Health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says 12 killed in hospital strike

GAZA - The health ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip said Monday 12 people were killed in an Israeli strike on a hospital in the north of the Palestinian territory.

The 12, including wounded patients and their companions, "were killed and dozens wounded as a result of the Israeli occupation targeting the Indonesian Hospital", said ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra.

Around 700 people remain at the hospital where they are being "besieged" by Israeli forces, Qudra said.

Israel launched its offensive against Hamas after a wave of brutal cross-border raids on October 7 left 1,200 people dead, the majority of them civilians, according to Israeli authorities.

The Hamas-run government says the death toll from Israel's aerial bombardment and ground operations in the Palestinian territory has reached 13,000, thousands of them children.

The Israeli military previously ordered residents of northern Gaza to flee southwards and said Sunday it was "expanding its operational activities".

The Hamas government has repeatedly accused Israel of launching a "war against hospitals", which scores of strikes on and near medical facilities in recent weeks.

The Israeli military says the Hamas militant group has built underground infrastructure below hospitals for military usage, which Hamas and medical officials deny.

On Sunday it released what it said was footage of hostages being brought in to Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, the territory's largest, where it said it had discovered a 55-metre long "terror tunnel".

The United Nations humanitarian agency OCHA has reported the "collapse of services" at hospitals across northern Gaza, following widespread strikes and the lack of fuel and medical supplies.

Al-Shifa was described Sunday as a "death zone" by the World Health Organization, in the wake of incursions by Israeli soldiers and multiple strikes on the facility.

More than 250 patients and 20 healthcare workers remain at the hospital, WHO said after 31 premature babies were evacuated southwards- AFP