During the operation, approximately 20 terrorists were eliminated, and powerful explosive devices planted by the terrorists were neutralised," the Israeli military said.
The raid concluded on Saturday after the military said it had apprehended "240 terrorists" belonging to the Hamas and Islamic Jihad militant groups.
The military also said it had detained the hospital's director, Hossam Abu Safiyeh, whom it suspects is a Hamas militant.
Mr Martin, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, said he was concerned by the detention of hospital staff, including the director.
He said: "I am deeply concerned by World Health Organisation reports that an IDF attack has put out of action the last major hospital in North Gaza, as well as the detention of hospital staff including its director."
In the statement this evening, Mr Martin added that "international humanitarian law must be respected at all times by all parties" and that "hospitals and health facilities, medical and humanitarian personnel must be protected".
Mr Martin reiterated his call for a ceasefire, the release of all hostages and a surge of humanitarian aid into all areas of Gaza.
"We urgently need an end to the violence and the slaughter of civilians and innocent children," he added.
Israeli forces order new evacuation at besieged northern Gaza town, residents say
Israeli forces carrying out a weeks-long offensive in northern Gaza have ordered any residents remaining in Beit Hanoun to quit the town, pointing to Palestinian militant rocket fire from the area, residents said.
The instruction to residents to leave caused a new wave of displacement, although it was not immediately clear how many people were affected, the residents said.
Israel says its almost three-month-old campaign in northern Gaza is aimed at Hamas militants and preventing them from regrouping. Its instructions to civilians to evacuate are meant to keep them out of harm's way, the military says.
Palestinian and United Nations officials say no place is safe in Gaza and that evacuations worsen humanitarian conditions of the population.
Much of the area around the northern towns of Beit Hanoun, Jabalia and Beit Lahiya has been cleared of people and razed, fuelling speculation that Israel intends to keep the area as a closed buffer zone after the fighting in Gaza ends.
The Israeli military announced its new push into the Beit Hanoun area yesterday.
The Palestinian Civil Emergency Service said it had lost communication with people still trapped in the town, and it was unable to send teams into the area because of the raid.
This morning, health officials said an Israeli tank shell hit the upper floor of the Al-Ahly Arab Baptist Hospital in Gaza City near the X-ray division.
Meanwhile, Palestinian health officials said Israel imilitary strikes across Gaza killed at least 16 people. One of those strikes killed seven people and wounded others at Al-WAFA Hospital in Gaza City, the Palestinian civil emergency service said in a statement.
The Israeli military said it was looking into the report.
Baby dies from 'severe cold' - Gaza health officials
Gaza health officials have said that a 20-day-old baby died today from "severe cold" as the war-ravaged Palestinian territory grapples with winter weather.
Jumaa al-Batran died from the cold, while his twin brother remains in the intensive care unit at a local hospital, the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory said in a statement.
Marwan al-Hamas, head of field hospitals in Gaza, confirmed the death. He said it brought to five the total number of children "who have died due to severe cold" in recent weeks.
"There is no electricity. The water is cold and there is no gas, heating or food," said Yahya al-Batran, the father of the child.
"My children are dying in front of my eyes and nobody cares. Jumaa has died and I fear that his brother Ali may follow," he added.
Hostages held in Gaza were tortured, Israeli report says
Meanwhile, a new report by the Israeli health ministry that will be submitted to the United Nations this week has claimed that hostages held in Gaza were subjected to torture, including sexual and psychological abuse, starvation, burns and medical neglect.
The report is based on interviews with the medical and welfare teams which treated more than 100 Israeli and foreign hostages, most of whom were released in late November 2023, in a brief truce between Israel and Hamas. Eight hostages were rescued by the Israeli military.
The hostages include more than 30 children and teenagers, a few of whom were found to have been bound, beaten or branded with a heated object, according to the report addressed to the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture and published late yesterday.
Women reported sexual assault by the captors, including at gunpoint. Men were beaten, starved, branded, held bound in isolation and denied access to a bathroom, the report said. Some were denied treatment for injuries and medical conditions.
The report did not identify any of the hostages by name or age, to protect their privacy, but some of the descriptions matched those provided by hostages and staff that treated them in interviews with Reuters and other media and a UN report.
Hamas has repeatedly denied abuse of the 251 hostages abducted from Israel during its 7 October 2023 assault. About half of the 100 hostages still held in Gaza are believed by Israeli authorities to still be alive.
A fresh bid to secure a Gaza ceasefire including a hostage deal has gained momentum in recent weeks, although no breakthrough has been reported as yet.
The war began with Hamas' October 2023 attack, in which 1,200 people were killed, most of them civilians, according to Israeli authorities.
Israel's subsequent campaign against Hamas has killed more than 45,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to Palestinian health officials, displaced nearly all of Gaza's population and reduced much of its territory to rubble.
Israeli authorities are investigating allegations of abuse against Palestinian detainees arrested during the war.
