The site of an Israeli strike in Jabalia, in central Gaza Strip, on Friday —AFP

Agencies GAZA

The Israeli military demanded that medical staff and patients leave the premises of Kamal Adwan Hospital to make room for their forces to storm the facility, Palestinian news agency Wafa reported on Friday morning.

Gaza’s health ministry has said the three main hospitals in northern Gaza – of which Kamal Adwan is one – are barely functioning and have been under repeated attack since Israel sent tanks into Beit Lahiya and nearby Beit Hanoun and Jabalia in October.

On Thursday,  five hospital staff members were killed in an Israeli airstrike targeting Kamal Adwan Hospital, Wafa reported. About 90 patients are estimated to still be inside the hospital.

Gaza’s health ministry was quoted earlier in the week saying that Israeli bombing was targeting all the departments of the hospital “around the clock without stopping”.

A report from Al Jazeera said that on Friday, Israel pushed deeper into the area surrounding Kamal Adwan Hospital. Israeli armoured tanks advanced deeper under heavy cover from quadcopter machine guns. Explosive devices had already been planted in the vicinity of the hospital.

Four were set off near the northern gate, at the back entrance, causing damage to the compound and sparking fires in some of the buildings around it.

Israeli officers called on loudspeakers to the director of the hospital and for the injured and the patients to come out of the hospital within 15 minutes. This happened at about 7:15am [05:15 GMT].  The Palestinian health ministry said contact with staff inside the facility, which has been under heavy pressure from Israeli forces for weeks, had been lost.

The Guardian quoted Munir Al-Bursh, director of the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, saying, “The occupation forces are inside the hospital now and they are burning it.” Medics and the civil emergency service also reported separate incidents across Gaza in which Israeli strikes killed at least 25 people. One of those strikes on a house in Gaza City killed 15 people.

The Israeli military said it had made efforts to mitigate harm to civilians and had “facilitated the secure evacuation of civilians, patients and medical personnel prior to the operation” but gave no details. It said in a statement: “Kamal Adwan Hospital serves as a Hamas terrorist stronghold in northern Gaza, from which terrorists have been operating throughout the war.”