Since the outbreak of war, tens of thousands of Gazans have sought refuge in hospitals across the territory, many of which have suffered severe damage in ongoing hostilities.
The strike on Al-Ahli Hospital in northern Gaza -- also known as the Baptist or Ahli Arab Hospital -- caused no casualties, but came a day after Israeli forces seized a key corridor in the territory and signalled plans to expand their campaign.
It also comes after the United Nations warned that medicines and related supplies are rapidly running out in Gaza as casualties surge.
"The bombing led to the destruction of the surgery building and the oxygen generation station for the intensive care units," Gaza's civil defence rescue agency said.
The strike came "minutes after the (Israeli) army's warning to evacuate this building of patients, the injured and their companions", the agency said.
AFP photographs showed massive slabs of concrete and twisted metal scattered across the site after the strike.
The blast left a gaping hole in one of the hospital's buildings, with iron doors torn from their hinges.
Onlookers sifted through the rubble, while some retrieved equipment from a media van also damaged in the strike.
Iraq's pro-Iran Aletejah TV said one of its live broadcast vehicles was hit by the strike.
- Patients on streets -
The strike on the hospital came as Israel expanded and intensified its offensive across much of Gaza.
An air strike on Sunday targeting a vehicle in the central city of Deir el-Balah killed seven people including six brothers,civil defence said.
On Saturday, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz announced that the military planned to expand its offensive as it completed the takeover of "Morag axis" between the southern cities of Rafah and Khan Yunis. The corridor is part of what he calls "the Israeli security zone."
Patients, relatives, and medical personnel evacuated the Al-Ahli hospital in haste following the military's warning to evacuate.
Many now remain stranded in the surrounding streets.
Naela Imad, 42, had been sheltering at the hospital for several days but had to rush out of the complex.
"Just as we reached the hospital gate, they bombed it. It was a massive explosion," she told AFP.
"Now, me and my children are out on the street. We've been displaced more than 20 times. The hospital was our last refuge."
Mohammed Kashko, 66, who lives near Al-Ahli, described a scene of chaos.
"I heard children and displaced people screaming and crying in the streets," he said.
"There was fire and destruction," he added. "The situation is terrifying. We just have to pray to God now."
The Israeli military asserted that Hamas militants were operating from within the hospital compound.
Security forces "struck a command and control centre used by Hamas in the Al-Ahli Hospital," the military said.
"The compound was used by Hamas terrorists to plan and execute terror attacks against Israeli civilians and IDF troops."
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza condemned the strike, saying it led to the "forced evacuation of patients and medical staff."
Hospitals, protected under international humanitarian law, have repeatedly been hit by Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip since the start of the war between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas on October 7, 2023.
- Health system 'overwhelmed' -
Al-Ahli hospital was heavily damaged by an explosion in its car park on October 17, 2023, leaving multiple fatalities.
Militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad accused Israel, which denied responsibility and blamed a misfired rocket by Islamic Jihad for that blast -- an assertion backed by the United States.
Aid agencies and the UN say that only few of Gaza's 36 hospitals are partially functional.
"The health system in Gaza is overwhelmed by the influx of casualties and rapidly depleting essential medicines and supplies due to the blockade on the entry of humanitarian aid supplies into Gaza for over a month," the UN Office for Humanitarian Affairs said in a Tuesday report.
The Gaza war broke out after Hamas's October 2023 attack on Israel which resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
Gaza's health ministry said Sunday at least 1,574 Palestinians had been killed since March 18 when a ceasefire collapsed, taking the overall death toll since the war began to 50,944.
Gaza rescuers say family of 10 killed in Israel strike
Gaza City, Palestinian Territories (AFP) April 11, 2025 -
Dozens of Israeli air strikes on Gaza have killed "only women and children" after a ceasefire collapsed last month, the United Nations said, as an Israeli attack in the territory's south killed a family of 10 on Friday.
A UN human rights office report also warned that expanding Israeli evacuation orders were resulting in the "forcible transfer" of people into ever-shrinking areas, raising "real concern as to the future viability of Palestinians as a group in Gaza".
The Israeli military said it was looking into the attack that killed members of the same family in Khan Yunis, adding separately that it hit around 40 "terror targets" across the territory over the previous day.
Israel resumed its Gaza strikes on March 18, ending a two-month ceasefire with Hamas.
Since then, more than 1,500 people have been killed, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory to which Israel cut off aid more than a month ago.
"Ten people, including seven children, were brought to the hospital as martyrs following an Israeli air strike that targeted the Farra family home in central Khan Yunis," civil defence spokesperson Mahmud Bassal told AFP.
AFP footage of the aftermath showed several bodies wrapped in white shrouds and blankets, and the mangled concrete slabs and twisted metal of the family's home.
Late on Friday, the civil defence reported that at least four more people were killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza, while the military said it shot dead "two terrorists" who fired at troops in southern Gaza.
The military also reported it intercepted a drone approaching from the east, but did not give details of where it had been launched from.
Since the war in Gaza erupted, Yemen's Iran-backed Huthi rebels have repeatedly launched drones and missiles at Israel in what they say is solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.
- Living in cemeteries -
Reacting to Friday's strike on the family home, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan denounced Israel at a forum, saying: "If this is not barbarism, I ask you, what is it?"
Israel's military issued new evacuation warnings to residents in areas of northern and southern Gaza ahead of new offensives.
"Several medical facilities and storage sites containing critical supplies are located within the newly designated displacement zones," the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said.
OCHA warned that this could have "life-threatening consequences for people in urgent need of care".
Many displaced Gazans are living in tents in cemeteries.
"We couldn't find any place to live ... That's why we were forced to sit on top of graves," Ibtisam Abu Ghanima told AFP at a cemetery in Gaza City.
"The dead have become better off than the living. On top of that, there's the awful smell, rats come at us, reptiles too, and we are dying," she said.
The UN decried the impact of Israel's ongoing strikes, finding that "a large percentage of fatalities are children and women".
"Between 18 March and 9 April 2025, there were some 224 incidents of Israeli strikes on residential buildings and tents for internally displaced people," the UN human rights office said in Geneva.
"In some 36 strikes about which the UN Human Rights Office corroborated information, the fatalities recorded so far were only women and children."
Israel's military has repeatedly said Palestinian militants often hide among civilians, a charge Hamas denies.
The war broke out after Hamas's October 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
Militants also took 251 hostages, 58 of whom are still held in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.
Gaza's health ministry said Friday at least 1,542 Palestinians have been killed since March 18, taking the overall death toll since the war began to 50,912.
- Ceasefire efforts -
In a Passover holiday message, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated his pledge to bring the remaining captives home.
US President Donald Trump also told a cabinet meeting Thursday that "we're getting close to getting them back".
Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff was quoted in an Israeli media report as saying "a very serious deal is taking shape, it's a matter of days".
Israeli media reported that Egypt and Israel had exchanged draft documents on a ceasefire-hostage release deal.
The Times of Israel said Egypt's proposal would mean eight living hostages and eight bodies handed over in exchange for a truce of between 40 and 70 days and a large number of Palestinian prisoner releases.
A Hamas leader who declined to be identified told journalists the group "is open to any new proposal that would achieve a ceasefire, withdraw the occupation's forces and end the suffering of the Palestinian people".
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