Israel bombs Gaza, fights Hamas around hospitals

Israeli forces pounded besieged Gaza on Wednesday and fought Hamas around several hospitals, despite a UN Security Council demand for a ceasefire.

Talks in Qatar towards a truce and hostage release deal involving US and Egyptian mediators have brought no result so far, with Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas blaming each other.

Tensions have risen between Israel and its top ally the United States over dire food shortages in Gaza and the soaring civilian death toll in the war sparked by Hamas's attack on October 7.

The US also opposes Israeli plans to push its ground offensive into the far-southern city of Rafah, crowded with up to 1.5 million people, most of them displaced by the war.

In heavy overnight bombardment, Israeli strikes again hit Gaza City and Rafah, where a fireball lit up the sky.

Israeli forces have battled Hamas fighters in and around three Gaza hospitals, raising fears for patients, medical staff and displaced people inside them.

Fighting has raged since last week around Gaza City's Al-Shifa Hospital, the territory's largest, and more recently near two hospitals in the main southern city of Khan Yunis, Al-Amal and Nasser.

The army and Shin Bet security service said they were "continuing to conduct precise operational activities" in both cities "while preventing harm to civilians, patients, medical teams and medical equipment".

Violence has also surged in the occupied West Bank.

Israeli tanks and armoured vehicles have also massed around the Nasser Hospital, the Gaza health ministry said, adding that shots were fired but no raid had yet been launched.

A military spokesperson told AFP: "We're operating in the area, but we haven't been inside the hospital."

The Palestinian Red Crescent warned that thousands were trapped inside and "their lives are in danger".

‘No progress’ in talks

The UN Security Council on Monday passed its first resolution demanding an "immediate ceasefire" in Gaza and the release of the captives.

The United States, which had blocked previous resolutions, abstained, prompting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to scrap a scheduled US visit by his officials to discuss the situation in Rafah.

Israeli tanks and armoured vehicles have also massed around the Nasser Hospital.

But a US official said later Israel wanted to reschedule talks.

Israeli and Hamas envoys have engaged in weeks of indirect negotiations aimed at halting the fighting, but both sides said this week the diplomacy was failing.

Qatari foreign ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari has said that the talks were "ongoing" at a technical level.

Hamas leader Ghazi Hamad charged that Israel "is being intransigent and wants to keep the war going".

"There hasn't been any progress in ceasefire talks or negotiations for prisoners' exchange," he said.

Amid the bloodiest ever Gaza conflict, violence has also surged in the occupied West Bank, where an Israeli raid on Wednesday on the northern city of Jenin killed three people.

Agence France-Presse