Gaza rescuers say Israeli strike on hospital kills 7

GAZA STRIP, PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES — Gaza's civil defence agency said an air strike hit a hospital Sunday, killing at least seven people, while Israel said it had targeted militants at the no longer functioning facility.

"Seven martyrs and several injured people, including critical cases, have been recovered following the Israeli strike on the upper floor of Al-Wafaa Hospital in central Gaza City," a civil defence agency statement said.

Israel's military said it had carried out a "precise strike" targeting members of Hamas's aerial defence unit operating from a "command and control centre in a building that served in the past as the Al-Wafaa hospital".

"The building does not currently serve as a hospital," the military said.

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said the hospital was still in use.

"The Al-Wafaa Hospital is partially operational, providing care to patients with physical disabilities," the ministry's director general, Munir al-Barsh, told AFP.

"The hospital had been rehabilitated and was getting ready to receive patients. Had it not been targeted by Israeli shelling today, it would have been ready to fully reopen in the next few days," he said.

The strike on Al-Wafaa Hospital came a day after the military ended a raid on Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza; an assault the World Health Organisation reported left the facility empty of patients and staff.

The military also detained the hospital's chief, Hossam Abu Safiyeh, saying he was suspected of being a Hamas militant.

Since October 6, Israel's operations in the Palestinian territory have focused on northern Gaza, where it says its land and air offensive aims to prevent Hamas from regrouping.

However, the military has also carried out air strikes and shelling in other areas of Gaza as it presses on with its campaign against the militants.