After an hours-long communications blackout, the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza told CNN that Israeli troops were still on the scene, describing the situation as “really scary.”

Israeli troops were still present at the hospital when its director, Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, spoke to CNN shortly after 3 p.m. ET on Friday and recounted how the “intense bombardment” of the building resulted in “glass shattering and doors breaking everywhere.” ”

Abu Safiya said the Israeli military was currently in the process of “searching all rooms, evacuating those displaced and withdrawing 44 personnel.”

At least 600 staff, patients and family members are currently in hospital, Gaza’s Health Ministry said, describing the situation as “deteriorating alarmingly.”

Israeli forces cut off the hospital’s electricity and solar energy supplies and prevented staff from accessing the water fountain, he said.

Two children on ventilators died after the Israeli military blew up the hospital’s oxygen supply, Abu Safiya said.

He said children living at the daycare also needed to be urgently transferred to the intensive care unit after Israeli soldiers opened fire on the facility. Three members of the hospital’s nursing staff were injured by sniper fire with facial, neck and chest injuries. A cleaner was also shot in the face, he added.

The Israeli military said in an earlier statement on Friday that its forces were operating in the area of ​​Kamal Adwan Hospital “based on intelligence information about the presence of terrorists and terrorist infrastructure.” It was claimed the military had helped patients evacuate the area in previous weeks.

COGAT, the Israeli agency that manages the flow of aid to the Strip, said Friday that several patients and their companions were evacuated from the facility with help from the United Nations International Children’s Fund and the World Health Organization. The hospital also received fuel, blood supplies and medical equipment.

But WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X that the hospital houses about 200 patients and hundreds more are seeking shelter there.