Breaking news on the war between Israel and Hamas LIVE: news from Gaza, ground offensive, bombings, deaths and more

Gaza Strip: death toll from Israeli offensive rises to more than 11,500 and almost 30,000 injured

Israel destroys the house of Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh in the Gaza Strip

The army of Israel He continues his operation on Thursday at the main hospital in Loop, where he affirms that Hamas hides a strategic military position, despite criticism and international concern for the civilians crowded inside. “Tonight we carried out a targeted operation at Al Shifa Hospital. “We continue to advance,” said Major General Yaron Finkelman, in charge of Israeli operations in Gaza, on Wednesday night. The Israeli army confirmed to AFP on Thursday morning that its “soldiers” are still deployed in this complex, the most important in the Gaza Strip, where the UN estimates that there are 2,300 people including patients, medical personnel and displaced people.

WATCH THE LIVE STREAM HERE:

The Ministry of Health of the Palestinian territory controlled by Hamas said “Israeli bulldozers destroyed several parts of the southern entrance” of the health complex.

Israel claims that Hamas uses the hospital as a military basean accusation shared by the United States that the Palestinian Islamist movement rejects.

LOOK: Israel searches for Hamas in Gaza’s largest hospital, packed with patients and displaced people: This is what is known

In a first foray on Wednesday, the israeli army He assured that he found “ammunition, weapons and military equipment” belonging to Hamaswhich is classified as a “terrorist” organization by the United States, the European Union and Israel.

The army published images of weapons, grenades and other war equipment, claiming they came from its operation in Al Shifa. AFP was unable to confirm these allegations with independent sources.

He Hamas Ministry of Health He refuted that it is impossible for them to find “weapons or military equipment” because “the possession of weapons is not authorized” in hospitals in his network.

“Extremely careful”

For the first time since the start of the war, The UN Security Council managed to pass a resolution calling for “humanitarian pauses.” and humanitarian corridors” in the Gaza Strip.

The text, adopted with 12 votes in favor and the abstentions of the United States, Russia and the United Kingdom, “urges for broad and urgent humanitarian pauses and corridors for the sufficient number of days” to allow aid to reach the population.

According to an AFP contributing journalist in Al Shifa, Dozens of Israeli soldiers stormed the hospital on Wednesday asking that “all men aged 16 and older” go “to the inner courtyard to surrender.”

Troops searched crying women and children and went from room to roomshooting into the air, in search of Hamas fighters, this journalist reported.

This first incursion sparked international condemnation and calls to protect Palestinian civilians both from UN as from countries like France, Qatar or Türkiye.

The US president, Joe Biden, called on his ally to be “extremely careful” in this operation inside the hospital.

But the leader, a key support of Israel in his war against Hamasalso estimated that it is unrealistic to think that Israel will stop the operation.

Pressure from the families of the hostages

On October 7, Hamas launched a surprise attack in southern Israel that killed about 1,200 people and kidnapped another 240, according to Israeli authorities.

In response, Israel vowed to “annihilate” the Islamist movement, bombing the Gaza Strip daily and placing it under total siege.

This offensive, which since October 27 has been accompanied by a ground operation, has killed more than 11,500 Palestinians, including more than 4,700 children, according to the Hamas Ministry of Health.

Furthermore, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), 1.65 million of the 2.3 million inhabitants of this Palestinian territory were forced to flee their homes due to the conflict.

Since November 5 alone, 200,000 Palestinians have fled the devastated north of the Gaza Strip to the south of the territory.

Israel reported that some 240 people were kidnapped during the Hamas attack, whose fate is a sensitive issue for the prime minister’s government. Benjamin Netanyahu.

Biden stated that he is slightly “hopeful” that there has been a positive result of the negotiations for his release, in which Qatar acts as mediator.

“I don’t want to get ahead of myself because I don’t know what has happened in the last four hours, but we have achieved great cooperation with Qatar (…) I am going to stop here, but I am slightly hopeful,” he said.

Pressure is increasing on Netanyahu’s government: the families of the hostages are demanding an immediate agreement for their release and on Tuesday they began a five-day march in Tel Aviv to the prime minister’s office in Jerusalem.

On the political front, the head of the opposition, Yair Lapid, He called for Netanyahu’s immediate resignation and his replacement by another member of the ruling Likud party.

“We cannot afford to carry out a long (military, ed.) campaign with a prime minister who has lost the trust of the people,” he said in an interview with the Israeli news channel N12.