Four people were killed and at least 70 wounded early on Monday in an Israeli air attack on tents sheltering displaced Palestinians at Al Aqsa Hospital in central Gaza.
Flames engulfed tents in the hospital compound and people were burnt alive, the official Wafa news agency reported. The death toll is expected to rise.
The Israeli military said it struck militants operating from a command center inside the complex and accused the militant group Hamas of using civilian facilities such as hospitals for military purposes.
Hamas denies the allegations.
Social media video showed tents ablaze as people tried to douse the fires. Bodies were seen on the ground as flimsy structures packed tightly together in the walled complex burned.
The compound is located in the central Gaza city of Deir Al-Balah, where a million people are sheltering from Israeli military operations.
The United Nations, which has been heavily critical of the Israeli government’s actions in Gaza, has accused Israel of allowing a humanitarian crisis to run out of control in the Palestinian enclave.
On Sunday night at least 20 Palestinians, including a baby, were killed in another Israeli attack on a school sheltering the displaced in Al Nuseirat refugee camp, the UN and media reports said.
The Gaza violence comes after at least 67 people were wounded in a drone attack on central Israel carried out by Lebanon-based group Hezbollah on Sunday.
The militant group said the drone assault was launched in response to recent Israeli attacks on central Beirut and that the target was a training ground for one of Israel’s main infantry units.
