TEHRAN- The death toll from Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza keeps rising; 450 days after the regime initiated its aerial assaults on cities and towns across the Palestinian territory. 

According to the Health Ministry in Gaza, the Israeli army has butchered more than 45,400 Palestinians in the enclave since October 7, 2023.

The ministry says more than 108,000 other Palestinians have also sustained injuries in the nearly past 15 months. 

In addition to targeting civilians and residential buildings, Israel has bombed and raided hospitals. 

On Friday, Israeli troops stormed and set fire to one of the last functioning hospitals in northern Gaza.

The Israeli army admitted that it launched a raid on the Kamal Adwan Hospital claiming the facility “serves as a Hamas terrorist stronghold”. The regime failed to provide any evidence to back up its claim while Hamas dismissed the allegation.

“We categorically deny the presence of any military activity or resistance fighters in the hospital,” Hamas said in a statement.

The resistance movement added, “The enemy’s lies about the hospital aim to justify the heinous crime committed by the occupation army today, involving the evacuation and burning of all hospital departments as part of a plan for extermination and forced displacement.”

Citing Hussam Abu Safia, the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, health officials in Gaza said Israeli troops had “set on fire all surgery departments of the hospital” and that there were “a large number of injuries” among the medical team.

This was confirmed by the World Health Organization (WHO). 

“Initial reports indicate that some key departments were severely burned and destroyed during the raid,” the WHO said in a statement on X on Friday evening.

The UN agency denounced the Israeli storming of the Kamal Adwan Hospital.

“Such hostilities and the raids are undoing all our efforts and support to keep the facility minimal[ly] functional. The systematic dismantling of the health system in Gaza is a death sentence for tens of thousands of Palestinians in need of healthcare. This horror must end and healthcare must be protected.”

The Israeli army also detained the hospital’s director and some other medical staff. 

“The occupation forces have taken dozens of the medical staff from Kamal Adwan Hospital to a detention center for interrogation, including the director, Hussam Abu Safia,” the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza said. 

As of Friday morning, the hospital housed about 350 people, including 75 patients and 180 medical staff, according to Al Jazeera. 

Israel has already committed massacres at several hospitals in Gaza after storming them. 

Earlier this year, hundreds of bodies were recovered from mass graves at the Kamal Adwan Hospital and two other hospitals in the Gaza Strip which showed signs of mutilation and torture.  

The mass graves were found at the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis and al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.

Palestinian officials and several international organizations say the Israeli army has committed war crimes at these medical sites. 

Attacks on medical facilities are prohibited under international humanitarian law. Israel’s raids on health facilities amount to a complete disregard for international law.