Gaza's Health Ministry says Israel has struck the largest hospital in the territory's south

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israel’s military struck the largest hospital in southern Gaza on Sunday night, killing two people, wounding others and causing a large fire, the territory's Health Ministry said.

The strike hit the surgical building of Nasser Hospital in the city of Khan Younis, the ministry said, days after the facility was overwhelmed with dead and wounded when Israel resumed the war in Gaza last week with a surprise wave of airstrikes.

Those killed in Sunday night's strike included a 16-year-old boy who underwent surgery two days ago, according to the Health Ministry. Also killed was Ismail Barhoum, a member of Hamas’ political bureau, who was being treated at the hospital, Hamas said in a statement.

Israel’s military confirmed the strike on the hospital, saying it hit a Hamas militant operating there. Israel blames civilian deaths on Hamas because it operates in densely populated areas.

Like other medical facilities around Gaza, Nasser Hospital has been damaged by Israeli raids and strikes throughout the war.

More than 50,000 Palestinians have now been killed in the war, the Health Ministry said earlier Sunday.

The military claimed to have “eliminated” dozens of militants since Israel ended a ceasefire Tuesday with strikes that killed hundreds of people on one of the deadliest days in the 17-month war.

Israel's unrest over Gaza and political issues grew Sunday, with anger at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as his government voted to express no confidence in the attorney general, seen by many as a check on the power of his coalition.

“I’m worried for the future of this country. And I think it has to stop. We have to change direction,” said Avital Halperin, one of hundreds of protesters outside Netanyahu's office. Police said three were arrested.

Israel's military ordered thousands of Palestinians to leave the heavily destroyed Tel al-Sultan neighborhood in the southern city of Rafah. They walked to Muwasi, a sprawling area of squalid tent camps. The war has forced most of Gaza's population of over 2 million to flee within the territory, often multiple times.

“It’s displacement under fire,” said Mustafa Gaber, a journalist who left with his family. He said tank and drone fire echoed nearby.

“The shells are falling among us and the bullets are (flying) above us," said Amal Nassar, also displaced. “The elderly have been thrown into the streets. An old woman was telling her son, ‘Go and leave me to die.’ Where will we go?”

“Enough is enough. We are exhausted," said a fleeing Ayda Abu Shaer, as smoke rose in the distance.

The Palestinian Red Crescent emergency service said it lost contact with a 10-member team responding to the strikes in Rafah. Spokesperson Nebal Farsakh said some were wounded.

Israel's military said it had fired on advancing “suspicious vehicles” and later discovered some were ambulances and fire trucks.

In Gaza City, an explosion hit next to a tent camp where people had been told to evacuate. “My husband is blind and started running barefoot, and my children were running,” said witness Nidaa Hassuna.

Hamas said Salah Bardawil, a well-known member of its political bureau, was killed in a strike in Muwasi that also killed his wife. Israel's military confirmed it.

Hospitals in southern Gaza said they received a further 24 bodies from strikes overnight, including several women and children.

Gaza’s Health Ministry said 50,021 Palestinians have been killed in the war, including 673 people since Israel's bombardment on Tuesday shattered the ceasefire.

Dr. Munir al-Boursh, the ministry's general director, said the dead include 15,613 children, with 872 of them under 1 year old.

The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count but says women and children make up over half the dead. Israel says it has killed around 20,000 fighters, without providing evidence.

The ceasefire that took hold in January paused more than a year of fighting ignited by Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack into Israel, in which militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 251 hostage. Most captives have been released in ceasefire agreements or other deals.

In the latest ceasefire's first phase, 25 Israeli hostages and the bodies of eight others were released in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners. Israeli forces allowed hundreds of thousands of people to return home. There was a surge in humanitarian aid until Israel cut off all supplies to Gaza earlier this month to pressure Hamas to change the ceasefire agreement.

The sides were supposed to begin negotiations in early February on the ceasefire's next phase, in which Hamas was to release the remaining 59 hostages — 35 of them believed to be dead — in exchange for more Palestinian prisoners, a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal. Those talks never began.

Israel’s Cabinet passed a measure creating 13 new settlements in the occupied West Bank by rezoning existing ones, according to Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s far-right finance minister, who is in charge of settlement construction.

This brings the number of settlements, considered illegal by the majority of the international community, to 140, said anti-settlement watchdog group Peace Now. They will receive independent budgets from Israel and can elect their own local governments, the group said.

Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writers Natalie Melzer in Nahariya, Israel, and Julia Frankel in Jerusalem contributed.

Follow AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war

Mourners react next to the body of their relative Ahmed Al Shaer who was killed in the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip as he brought for burial at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, Sunday, March 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Displaced Palestinians, who flee from Rafah amidst ongoing Israeli military operations following Israel's renewed offensive in the Gaza Strip, arrive in Khan Younis, Gaza, on Sunday, March 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Palestinians inspect the site hit by an Israeli bombardment, in Gaza City on Sunday, March 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Smoke rises to the sky after an explosion in the Gaza Strip as seen from southern Israel, Sunday, March 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

Palestinians inspect the site hit by an Israeli bombardment, in Gaza City on Sunday, March 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Palestinians run away from a blast following an Israeli army strike, in central Gaza on Sunday, March 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

People protest a outside the Knesset, Israel's parliament, in Jerusalem on Sunday, March 23, 2025, as the Israeli cabinet is set to hold a no-confidence vote against Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

Displaced Palestinians kids play soccer at a makeshift tent camp in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip on Saturday, March 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

People protest a outside the Knesset, Israel's parliament, in Jerusalem on Sunday, March 23, 2025, as the Israeli cabinet is set to hold a no-confidence vote against Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

Smoke rises to the sky after an explosion in the Gaza Strip as seen from southern Israel, Sunday, March 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

Mourners gather around the bodies of Palestinians killed in the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip as they are brought for burial at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, Sunday, March 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Mourners react next to the body of their relative Ahmed Al Shaer who was killed in the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip as he brought for burial at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, Sunday, March 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Mourners pray next to the bodies of their Palestinians killed in the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip as they are brought for burial at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, Sunday, March 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Mourners react during the funeral of Palestinians killed in the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, Sunday, March 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Mourners gather around the bodies of their relatives killed in the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip as they are brought for burial at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, Sunday, March 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Mourners react during the funeral of Palestinians killed in the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, Sunday, March 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Displaced Palestinians, who flee from Rafah amidst ongoing Israeli military operations following Israel's renewed offensive in the Gaza Strip, arrive in Khan Younis, Gaza, on Sunday, March 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Displaced Palestinians, who flee from Rafah amidst ongoing Israeli military operations following Israel's renewed offensive in the Gaza Strip, arrive in Khan Younis, Gaza, on Sunday, March 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Displaced Palestinians, who flee from Rafah amidst ongoing Israeli military operations following Israel's renewed offensive in the Gaza Strip, arrive in Khan Younis, Gaza, on Sunday, March 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Displaced Palestinians, who flee from Rafah amidst ongoing Israeli military operations following Israel's renewed offensive in the Gaza Strip, arrive in Khan Younis, Gaza, on Sunday, March 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Displaced Palestinians, who flee from Rafah amidst ongoing Israeli military operations following Israel's renewed offensive in the Gaza Strip, arrive in Khan Younis, Gaza, on Sunday, March 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Displaced Palestinians, who flee from Rafah amidst ongoing Israeli military operations following Israel's renewed offensive in the Gaza Strip, arrive in Khan Younis, Gaza, on Sunday, March 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Displaced Palestinians, who flee from Rafah amidst ongoing Israeli military operations following Israel's renewed offensive in the Gaza Strip, arrive in Khan Younis, Gaza, on Sunday, March 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

People take part in a protest demanding the immediate release of hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Saturday, March 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

TOKYO (AP) — The Unification Church in Japan was ordered dissolved by a court Tuesday after a government request spurred by the investigation into the 2022 assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

The church said it was considering an immediate appeal of the Tokyo District Court’s revocation of its legal status, which would take away its tax-exempt privilege and require liquidation of its assets.

The order followed a request by Japan’s Education Ministry in 2023 to dissolve the influential South Korea-based sect, citing manipulative fundraising and recruitment tactics that sowed fear among followers and harmed their families.

The Japanese branch of the church had criticized the request as a serious threat to religious freedom and the human rights of its followers.

The church called the court order regrettable and unjust and said in a statement the court's decision was based on “a wrong legal interpretation and absolutely unacceptable."

The investigation into Abe's assassination revealed decades of cozy ties between the South Korea-based church and Japan’s governing Liberal Democratic Party. The church obtained legal status as a religious organization in Japan in the 1960s during an anti-communist movement supported by Abe’s grandfather, former Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi.

The man accused of killing Abe resented the church and blamed it for his family's financial troubles.

The church, which officially calls itself the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, is the first religious group subject to a revocation order under Japan’s civil code. Two earlier case involved criminal charges — the Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult, which carried out a sarin nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway system, and Myokakuji group, whose executives were convicted of fraud.

To seek the church's dissolution, the Education Ministry had submitted 5,000 documents and pieces of evidence to the court, based on interviews with more than 170 people.

The church tried to steer its followers’ decision-making, using manipulative tactics, making them buy expensive goods and donate beyond their financial ability and causing fear and harm to them and their families, seriously deviating from the law on religious groups, officials and experts say.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs said the settlements reached in or outside court exceeded 20 billion yen ($132 million) and involved more than 1,500 people.

The church, founded in Seoul in 1954, a year after the end of the Korean War, by the late Rev. Sun Myung Moon, the self-proclaimed messiah who preached new interpretations of the Bible and conservative, family-oriented value systems.

It developed relations with conservative world leaders including U.S. President Donald Trump, as well as his predecessors Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.

The church faced accusations in the 1970s and 1980s of using devious recruitment tactics and brainwashing adherents into turning over huge portions of their salaries to Moon. In Japan, the group has faced lawsuits for offering “spiritual merchandise” that allegedly caused members to buy expensive art and jewelry or sell their real estate to raise donations for the church.

The church has acknowledged excessive donations but says the problem has lessened since the group stepped up compliance in 2009.

Experts say Japanese followers are asked to pay for sins committed by their ancestors during Japan’s 1910-1945 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula, and that the majority of the church’s worldwide funding comes from Japan.

Nobuya Fukumoto, foreground center, a lawyer for the Unification Church, is surrounded by reporters after the church was ordered dissolved by the Tokyo District Court, in front of the court in Tokyo Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (Kyodo News via AP)

The logo of the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, is seen at its building's entrance on Nov. 7, 2023, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Shuji Kajiyama)

The entrance of the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, is seen on Nov. 7, 2023, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Shuji Kajiyama, File)