At least 28 people, including children, have died in a wave of Israeli military strikes throughout the Gaza Strip, according to Gaza’s civil defense agency.
A school sheltering displaced families was among the facilities struck, killing eight people including four children over the weekend, the agency said.
The Israeli military claimed a Hamas command center was inside the compound of the Musa bin Nusair school in Gaza City, and has not commented on reports of attacks by the hospital.
Israel ordered the closure and evacuation on Sunday of one of the last hospitals still partly functioning in a besieged area on the northern edge of the Gaza Strip, forcing medics to search for a way to bring hundreds of patients and staff to safety.
The head of the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya, Husam Abu Safiya, said that obeying the order to shut down was “next to impossible” because there were not enough ambulances to get patients out
“Hamas systematically violates international law,” the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on social media, adding that Israel’s response would be to “act with force and determination against the terrorist organizations”.
More than 45,000 Palestinians have been killed during the 14-month war between Israel and Hamas, according to figures from Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry.
The war began when Hamas-led gunmen carried out an unprecedented attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, during which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.
