JERUSALEM - The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on Saturday that it completed a targeted operation against a "Hamas command center" located within Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza.

The IDF reported the arrest of more than 240 Hamas and Islamic Jihad operatives, some of whom allegedly tried to disguise themselves as patients or escape in ambulances.

Among those arrested was Hussam Abu Safia, the hospital's director, who the IDF suspects of being involved with Hamas.

In the course of the operation, the IDF claimed to have seized a variety of weapons, including grenades, firearms, and other military equipment from within the hospital.

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During the operation, Israeli forces engaged militants who had fired anti-tank missiles and RPGs at IDF troops. Israeli Air Force airstrikes targeted those attempting to flee the area. The IDF emphasized that it had evacuated 350 patients, caregivers, and medical staff from the hospital prior to launching its operations.

Also on Saturday, Gaza's health authorities reported that the Israeli army had detained dozens of medical workers from Kamal Adwan Hospital, including Abu Safia, taking them to an interrogation center.

On Friday, Gaza's health officials claimed that Israeli soldiers forcibly expelled patients and medical staff from the hospital buildings, and set fire to large portions of the hospital, including its operating and surgery departments, laboratory, maintenance units, ambulance services, and warehouses.

Prior to the raid, Kamal Adwan Hospital was housing around 350 people, including 75 patients and their companions. It is the largest medical facility in northern Gaza, serving over 400,000 people before the ongoing conflict. The Israeli army has blockaded the hospital for more than two months as part of its military operations in northern Gaza.

Meanwhile, at least nine Palestinians were killed and dozens of others wounded in an Israeli airstrike on a house in the Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza Strip on Saturday, Palestinian sources said.

Local sources and eyewitnesses said an Israeli aircraft bombed a house on the outskirts of Maghazi camp with at least one missile.

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Hussam Al-Daqran, spokesperson for Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah city in central Gaza, told Xinhua that nine people were killed, including children and women, and dozens of wounded people were sent to the hospital following the airstrike.

The Israeli army did not comment on the raid.

Israeli army spokesperson Avichay Adraee said in a press statement on Saturday that Israeli forces began operating at night against "terrorist targets in the Beit Hanoun area in light of prior intelligence information about the presence of a number of terrorists and terrorist facilities in the area."

Before the forces entered, Israeli fighter jets, in cooperation with artillery fire, attacked "several terrorist targets in the area, including terrorist gathering points and other terrorist facilities belonging to the Hamas terrorist organization," according to the statement.

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Israel has been conducting a large-scale offensive against Hamas in Gaza to retaliate against a Hamas rampage through the southern Israeli border on Oct 7, 2023, during which about 1,200 people were killed and about 250 taken hostage.

The Palestinian death toll from ongoing Israeli attacks in the enclave has risen to 45,484, Gaza-based health authorities said in a statement on Saturday.