Jerusalem: Fighting around Gaza’s largest hospital raged on for a third day Wednesday as the Israeli military said it had arrested hundreds of Palestinians during its raid at Shifa Hospital.
Gaza officials said thousands of Palestinian patients, medical staff and others were trapped inside the sprawling complex, although the military said it allowed passage for those who wanted to leave.
Mourners earlier in the day held funeral prayers outside a different hospital for 28 people killed in three separate Israeli airstrikes on urban refugee camps the previous night.
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he is determined to carry out a Rafah ground offensive, even as tensions between Israel and the United States intensify.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to Israel this week as part of his sixth urgent mission to the Middle East since the Israel-Hamas war began last October.
At least 31,819 Palestinians have been killed, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count but says women and children make up two-thirds of the dead. A United Nations food agency warned that “famine is imminent” in northern Gaza.
Palestinian militants killed some 1,200 people in the surprise October 7 attack out of Gaza that triggered the war, and abducted another 250 people. Hamas is still believed to be holding some 100 people hostage, as well as the remains of 30 others.
