Israel-Hamas war: IDF says Gaza hospital operation ongoing

The US State Department has expressed Washington's concern over a strike on a Jordanian field hospital in Gaza.

The strike took place on Wednesday in Gaza City. Jordanian official news agency Petra said seven health workers were hurt.

"We are deeply concerned that they were injured," State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said.

He did not condemn the strike or assign responsibility for it.

The spokesperson praised Jordan's "incredible work in establishing the field hospital."

"As we said before, we don't want to see hospitals struck from the air," Miller said. "We reiterate the obligations under international humanitarian law for all parties to take key precautions to reduce the risk of harm to civilians and all possible steps to mitigate civilian harm."

Meanwhile, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan called Jordan a critical US ally and said its "essential role in the conflict must be protected."

"We are deeply concerned that Jordanian medical personnel in Gaza were wounded in an attack near their field hospital, and we are profoundly grateful to medical professionals providing critical care to Palestinians in Gaza," he said in a post on the platform X, formerly known as Twitter.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have said they uncovered a Hamas tunnel shaft at the al-Shifa hospital complex in Gaza.

The Israeli military said it had also found a vehicle containing arms.

"In the Shifa Hospital, IDF troops found an operational tunnel shaft and a vehicle containing a large number of weapons," Israel's military said in a post on the platform X, formerly known as Twitter.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said the IDF had made "significant finds" at the hospital and was moving onto the "next phase" of its ground offensive.

"The next phase has begun," he said, without giving further information. "The armed forces are proceeding with precision and determination."

Israel has said its forces have recovered the body of a Israeli hostage abducted by Hamas on October 7 from a building near the al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.

According to reports on Thursday evening, the 65-year-old woman's body was brought to Israel and identified there. 

A statement by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said that the body of the hostage "was extracted by IDF troops from a structure adjacent to al-Shifa hospital."

She had been abducted from the Israeli border town of Be'eri on October 7 by the Islamist militant group Hamas, the statement said.

"Military equipment including Kalashnikov rifles and RPGs" were found in the same location as the woman's body, it added. 

Army spokesman Daniel Hagari told a televised briefing that the woman was "murdered by terrorists in the Gaza Strip and we didn't manage to reach her in time." 

The IDF has been carrying out an ongoing operation at the hospital, which it claims Hamas has used as a base of operations. 

European Union foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell has urged Israel to assist civilians in the Gaza Strip.

Borrell is in Israel to meet with top Israeli officials and will "visit a community in the south of the country which suffered the 7 October terrorist attack," according to the EU's diplomatic service.

The diplomat said the country must not be "consumed by rage" in its response to Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist organization which controls Gaza and which was behind the terrorist attacks.

"One horror does not justify another," he said on the sidelines of a meeting with Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen.

"I understand your fears and pain. I understand the fears and pain of the people that have been attacked, slaughtered, kidnapped. I understand your rage," Borrell said.

"But let me ask you not to be consumed by rage. I think that is what the best friends of Israel can tell you, because what makes the difference between a civilized society and a terrorist group is the respect for human life," he stressed.

"Innocent civilians, including thousands of children, have died in the past weeks. We also know that people are also forced to leave their houses and need assistance. They need food, water, fuel and protection," he said.

The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA, Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini, said he believed there was a "deliberate attempt" to disrupt aid operations in Gaza. 

"I do believe there is a deliberate attempt to strangle our operation and paralyze the operation," Lazzarini told a press conference in Geneva.

"I do believe that it is outrageous that humanitarian agencies have been reduced to begging for fuel," he said. 

He said his agency was at risk of suspending its humanitarian operations entirely due to lack of fuel.

"Because of the lack of fuel, we will not be able to send our trucks across the south of the Gaza Strip where we have
people waiting for humanitarian deliveries," Lazzarini said, referring to the Rafah crossing with Egypt.

On Wednesday, the first tanker truck since the war began, carrying 24,000 liters (6,340 gallons) of diesel fuel, was allowed into Gaza for UN aid distribution trucks. UNRWA said Wednesday that amount is a fraction of what is needed to sustain lifesaving aid. 

Lazzarini added Thursday that fuel shortages have caused a total communications blackout, which could provoke or accelerate [the breakdown of] last remaining civil order we have in the Gaza Strip."

UNRWA is also concerned about the emergence of waterborne diseases in Gaza, Lazzarini said. He stressed that Gazans are now living in places that were never meant to be shelters. Some of them have only one toilet for 700 people, Lazzarini said.

Communication networks in the Gaza Strip have collapsed, according to the main Palestinian provider.

The Palestinian telecommunications company Paltel, which is based in the occupied West Bank, said in a social media post that Gaza was going through an outage due to a lack of fuel for power generators.

The UK-based Netblocks, which tracks internet outages, confirmed the outage on the platform X, formerly known as Twitter.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, had warned earlier this week of a looming total telecommunications blackout, as had Paltel.

Communications networks in the Palestinian enclave have failed several times since the start of the war between Israel and the Hamas militant Islamist group, which is classified as a terrorist organization by the US, the EU Germany and several other countries.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Thursday that troops were combing through each floor of each building at al-Shifa hospital in Gaza in an ongoing search for Hamas command centers it claims are based in the complex.

An unnamed IDF official told news agencies that information and footage "pertaining to the hostages abducted from Israel" by Hamas was found on "computers and other technological equipment," at al-Shifa, without elaborating further. 

Troops had already found weapons, "intelligence materials" related to the October 7 Hamas terror attacks and "command and control centers," the official said.

"The operation is shaped by our understanding that there is well-hidden terrorist infrastructure in the complex," the IDF official said.

"Hamas has persistently worked to conceal infrastructure and cover up evidence," the official said, adding that the search is being carried out "in a discrete, methodical and thorough manner, based on ongoing field assessments and informed by questioning taking place in the field."

Hamas has denied operating out of medical facilities.The Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza has said the Israeli operation has destroyed medical services in the hospital. Hamas is considered to be a terror organization by the US, the EU and other states. 

Human Rights Watch (HRW) has said the Israeli government has not "provided any evidence" of "harmful acts" being carried out on the hospital premises, which would legitimize a military operation at the expense of hospital operations. 

"Doctors, nurses, ambulances and other hospital staff must be permitted to do their work and patients must be protected,"
HRW's UN Director Louis Charbonneau told the Reuters news agency. 

South Africa has filed a referral to the International Criminal Court for an investigation into alleged war crimes committed by Israel in Gaza, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has said.

"We have put through a referral because we believe that war crimes are being committed there. And of course we do not condone the actions that were taken by Hamas earlier, but similarly we condemn the actions that are currently underway and believe that they warrant an investigation by the ICC," Ramaphosa said during a state visit to Qatar.

The move comes as South African lawmakers were expected to debate a motion on Thursday calling for the closure of the Israeli Embassy in South Africa and the cutting of all diplomatic ties with the country until it agrees to a cease-fire.

Ramaphosa's ruling African National Congress party said it would support the motion tabled by the leftist opposition party Economic Freedom Fighters.

Pretoria has long been a vocal supporter of the Palestinian cause, with the African National Congress, the party of late President Nelson Mandela, often linking it to its own historical struggle against apartheid.

Israel's military said its forces have "gained operational control over the Hamas-operated Gaza harbor," in a statement posted on social media platform X, formerly Twitter.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the harbor was disguised as a civilian area, and that it had been used as a training facility for Hamas naval commandos "to plan and execute terrorist attacks."

The IDF said tunnel shafts and other infrastructure were destroyed during the operation.

German news agency DPA said local sources in Gaza had confirmed the takeover of the harbor.

The UN's human rights chief said there have been "extremely serious allegations of multiple and profound breaches of international humanitarian law" in the Israel-Hamas war.

Speaking at an informal briefing to states at the UN in Geneva after visiting the Middle East, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said breaches demanded "rigorous investigation and full accountability."

Earlier in his briefing Turk said it was apparent that on both sides, "some view the killing of civilians as either acceptable collateral damage, or a deliberate and useful weapon of war."

Turk said the killing of non-combatants was a human rights crisis and represented a breakdown of humane values.

"The killing of so many civilians cannot be dismissed as collateral damage. Not in a kibbutz. Not in a refugee camp. And not in a hospital," Turk said.

The human rights chief also highlighted the dire situation facing the people of Gaza due to the depletion of fuel supplies, which has caused the collapse of essential services.

"Massive outbreaks of infectious disease, and hunger, seem inevitable," Turk said.

Israel's military has dropped leaflets in eastern areas of Khan Younis, warning Palestinians to leave parts of southern Gaza.

"For your safety, you need to evacuate your places of residence immediately and head to known shelters," the leaflets said, according to the Reuters news agency. "Anyone near terrorists or their facilities puts their life at risk, and every house used by terrorists will be targeted," the leaflets said.

Reuters reported that the neighborhoods of Khuzaa, Abassan, Bani Suhaila and Al Qarara were named in the notices.

The move is an indication that Israeli military operations could be imminent.

Previously Palestinians in the northern parts of Gaza had been told to head south, due to the concentration of Israel's military efforts to root out Hamas militants.

Officials at the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza say that around 11,500 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the war, triggered by the October 7 terror attacks on Israel.

Israeli police on Thursday said that three gunmen who opened fire at a checkpoint located between Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank have been killed.

According to the police, the gunmen arrived at the checkpoint in a vehicle and opened fire on Israeli security personnel, injuring seven people, before they themselves were killed by forces stationed at the checkpoint.

Police said that a combined force of police, Border Police (MAGAV) and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) were conducting sweeps in the area which has been closed to traffic, following what authorities have described as a terror attack.

The security checkpoint is situated at the access tunnels linking the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Thursday said that its fighter jets had struck the residence of Ismail Haniyeh, who is head of the militant group Hamas' political bureau.

"The residence was used as terrorist infrastructure and a meeting point for Hamas’ senior leaders to direct terrorist attacks against Israel," the IDF said in a post on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.

The post was accompanied by a video of footage showing a strike taking place.

Israel's President Isaac Herzog has spoken about what the security situation could look like in Gaza for the near future.

In an interview with the Financial Times, Herzog said that Israel could not simply pull out of the Palestinian territory.

"If we pull back, then who will take over? We can't leave a vacuum. We have to think about what will be the mechanism; there are many ideas that are thrown in the air," Herzog said.

"In order to prevent terror from coming up again, we have to have a very strong force to make sure that it's committed enough and it [the attack] doesn't happen [again]," Herzog told the FT.

Last week Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told ABC News that his country would have a security responsibility "for an indefinite period."

Israel declared a state of war against Hamas after the Islamist militant group launched a large-scale terror attack on October 7, in which at least 1,200 people were killed, according to Israeli authorities.

Since then Israel has bombarded Hamas targets in the enclave, which officials from the Hamas-run Health Ministry say has killed around 11,500 Palestinians, many of them women and children.

US Capitol Police officers clashed with several demonstrators outside the Democratic National Committee (DNC) headquarters in Washington on Wednesday.

The protest was held to demand a cease-fire in Gaza, organized by three advocacy groups. Lawmakers inside the DNC headquarters had been evacuated from the area. 

Police attempted to remove protesters from the site, who had linked arms and were singing "Which side are you on?" One of the protesters was shoved down a staircase by officers. The police also used pepper spray and fired projectiles that had chemical irritants.

Capitol Police said around 150 people were "illegally and violently protesting," and added that six officers were being treated for injuries.

"One person has been arrested for assault on an officer," Capitol Police said on social media.

The organizers of the protest were IfNotNow, Jewish Voice for Peace and the Democratic Socialists of America. They denied allegations of violence by protesters.