Battles near Shifa hospital

Israeli troops are around 3 km from Shifa Hospital in the heart of downtown Gaza City, the hospital’s director Mohammed Abu Selmia said. Tens of thousands are sheltering alongside patients in the hospital.

The Israeli military says Hamas’s main command centre is located in and under the hospital complex and that senior leaders are hiding there, using the facility as a shield. Hamas and hospital staff deny the claims and say the military is creating a pretext to strike it.

Scores of wounded people were rushed to Shifa overnight, Abu Selmia told The Associated Press on Thursday. “At dawn, a shell landed very close to the hospital, but thank God only a few people had minor injuries," he said.

“The conditions here are disastrous in every sense of the word," he said. “We're short on medicine and equipment, and the doctors and nurses are exhausted. … We're unable to do much for the patients." International journalists who entered the north on a tour led by the Israeli military on Wednesday saw heavily damaged buildings, fields of rubble and toppled trees along the Mediterranean shoreline. (AP)