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Israel-Gaza live updates: 3 premature babies die at Al-Shifa Hospital, doctor says
The hospital has been treating thousands of wounded people.
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.
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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.
IDF denies strike at Gaza hospital
The Israel Defense Forces denied carrying out a strike that hit an outpatient clinic at Gaza's Al-Shifa hospital Friday morning, stating it was a "misfired projectile launched by terrorist organizations inside the Gaza Strip."
There were two incidents at the hospital Friday morning, according to videos verified by ABC News. In one incident, a shell hit the refugee encampment outside of the hospital entrance. In the second incident, a strike hit the outpatient clinic where people were sheltering.
The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry blamed the Israeli military for the strike that hit the outpatient clinic.
Northern Gaza is 'hell on earth': UN
As the humanitarian crisis in Gaza continues to worsen by the day, Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the United Nations humanitarian office, said, "If there is a hell on earth today, its name is northern Gaza."
"People who remain there, the corners of their existence are death, deprivation, despair, displacement, and literally, darkness," Laerke said. "The entire Gaza Strip has been plunged into darkness. … What do you tell your children in such a situation? It's almost unimaginable."
Mass exodus from Gaza's Al-Shifa hospital
People are fleeing Gaza's Al-Shifa hospital, sources confirmed to ABC News, in the wake of a strike on the exterior area of the hospital's outpatient clinic. One surgeon told ABC News "everyone" has fled, calling it a "nightmare."
The hospital has been treating thousands of wounded people and housing as many as 80,000 displaced residents, according to The Associated Press.
The hospital's head of plastic surgery, Dr. Ahmed Mokhallalati, told ABC News he is among the roughly 15% to 20% of staff members still there on Friday.
Although many patients have evacuated, he said, "There is no hospital in Gaza that can accommodate this number of ICU patients -- around 100 ICU patients."
The Palestinian Red Crescent said occupation snipers fired on Gaza's Al-Quds Hospital, killing at least one and injuring at least 28.
Israel Defense Forces spokesman Richard Hecht said, "The IDF does not shoot at hospitals. If there are Hamas terrorists in the hospitals, the IDF will do what it needs to, but we are aware of the sensitivity. We tell Hamas to move the sick southward."
"Slowly we are closing in on them and taking every precaution not to harm the innocent," he said.
American diplomats send dire warnings about war's long-term impact
American diplomats abroad are giving stark warnings about the long-term ramifications of the war, telling their Washington counterparts in multiple diplomatic cables that their work and public opinion of the U.S. in the Arab world could be lost and denigrated for a generation, a State Department source told ABC News.
Diplomatic cables are how U.S. embassies around the world privately communicate with State Department leadership about what U.S. diplomats are seeing on the ground. While some are just regular updates, others contain candid assessments and analysis about what senior embassy staff are seeing on the ground and the potential impacts on U.S. foreign policy or the U.S. standing in the region.
Over 100 UNRWA workers killed
More than 100 workers with UNRWA, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, have been killed since Oct. 7, the highest number ever seen in a single conflict, the agency said.
Those killed include parents, teachers, nurses and doctors, said Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner-general of UNRWA.
"Devastated. … UNRWA is mourning, Palestinians mourning, Israelis mourning," Lazzarini wrote, again calling for a humanitarian cease-fire.