People surround the bodies of Palestinians killed in an Israeli strike in front of the Indonesian hospital in Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip . AFP
"The Israeli occupation has intensified its siege with heavy fire around the Indonesian hospital and its surroundings, preventing the arrival of patients, medical staff, and supplies, effectively forcing the hospital out of service," the ministry said.
"All public hospitals in the North Gaza governorate are now out of service," it added.
Israel has faced increasing pressure to lift its aid blockade, as UN agencies warn of critical shortages of food, clean water, fuel and medicine.
Marwan al-Hams, director of field hospitals at the Palestinian health ministry in Gaza, told AFP that since the blockade began, "57 children have died as a result of famine, but in the coming days, this number will increase due to the depletion of available food supplies".
The UN had warned of the risk of famine in Gaza long before the aid blockade was imposed, and doctors at Kamal Adwan hospital told the World Health Organization last year at least 10 children had starved to death.
The health ministry said Sunday at least 3,193 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel resumed strikes on March 18, taking the war's overall toll to 53,339, most of them women and children.
* This story was edited by Ahram Online.
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