Gaza's Health Ministry says Israeli troops have stormed one of the last hospitals operating in the territory's north and forced many of the staff and patients outside.

Kamal Adwan hospital in Beit Lahia has been under a tightening Israeli blockade imposed on parts of northern Gaza since October, when the military said it had launched an offensive to stop Hamas from regrouping there.

Staff at a hospital in northern Gaza say the building has been surrounded by Israeli forces who set fire to medical departments and ordered staff and patients to evacuate, after reports of a nearby airstrike that the local health ministry said killed about 50 people.