At least 46 Palestinians were killed in Israeli military strikes in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, mostly in the north, where an attack hit a hospital, setting fire to medical supplies and disrupting operations, the enclave’s health officials said.

The Israeli military accused the Palestinian group Hamas of using Beit Lahiya’s Kamal Adwan hospital for military purposes and said “dozens of terrorists” were hiding there. Health officials and Hamas deny the allegation.

Later on Thursday, an Israeli airstrike on two houses in the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza killed at least 16 Palestinians, doctors at the camp’s Al-Awda Hospital told Reuters. A paramedic and two local journalists were among the dead, they added.

Northern Gaza, where Israel said in January it had dismantled Hamas’ command structure, is currently the main focus of the army’s offensive in the enclave. Earlier this month, it sent tanks into Jabalia, Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya to flush out militants it said had regrouped.

Eid Sabbah, director of healthcare at Kamal Adwan – which is in Beit Lahiya – told Reuters that some staff suffered minor burns after the Israeli strike hit the hospital’s third floor.

No casualties were reported at the hospital, which Israeli forces stormed and briefly occupied last week. Israel said it captured about 100 suspected Hamas militants in that raid. Israeli tanks are still stationed nearby.

The Ministry of Health in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip called on all international bodies “to protect hospitals and medical personnel from the brutality of the (Israeli) occupation.”

The Israeli military said its forces were operating in the area of ​​the hospital based on information about the presence of terrorists and terrorist infrastructure in the vicinity.

“During the operation, it was found that dozens of terrorists were hiding in the hospital, some even posing as hospital staff,” the army said in a statement after Thursday’s strike.

The medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said on Thursday that one of its doctors at the hospital, Mohammed Obeid, was detained last Saturday by Israeli forces. He called for protection for himself and all medical staff who “face appalling violence while trying to provide care”.

The Gaza war began after a Hamas-led fighter attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages back to Gaza, according to Israeli accounts.

Israel’s subsequent assault on Gaza has killed more than 43,000 Palestinians and reduced most of the enclave to rubble, Palestinian authorities say.