- World champion Sakamoto takes Skate Canada lead over Liu
- Sainz tops times as Russell crashes in Mexico GP practice
- Three moments from King Charles Pacific tour
- Commonwealth announces Ghana foreign minister as new secretary general
- Gaza ministry accuses Israel of storming hospital, reports two children killed
- King Charles III departs Samoa, wrapping Pacific tour
- G7 finalize $50 bn Ukraine loan backed by Russian assets profits
- Ex-Abercrombie CEO pleads not guilty to sex crimes
- Unfulfilled talent? Two-time champion Alonso clocks up 400th F1 race
- Guardiola praises 'incredible' mentality of Man City stars
- Chelsea boss Maresca wants more 'leadership' from captain James
- US issues historic apology for Native American boarding school atrocities
- Moody's cuts France outlook, opening door to credit downgrade
- Drone sparks fire on Kyiv residential building, one dead
- Gaza ministry says two children die in hospital in Israeli raid
- Wood brace fires Forest as Leicester boss Cooper loses reunion
- Dodgers draw on Bryant's 'Mamba mentality' for World Series
- 'Fascist' row overshadows glitzy night on US campaign trail
- Modern art museum breathes new life into downtown Warsaw
- Russell tops crash-hit Mexico GP practice
- Fils, Shelton set for friendly fire in Basel semi-finals
- Internet blackout hits Mozambique capital after election protests
- Yankees, Dodgers poised for World Series blockbuster
- 'Catfish' predator who drove US girl to suicide jailed for life in N.Ireland
- NASA astronaut hospitalized after return from ISS
- Biden apologizes for Native American boarding school atrocities
- Mexico rules out designating drug violence as 'terrorism'
- Emery wants no let-up from Aston Villa
- Boeing exploring sale of space business: report
- G20 affirms commitment to transition from fossil fuels
- Shami misses India's tour of Australia as Easwaran named as potential Rohit cover
- BHP, Vale agree to pay $30bn damages for Brazil dam disaster
- 75 sickened as McDonald's severe E. Coli outbreak expands
- Turkmenistan's 'Gateway to Hell' lit gas pit faces closure
- Kickboxing takes Senegal by storm despite tight funds
- Waymo ramps up robotaxi push with $5.6 bn in funding
- Elon Musk all-in for Trump as Moscow denies secret Putin talks
- Covid lessons learned? UN summit mulls plan for healthy planet, and humans
- Borthwick unveils new contracts for leading England players
- Sexual assault scandal rocks Spain's 'most feminist' govt
- France must make 'credible' progress on deficit: finance minister
- Stock markets diverge going into weekend
- BHP, Vale agree to pay $30bn compensation for Brazil dam disaster
- Verstappen says 'definitely' his intention to remain at Red Bull
- Mbappe can launch Madrid career in first Clasico
- A monumental dump and Obama the rapper: an offbeat US campaign week
- Biden to apologize for abusive Native American boarding schools
- Pressure is part of manager's life, says troubled West Ham boss Lopetegui
- Gaza ministry says Israel forces detaining hundreds at hospital
- Hirscher confirms return from retirement at World Cup opener
Gaza ministry accuses Israel of storming hospital, reports two children killed
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza accused Israeli forces Friday of storming the last functioning hospital in the territory's north in a raid it said left two children dead, while the military told AFP it was unaware of live fire or strikes in the area.
The Israeli military said its forces were operating around Kamal Adwan Hospital in the Jabalia refugee camp in north Gaza, where it launched a major operation earlier this month.
The operation sparked fresh concerns about the war's civilian toll, with UN human rights chief Volker Turk saying the conflict's "darkest moment" was unfolding in northern Gaza.
"Two children have died in the intensive care unit after the hospital's generators failed and the oxygen station was targeted," the health ministry said in a statement.
Israeli forces "are searching the hospital and firing within different departments, increasing the panic and anxiety", it added.
The Israeli army told AFP it was "not aware of live fire and strikes in the area of the hospital".
The World Health Organization earlier said it had lost contact with staff at the hospital on Friday morning.
"This development is deeply disturbing given the number of patients being served and people sheltering there," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.
Gaza's health ministry earlier said Israel's forces "stormed" the hospital, "detaining hundreds of patients, medical staff and some displaced individuals from neighbouring areas who sought refuge".
Israel said it had allowed the transfer of 23 patients out of the hospital on Thursday night, which was confirmed by the WHO.
Rik Peeperkorn, the WHO representative for the Palestinian territories, said he witnessed "mayhem and chaos" at the hospital on Thursday.
At a checkpoint close to the hospital, the visiting WHO team saw "thousands of women and children leaving that area, walking, limping with their few belongings" towards Gaza City, he added.
- 'Emptying area of Palestinians' -
The UN human rights chief said that already "more than 150,000 people are reportedly dead, wounded or missing in Gaza" since the war broke out just over a year ago.
That number could "rise dramatically", he said, warning that Israel's actions in northern Gaza "risk emptying the area of all Palestinians".
The Israeli military says the goal of the assault is to destroy the operational capabilities it says Hamas is trying to rebuild in the north.
Israel has accused Hamas of operating from hospitals, schools and other civilian facilities, a charge the militant group denies.
Also in northern Gaza on Friday, Gaza's civil defence agency said Israeli drone strikes killed 12 people waiting to receive aid near the Al-Shati refugee camp.
There was no immediate comment from the military.
In the south Gaza city of Khan Yunis, nine children were among 14 people killed in an Israeli strike that hit the Fara family home, the civil defence agency's Mahmud Bassal said.
"The rocket fell next to us, and we were buried under the rubble," Umm al-Ameer al-Fara, who survived the first strike, told AFP.
"My children and sister were killed."
A separate strike in Khan Yunis killed six people, Bassal said.
The Israeli military said "a number of terrorists were eliminated" in south Gaza.
- Three journalists killed -
Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack which triggered the Gaza war resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Israel's retaliatory campaign in Gaza has killed 42,847 people, the majority civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory's health ministry which the United Nations considers reliable.
Last month, after nearly a year of rocket fire by the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah, a Hamas ally, Israel expanded its focus to Lebanon in a bid to secure its northern border.
At least 1,580 people have been killed in Lebanon since all-out war erupted on September 23, according to an AFP tally of Lebanese health ministry figures.
The Israeli military has announced the deaths of 32 soldiers since it began ground operations in Lebanon late last month.
On Friday, Lebanon accused Israel of a "deliberate" attack that killed three journalists.
Contacted by AFP, the Israeli military maintained it had targeted Hezbollah militants and said that "the incident is under review".
Pro-Iran Lebanese television channel Al Mayadeen said cameraman Ghassan Najjar and broadcast engineer Mohammad Reda were killed in the strike on a journalists' residence in the southern town of Hasbaya.
Another TV outlet, Al-Manar, run by Hezbollah, said video journalist Wissam Qassem was also killed in the strike on a bungalow located in a complex that several media organisations covering the war had rented out.
- Border crossing hit -
Journalists from other media organisations were sleeping nearby when the strike hit, in an area outside Hezbollah's traditional strongholds.
"I woke up to the whistling sound of a missile and found my door burst open... I thought there was a fire," Sky News Arabia correspondent Darine El Helwe told AFP.
Lebanon's Prime Minister Najib Mikati said the "deliberate" attack was among the "war crimes committed by the Israeli enemy".
Later on Friday, Lebanese state media said Israeli aircraft carried out at least eight strikes on Beirut's southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold.
AFPTV footage showed smoke rising from the area after Israel's army issued an evacuation call.
In northern Israel meanwhile, falling shrapnel from rockets fired by Hezbollah killed two people in the Arab town of Majd al-Krum, a hospital and the Israeli army said.
Hezbollah had earlier said it sent "a large rocket salvo" targeting a nearby city.
The group also said it hit three Israeli tanks in clashes in two villages near the border.
The Israeli military confirmed it struck a northern border crossing between Lebanon and Syria, accusing Hezbollah of moving weapons through it.
The UN refugee agency warned that the crossing had been the main escape route for people trying to flee the conflict in Lebanon.
H.E.Young--AMWN