Hossam Abu Safiya, head of Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia, says that five employees at the hospital died in an Israeli attack on Thursday: a pediatrician, a laboratory technician, two ambulance nurses, and an employee who worked with the hospital's maintenance.
The hospital was one of the last functioning in the war-torn northern Gaza.
On Friday, the Israeli military announced that it had launched an operation against Hamas militants near the hospital. In a statement, it says that the hospital had become a "stronghold for terrorist organizations" and was used as a "hideout for terrorists". The military claims to be conducting intelligence-based, "targeted operations" and trying to spare civilians, patients, and medical personnel.
But Hamas, which is labeled as a terrorist organization and rules Gaza, and whose attack on Israel last year triggered the ongoing war, accuses Israeli forces of having stormed the hospital and forced staff and patients to evacuate.
In total, 45 people were killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza on Thursday, according to Gaza's civil defense. 13 of them were in a house that, according to the civil defense, was "home to many displaced families" in the western part of Gaza City.
Five journalists were killed earlier on Thursday in an Israeli raid on the vehicle they were in. They belonged to the Palestinian TV channel Al-Quds Today, which is linked to the terrorist-labeled Islamic Jihad.
At the same time, the Israeli military reports that two soldiers were killed in Gaza.
