Israeli forces storm Gaza's largest hospital where hundreds of patients are sheltering

Israel says the hospital is being used to conceal a Hamas military facility. Hamas rejects this. Medical staff have struggled to work with dwindling supplies, ITV News Correspondent Rachel Younger reports

• Witnesses say they have seen tanks and Israeli soldiers inside the complex of Gaza's largest hospital

• The IDF says it uncovered weapons in the raid, accusing Hamas operatives of using the site as a command centre - the militant group denies this

• al-Shifa hospital stopped operations over the weekend due to a lack of supplies and electricity, with 40 patients, including three babies subsequently dying, health authorities said

• A resolution calling for "urgent and extended humanitarian pauses and corridors" in Gaza was approved on Wednesday by the UN Security Council

• At least 11,320 people have been killed in Gaza since Hamas launched its October 7 attack on Israel, killing 1,400 people, according to respective health authorities

Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) have stormed Gaza's largest hospital, where hundreds of patients, including newborns, have been stranded, in what they claimed was a "targeted operation".

Witnesses say they saw tanks inside the complex of al-Shifa hospital and Israeli soldiers in the intensive care unit.

The hospital has become a symbol of the widespread suffering of Palestinian civilians since October 7 when Hamas killed around 1,200 people and seized around 240 captives in a surprise attack in southern Israel.

Israel has accused Hamas of using civilians as human shields, while Palestinians and rights groups say Israel has recklessly endangered civilians as it seeks to eradicate the group.

In a video posted to X, the Israeli military displayed what it says are Hamas weapons and military equipment it uncovered in Shifa Hospital, but these claims have not been verified.

Israel said it warned “relevant authorities in Gaza” that all military activities within the hospital must cease. “Unfortunately, it did not.”

Mohammed Zaqout, the director of hospitals in Gaza, said: “The occupation forces stormed the buildings. They (patients) are screaming. It’s a very terrifying situation ... we can do nothing for the patients but pray.”

'They're killing them all slowly': Doctor trapped inside Gaza hospital tells ITV News how medics barely have any means to help patients

A doctor trapped inside within a building of al-Shifa hospital has told ITV News of "aggressive and continuous" shooting and bombing as Israeli forces attacked the complex.

Dr Ahmad Mokhallati said staff couldn't even go to the windows to see what was happening outside due to the risk of being shot.

“All over the area there are drones that can target anyone who moves around the area, so it’s totally risky to try to see what’s happened," he said.

Despite claims by Israeli and US intelligence that al-Shifa hospital is being used as a major base for Hamas operatives, Dr Mokhallati said he has never seen any sign of this. "I've never seen a single gun in al-Shifa hospital before," he said.

Israel has claimed Hamas fighters are hiding in underground tunnels beneath the hospital. Dr Mokhallati said he has never seen any sign of this. "I've never seen a single gun in al-Shifa hospital before," he said.

Dr Mokhallati said that due to a lack of food, water, electricity and oxygen supplies, the hospital is losing at least five ICU patients per day and could "lost almost all of them in the coming few days".

“They [the IDF] know this is wrong, they know what they are doing is totally unacceptable," he added.

"They have been for five days closing all the entrances to al-Shifa hospital, surrounding them with snipers and drones, and then they have done nothing.

“It is unacceptable to put a few thousand people within an enclosed space, preventing them from getting any electricity, drinking water, anything, and just killing them all slowly," he said.

“This is a hospital, we are supposed to treat patients, now we need someone to take care of us.”

Al-Shifa had stopped operations over the weekend, as its supplies dwindled and a lack of electricity left it no way to run incubators and other lifesaving equipment. After days without refrigeration, morgue staff dug a mass grave on Tuesday for 120 bodies outside.

The Hamas-led Health Ministry said 40 patients, including three babies, have died since al-Shifa’s emergency generator ran out of fuel on Saturday. Another 36 babies are at risk of dying because there is no power for incubators, according to the ministry.

While Israel says it is willing to allow staff and patients to evacuate, some Palestinians who have made it out say Israeli forces have fired at evacuees.

The director of Gaza's hospital has described the screaming of patients in what he says was a terrifying situation at al-Shifa, ITV News' Rachel Younger reports

UN Security Council adopts resolution calling for humanitarian pauses

The UN Security Council approved a resolution on Wednesday calling for “urgent and extended humanitarian pauses and corridors" in Gaza after four failed attempts to respond to the Israel-Hamas conflict.

The vote was 12-0 with the United States, United Kingdom and Russia abstaining.

The final draft watered down its language from a “demand” to a “call” for humanitarian pauses and diluted the demand for “the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages held by Hamas and other groups.”

While resolutions are legally binding, in practice many parties chose to ignore the council's requests for action.

Israel allows fuel in to Gaza to help humanitarian efforts, officials report

The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees said on Tuesday that its fuel depot in Gaza was empty and that it would soon have to cease relief operations.

This would include halting the delivery of food and medicine in from Egypt for more than 600,000 people sheltering in severely overcrowded UN-run schools and other facilities in the south.

"Without fuel, the humanitarian operation in Gaza is coming to an end. Many more people will suffer and will likely die,” said Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner-general of UNRWA.

Israeli defense officials changed course early Wednesday to allow some 24,000 liters of fuel in for humanitarian efforts, officials said. Earlier, they repeatedly rejected allowing fuel into Gaza, saying Hamas would divert it for military use.

COGAT, the Israeli defence body responsible for Palestinian affairs, said it would allow UN trucks to refill at the Rafah crossing on the Egyptian border later Wednesday. It said the decision was made in response to a request from the US.

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