Israel-Gaza updates: IDF says it exposed Hamas tunnel under Shifa Hospital
World Health Organization officials visited the hospital in Gaza on Saturday.
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.
Click here for updates from previous days.
Latest headlines:
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.
Israel claims Hamas has 'lost control of Northern Gaza'
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said during a briefing Tuesday that "Hamas has lost control of Northern Gaza."
"We control Northern Gaza, especially Gaza City," Gallant said.
Gallant said the Israel Defense Forces have uncovered 500 tunnels, including in schools, mosques and hospitals, as it seeks to remove Hamas' leadership and military from Gaza.
-ABC News' Jordana Miller
Breakthrough in hostage deal could come in next 48-72 hours: Israeli source
A senior Israeli political source said Tuesday that progress has been made on a hostage deal and a breakthrough could come in the next 48-72 hours.
The Israeli War Cabinet is meeting Tuesday night to discuss the deal, the source said.
Israeli officials have said as many as 239 Israelis are being held captive by Hamas in Gaza.
-ABC News' Jordana Miller
US intelligence shows Hamas using hospitals to support military operations, hold hostages: Kirby
The U.S. has intelligence that shows Hamas has used hospitals in Gaza to support its military operations and hold hostages, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby confirmed Tuesday.
"I can confirm for you that we have information that Hamas, and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, used some hospitals in the Gaza Strip -- including Al-Shifa -- and tunnels underneath them to conceal and to support their military operations and to hold hostages," Kirby said during a gaggle on Air Force One.
Kirby said Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad operate a command and control node from Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City where "they have stored weapons there, and they're prepared to respond to an Israeli military operation against that facility."
Kirby said the information comes from a "variety" of intelligence sourcing.
He cautioned again that these actions by Hamas "do not lessen Israel's responsibilities to protect civilians in Gaza."
"This is something that we obviously are going to continue to have an active conversation with our counterparts about," he said.
During a Pentagon briefing Tuesday, deputy Pentagon press secretary Sabrina Singh described the information as an independent U.S. intelligence assessment and "newly downgraded information that we felt was important to get out today because there have been a lot of questions about the hospital and how Hamas operates."
Singh did not go into specifics on the intel but said "we feel very confident in our sourcing and what the intelligence community has gathered on this topic."
-ABC News' Justin Gomez and Luis Martinez
Fuel shortage stalls aid deliveries from Egypt into Gaza Strip, official says
A fuel shortage has stalled aid deliveries from Egypt into the Gaza Strip, a Rafah border crossing official told ABC News on Tuesday.
"No aid got in today because [the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees] trucks have no fuel," Wael Abu Omar, the Palestinian spokesman for the Rafah border crossing, said.
The UNRWA, which is responsible for receiving and distributing humanitarian aid coming from Egypt in Gaza, said Monday its trucks ran out of fuel and it would not be able to to receive aid coming through Rafah on Tuesday.
Tuesday marks the first day no aid trucks crossed into Gaza through Egypt since Oct. 21 amid the war.
Earlier on Tuesday, the Palestine Red Crescent Society said it received the last convoy of trucks from Egypt on Monday, including 155 trucks, following the UNRWA's announcement.
-ABC News' Ayat Al-Tawy
Al-Shifa doctors describe hospital evacuation
Patients and doctors evacuated the Al-Shifa hospital on Saturday, after the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry claimed Israel forced them to leave. The IDF released a statement denying it ordered the evacuation, but in a Friday briefing another spokesperson said the IDF was urging anyone left in Al-Shifa hospital to leave and that it hoped it would take place in the "next few hours."
Doctors described their exodus from the hospital to ABC News, with Dr. Ahmed Mokhallalati -- who is still in the hospital -- saying "all critical ICU patients have died. The situation is terrifying."
"Today early in morning people were forcefully evacuated from the hospital, with absolutely no plan of evacuation of the patients and the medical staff. Most of the civilians together with most of the staff left the hospital," Mokhallalati said.
Mokhallalati said there are around 300 patients, who cannot move, and less than 50 medical staff still in the hospital.
"There are still 33 premature babies in the hospital -- one baby died yesterday, and two babies were taken by their parents to evacuate with them. There is only one neonatologist and one nurse with them," he added. The Israelis have provided only three transport incubators for 33 babies. So, if they tell us 'you have to evacuate now,' I have no idea how to evacuate them."
Dr. Adnan Al-Barash, head of the orthopedic department at Al-Shifa Hospital, told ABC News that the "Israeli army forced us to leave the hospital at gunpoint."
"The path for us to walk was set out among the tanks, we had elderly, wounded… The scene was very tragic and sad," Al-Barash said.
"We went out between the tanks, and we could not get the wounded out on the broken roads and we could not move wheelchairs for the wounded," he added.
-ABC News' Dragana Jovanovic and Zoe Magee