Fierce battle rages around Gaza's al-Shifa Hospital, dozens dead

Israeli forces and Hamas members battled in close combat around Gaza's al-Shifa Hospital, where the armed wings of Hamas and Islamic Jihad said they attacked Israeli soldiers and tanks with rockets and mortar fire.

The Israeli army said on Thursday, it continued to operate around the hospital complex in Gaza after storming it more than a week ago. Its forces had killed around 200 Palestinians since the start of the operation, it said.

The Health Ministry in Gaza said wounded people and patients were being held inside an administration building in al-Shifa that was not equipped to provide them with healthcare.

Five patients had died since the Israeli raid began due to shortages of food, water and medical care, the ministry said.

Gaza's biggest hospital, al-Shifa, before the war, had been one of the few healthcare facilities even partially operational in north Gaza before the latest fighting. It had also been housing displaced civilians.

Unverified footage on social media showed its surgery unit blackened by flames and nearby apartments on fire or destroyed.

The armed wings of the Hamas and Islamic Jihad resistance groups said in a statement they "bombed, with a barrage of mortar shells, gatherings of Israeli soldiers in the vicinity of the al-Shifa Complex" in a joint operation.

Islamic Jihad targeted an Israeli tank with an anti-tank rocket outside the hospital, it said in another statement. The Israeli military said its troops were fired from inside and outside the ER building.

Besieged hospitals

Israeli forces continued to blockade al-Amal and Nasser hospitals in Khan Younis, while several other areas in the southern Gaza city came under Israeli fire, residents said.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said seven people working for the organisation arrested in a raid on the al-Amal hospital on Feb. 9 had been released after 47 days in Israeli prisons.

Among them was the director of ambulance and emergency services in Gaza, Mohammed Abu Musabeh. Eight members of the association were still being detained, it said in a statement.

The World Health Organization said al-Amal Hospital had ceased to function due to fighting, leaving just 10 of 36 hospitals in Gaza partially operational.

"Once more, WHO demands an immediate end to attacks on hospitals in Gaza, and calls for protection of health staff, patients, and civilians," WHO Director-General Te dros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote on X on Thursday.