Heavy fighting erupts around Gaza hospital as Israeli hostages could be released 'in coming days'
US officials have said negotiations over hostages and a pause to the fighting have entered a 'sensitive' phase
Some 31 babies have been saved, 28 of which have been relocated to Egypt, after 291 patients were left stranded in al-Shifa hospital in Gaza, where the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) is continuing its search for Hamas' command centre.
The Israeli military has published a video of what it describes as a 'tunnel' network, dug by Hamas militants under the al-Shifa hospital. Something Hamas and hospital staff deny.
There are multiple reports suggesting that a temporary pause in hostilities and release of some hostages could be near.
US President Joe Biden says he has revived talks with US officials with the aim of working towards a two-state solution, adding that a ceasefire is "not peace".
More than 11,500 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the war between Israel and proscribed terror group Hamas.
At least 1,200 people were killed in Israel, following Hamas' October 7 attack in the south of the country
Heavy fighting has erupted around a hospital in Northern Gaza where thousands of patients and displaced people have been sheltering.
A shell has struck the second floor of the Indonesian Hospital, killing at least 12 people, according to the Health Ministry in Hamas controlled Gaza.
It comes after news that Hamas could release a significant number of Israeli hostages "in coming days", Israel's ambassador to the US has said.
Around 240 hostages were taken during Hamas's deadly attack in Israel on October 7, which prompted Israel to invade Gaza. The US and Qatar have signalled an agreement to release at least some of them could be near.
Since the attack, Hamas has released four hostages, Israel has rescued one, and the bodies of two were found near the al-Shifa hospital.
Israel, the US and Qatar - which mediates with Hamas - have been negotiating a hostage release for weeks.
“We are hopeful that we can get a significant number of hostages freed in the coming days,” Israel’s ambassador to the US, Michael Herzog, told ABC’s This Week.
Qatar’s prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, said the sticking points were "more practical, logistical.”
It comes as 31 premature babies have been evacuated from Gaza's heavily damaged main hospital in an "extremely critical condition" and safely transported to another in the south.
The babies have been taken to an Emirati hospital in the southern city of Rafah, close to the Egyptian border.
The newborns from al-Shifa Hospital, where power was cut and supplies ran out while Israeli forces battled Palestinian militants outside, were receiving urgent care in the southern Gaza city of Rafah. Four other babies died in the two days before the evacuation.
They were among 291 trauma patients, with severely infected wounds, and others unable to move with spinal injuries, left in al-Shifa after a mass evacuation on Saturday.
The babies suffered from dehydration, vomiting, hypothermia and some had sepsis because they hadn't received medication, and they had not been in “suitable conditions for them to stay alive,” said Mohamed Zaqout, director of Gaza hospitals.
"They’ll go to Egypt on Monday for more specialised care," he added.
A World Health Organisation (WHO) team said 25 medical staff remained, along with the patients who it said were “terrified for their safety and health, and pleaded for evacuation.” The agency also described the hospital as a "death zone".
The IDF claim they have found a 55-metre tunnel around 10 metres under the al-Shifa hospital - claims that have not been independently verified.
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