Middle East

Under the agreement, all parties would freeze combat operations for at least five days while 50 or more hostages are released in groups every 24 hours, the Post reported. Hamas took about 240 hostages during its October 7 rampage inside Israel that killed 1,200 people.

Al Shifa has been a primary target of Israel’s ground advance, with its military saying that the hospital sits above a vast underground Hamas bunker. Hamas and hospital staff say this is false and that Israel’s findings there have so far established no such thing.

Hamas said in a statement late on Thursday that claims by the Pentagon and US State Department that the group uses Al Shifa for military purposes “is a repetition of a blatantly false narrative, demonstrated by the weak and ridiculous performances of the occupation army spokesman.”

Hamas said in a statement late on Thursday that claims by the Pentagon and US State Department that the group uses Al Shifa for military purposes “is a repetition of a blatantly false narrative, demonstrated by the weak and ridiculous performances of the occupation army spokesman.”

International attention has focused on the fate of hundreds of patients trapped inside without electricity to operate basic medical equipment, and thousands of displaced civilians who had sought shelter there. Gaza officials say that many patients including three newborn babies died in recent days as a result of Israel’s encirclement of the hospital.

Israeli soldiers killed several Hamas militants at the outset of a raid on the Al Shifa hospital on Wednesday, where thousands of Palestinian civilians – patients, displaced people and medical staff – have been trapped during weeks of fighting. Israel said it launched the raid because Hamas has a command...

Israel has long alleged that the militants conceal military assets in the facility and other hospitals, a claim denied by Hamas and medical staff. Elsewhere, the Palestinian Red Crescent said on Tuesday it had evacuated patients, doctors and displaced families from another Gaza City hospital, Al-Quds.

Ashraf Al-Qidra, Gaza’s health ministry spokesman, reached by telephone inside the hospital compound, said there were about 100 bodies decomposing inside and no way to get them out.

After the war erupted, tens of thousands crammed into the hospital grounds to seek shelter. As the war has moved closer to the hospital, most of those huddling there have fled south – joining some two-thirds of the territory’s 2.3 million residents who have left their homes.