By Nidal al-Mughrabi
CAIRO (Reuters) -Israeli shelling hit a hospital in northern Gaza, wounding several people, damaging equipment and disrupting surgeries, Palestinian health officials said on Sunday, but Israel’s military denied carrying out strikes in the area.
Hussam Abu Safiya, director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital in the town of Beit Lahiya – one of only three barely operational on the northern edge of the enclave – said the facility was struck by about 100 tank shells and bombs late on Saturday.
“The situation is extremely dangerous. We have patients in the intensive care unit and others awaiting surgeries. Access to the operating rooms is only possible after restoring electricity and oxygen supply,” Abu Safiya said in a statement.
The hospital is currently treating 112 wounded people, including six in the intensive care unit, he said.
Israel’s military said it had conducted a review and found that its forces had not struck in the vicinity of the hospital or damaged any of its essential equipment.
“The IDF (Israel Defense Forces) is in continuous coordination with hospital officials to provide humanitarian assistance to the hospital and maintain a consistent liaison,” the military said.
The health ministry of Hamas-run Gaza said a doctor was killed with his family in an Israeli airstrike near the hospital on Saturday night.
Residents said the military blew up clusters of houses on Sunday in the northern Gaza areas of Jabalia, Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun, where Israeli forces have operated since October.
Later in the day, an Israeli airstrike killed five Palestinians in the heart of Gaza City, taking the number of people killed in separate military strikes across the enclave to 11, medics said.
Palestinians say Israel’s operations on the northern edge of the enclave are part of a plan to clear people out through forced evacuations and bombardments to create a buffer zone. The Israeli military denies this, saying it is fighting Hamas.
The war in Gaza has been raging for over 14 months, with much of the enclave laid to waste and more than 44,000 Palestinians killed, according to Gaza health authorities, as Israeli forces continue their drive to wipe out Hamas and rescue hostages taken by the militant group.
The deadliest Israeli-Palestinian violence in decades began when Hamas stormed into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages back to Gaza.
(Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi; Editing by William Mallard, Kirsten Donovan and Helen Popper)