Israel-Gaza updates: IDF says it exposed Hamas tunnel under Shifa Hospital
World Health Organization officials visited the hospital in Gaza on Saturday.
ByABC NEWS
Last Updated: November 19, 2023, 11:27 AM EST
Thousands of people have died and thousands more have been injured since the militant group Hamas launched an unprecedented surprise attack on Israel on Oct. 7 and Israel retaliated with a bombing campaign and total siege of the neighboring Gaza Strip, leaving the region on the verge of all-out war.
Here's how the news is developing. All times Eastern.
Mar 1, 6:03 am
What we know about the conflict
The latest outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that governs the Gaza Strip, has passed the four-month mark.
In the Gaza Strip, at least 30,228 people have been killed and 71,377 others have been wounded by Israeli forces since Oct. 7, according to Gaza's Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health.
In Israel, at least 1,200 people have been killed and 6,900 others have been injured by Hamas and other Palestinian militants since Oct. 7, according to the Israel Defense Forces.
There has also been a surge in violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Israeli forces have killed at least 395 people in the territory since Oct. 7, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
The ongoing war began after Hamas-led militants launched an unprecedented incursion into southern Israel from neighboring Gaza via land, sea and air. Scores of people were killed while more than 200 others were taken hostage, according to Israeli authorities. The Israeli military subsequently launched retaliatory airstrikes followed by a ground invasion of Gaza, a 140-square-mile territory where more than 2 million Palestinians have lived under a blockade imposed by Israel and supported by Egypt since Hamas came to power in 2007. Gaza, unlike Israel, has no air raid sirens or bomb shelters.
Nov 15, 2023, 5:03 PM EST
1st fuel truck enters Gaza
A fuel truck crossed the Rafah border crossing from Egypt into Gaza on Wednesday, marking the first time fuel entered Gaza since Oct. 7, a spokesman for the Palestinian Crossings Authority said, according to The Associated Press.
Fuel has been drying up in Gaza as the war continued.
Smoke from shelling rises above the Gaza Strip, as seen from southern Israel, Nov. 15, 2023.
Leo Correa/AP
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine said their trucks -- which deliver aid from Egypt to Gaza -- ran out of fuel Tuesday.
In hospitals, a lack of fuel has prevented doctors for running incubators for babies.
And without fuel, many residents of Gaza have been trapped, unable to drive south toward the Egyptian border.
Palestinian Ali Abu Jazar, injured during the Israeli bombardment of the Rafah refugee camp, sits on the rubble of his home the morning after, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on November 15, 2023.
Mohammed Abed/AFP via Getty Images
Nov 15, 2023, 3:39 PM EST
43 patients died in Al-Shifa Hospital as ICU oxygen ran out, doctor says
At Gaza's Al-Shifa Hospital, 43 out of the 63 intensive care patients have died as oxygen in the intensive care unit runs out, according to Dr. Ahmed Mokhallalati, head of the hospital's plastic surgery department.
Mokhallalati told ABC News the mission of burying bodies is ongoing as more people die inside and outside the hospital.
Mokhallalati said he could still hear the Israeli tanks at the hospital gates Wednesday night.
Nov 15, 2023, 2:42 PM EST
Over half of Gaza's hospitals are non-functional: WHO
Twenty-two of Gaza's 36 hospitals are now "non-functional," the World Health Organization said Wednesday.
The "14 hospitals remaining open have barely enough supplies to sustain critical and lifesaving surgeries and provide inpatient care," the WHO warned.
The organization in a statement reiterated its calls for a cease-fire, protection of civilians and "respect for international humanitarian law."
A Palestinian woman covered in dust rushes with her child in her arms into the hospital following the Israeli bombardment of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, Nov. 15, 2023.
Belal Khaled/AFP via Getty Images
Nov 15, 2023, 2:01 PM EST
Operation at Al-Shifa hospital complex ongoing, IDF says
The Israel Defense Forces said its operation at Gaza's Al-Shifa Hospital complex is ongoing.
The IDF said its forces "engaged with" and killed "a number of terrorists" when entering the hospital complex.
Following searches in the hospital, the IDF said its troops "located a room with technological assets, along with military and combat equipment used by the Hamas terrorist organization."
Israeli soldiers walk at the Al Shifa hospital complex in Gaza City, in this still image from handout video obtained Nov. 15, 2023.
Israeli Defense Forces via Reuters
Palestinian journalist Khadr al Zanoon, who is at the hospital, told ABC News no fighting has taken place inside, but he can hear tanks outside.
He said Hamas fighters are not in the hospital but are in the area around it and are fighting with Israeli forces.
He said Israeli forces have detained some Palestinians who were inside the hospital.
2:49
Families of hostages march to Jerusalem, demanding their release
Israeli sources hint a possible hostage deal could come within days as families march to Jerusalem demanding their release.
ABCNews.com
The raid on Al-Shifa Hospital began early Wednesday around 3 a.m. local time, after Israeli forces had moved closer to the medical complex for several days.
Thousands of civilians, along with hundreds of patients -- most of whom are seriously ill -- have been sheltering at Al-Shifa, according to hospital staff and Gaza health officials.
The IDF alleges that Hamas has placed its command centers under Al-Shifa and other hospitals in Gaza and is deliberately sheltering behind Palestinian civilians -- claims that the militant group denies.
