Gaza rescuers says Israeli strikes kill 28 near hospital

Gaza's civil defence agency said that Israeli strikes on Tuesday killed at least 28 people in the area surrounding the European Hospital in Khan Yunis, where the Israeli military said it hit a Hamas "command and control centre".

Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that "according to our crews on the ground, 28 martyrs have been recovered from the area" surrounding the hospital in the south of the Palestinian territory.

Ahmad Radwan, civil defence media officer in the southern Gaza Strip, had previously put the initial toll at seven dead and 30 injured "following the occupation's bombing of the vicinity and courtyard of the European Hospital".

The Israeli military said in a statement that they had struck "Hamas terrorists in a command and control centre located in an underground terrorist infrastructure site beneath the European hospital in Khan Yunis".

"The Hamas terrorist organisation continues to use hospitals in the Gaza Strip for terrorist activity, demonstrating its cynical and brutal use of the civilian population in the hospital and its surroundings," it added.

"It was an utterly catastrophic scene," Amro Tabash, a local photojournalist, told AFP.

"Everyone inside the hospital -- patients and wounded alike -- was running in fear, some on crutches, others screaming for their children, while others were being dragged on beds," he said.

Earlier in the day, the Israeli military said it had struck Hamas militants "operating from within a command and control centre" at Nasser Hospital, also in Khan Yunis.

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said the strike killed two people and wounded several others.

Bassal said that "the Israeli army bombed the surgery building at Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis at dawn on Tuesday, killing journalist Hassan Aslih".

The Israeli military had previously accused Aslih of participating in Hamas's October 7, 2023 attacks on Israel.

Israel resumed its military offensive in Gaza on March 18 after a two-month truce in its war against Hamas, which was triggered by the Palestinian group's 2023 attack.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said the military will enter Gaza "with full force" in the coming days, vowing to "complete the operation" which "means destroying Hamas".