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GAZA STRIP, Occupied Palestine — Israel renewed its attack on Thursday on Gaza's largest hospital, targeting what it claimed was a Hamas command centre hidden beneath thousands of patients, medics and displaced people.

Both Israel and its top ally the United States say Hamas has built in tunnels below the Al Shifa complex, which has become a focal point in the war.

The Palestinian resistance group and directors at the hospital have denied the charge.

Gaza's health ministry said on Thursday that Israeli armoured bulldozers had "destroyed parts of the southern entrance" of the hospital.

Before Israel first sent troops into the hospital complex on Wednesday, UN agencies estimated that 2,300 patients, staff and displaced civilians were sheltering at Al Shifa.

But with the Hamas-run health ministry saying the death toll from the offensive has now topped 11,500, including thousands of children, calls for a truce are mounting.

Israeli forces claimed an initial raid in Al Shifa had uncovered military equipment, weapons and what spokesman Daniel Hagari described as "an operational headquarters with comms equipment".

The health ministry in Gaza said on Wednesday the Israeli military did not find any weapons when it raided the hospital.

Witnesses have described conditions inside the hospital as horrific, with medical procedures performed without anaesthetic, families with scant food or water living in corridors, and the stench of decomposing corpses filling the air.

"The protection of newborns, patients, medical staff and all civilians must override all other concerns," UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths said. "Hospitals are not battlegrounds."

A journalist in contact with AFP, trapped inside Al Shifa, said that Israeli soldiers, some wearing face masks, shot in the air and ordered young men to surrender when they first entered the facility.

About 1,000 male Palestinians, hands above their heads, were led into the courtyard, some in  their underwear, by Israeli soldiers checking them for weapons or explosives, the journalist said.

ISTANBUL — Turkey’s parliament opened debate Thursday on Sweden’s NATO aspirations as it neared meeting a major Western defence alliance objective despite its fury at Israel’s war with Hamas.

The discussions in parliament’s foreign affairs committee represent an important moment for both European security and Turkey’s relations with the West.

Sweden and Finland dropped decades of military non-alignment and sought the nuclear protection afforded by the US-led organisation in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year.

Their bids won fast-track approval by all other NATO members except for Turkey and Hungary.

The two ultimately relented and accepted Finland into the bloc this year.

The step roughly doubled the length of NATO’s border with Russia and strengthened the security of three tiny Baltic nations that joined the bloc after the Soviet Union’s collapse.

But Turkey has vented fury at Sweden — a liberal Nordic nation that opened its doors to migrants in past decades — for refusing to crack down on Kurdish support groups that Ankara views as “terrorists”.

Hungary has been following Turkey’s lead in the 18-month saga.

Western allies worry that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban is using his close ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin to undermine NATO and sow divisions in Europe.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan formally signed off on Sweden’s application at a raucous NATO summit in July.

But NATO hopes that Turkey would finally ratify the bid when parliament returned from summer recess receded as war returned to the Middle East.

‘Balancing act’

The Hamas-run health ministry says the death toll from Israel’s Gaza offensive has now topped 11,500 and includes thousands of children.

Erdogan continues to voice occasional displeasure at Sweden for allowing Kurdish groups that Ankara has outlawed to march in Stockholm.

But he has focused most of his anger at Israel and the West for the scale of the civilian toll of the Gaza war.

Erdogan has called Israel a “terror state” that was being used as a “pawn” to project the interests of the United States in the Middle East.

He has also warned that a broader war between “the cross and the crescent” was breaking out between Israel’s mostly Christian Western allies and the Muslim world.

His impassioned speeches are replayed throughout the day on Turkish television and feed bubbling anger at Israel across the mostly Muslim but officially secular nation.

Erdogan led a Palestinian support rally in October that he claimed brought 1.5 million people out on the streets of Istanbul.

Yet, Turkey has developed a reputation for pragmatism in its foreign relations during Erdogan’s two-decade rule.

Eurasia Group analyst Emre Peker predicted that “Erdogan’s outbursts will not derail [Turkey’s] foreign policy balancing act”.

Turkey is keen to win approval from the US Congress for a major F-16 fighter jet package that Washington has made conditional on Sweden’s NATO bid.

Erdogan’s decision to submit Sweden’s application for parliamentary approval “was intended to showcase Turkey’s key role in — and commitment to — the alliance”, Peker wrote in a report.

Erdogan controls parliament through an alliance with a far-right group.

The full chamber is expected to vote through the application shortly after its approval by the foreign affairs committee this month.

GAZA STRIP, Occupied Palestine — Israeli troops on Wednesday raided and then combed through Gaza's main hospital, raising fears for thousands of patients and other civilians trapped inside.

Both Israel and its top ally the United States say the Palestinian fighters have a command centre below the Al Shifa complex, a charge denied by Hamas and leaders of the hospital that has become a focal point in the 40-day-old war.

Israeli soldiers, some wearing face masks and shooting in the air, ordered young men to surrender, a journalist in contact with AFP reported, as the army said it conducted a "precise and targeted" operation at the facility.

About 1,000 male Palestinians, their hands above their heads, were in the vast hospital courtyard, some of them stripped naked by Israeli soldiers checking them for weapons or explosives, the journalist said.

The United Nations has said it estimates that at least 2,300 people, patients, staff and displaced civilians, are inside and may be unable to escape because of fierce fighting.

Witnesses have described conditions inside the hospital as horrific, with medical procedures taking place without anaesthetic, families with scant food or water living in corridors and the stench of decomposing corpses filling the air.

The health ministry in Gaza says Israel’s ensuing aerial bombardment and ground offensive have killed 11,320 people, mostly civilians, including thousands of children.

International concern over the fate of the people inside the hospital has The situation in Gaza’s other hospitals is also dire, with the World Health Organisation saying 22 of 36 are not functional due to a lack of generator fuel, damage or combat.

Patients, the wounded, their families, and the medical teams trapped in Al Quds hospital were evacuated Tuesday, said the Palestinian Red Crescent, adding the facility had been under “siege” for 10 days.

The head of the UN children’s agency described on Wednesday the “devastating” scenes she witnessed during a visit to Gaza, urging the parties to the conflict to “stop this horror”.

The humanitarian crisis also includes 1.5 million people who, according to the UN, have fled southwards after Israel told them to leave the northern half of the territory.

Even though Gazans have been urged to flee south, strikes there have steadily claimed lives and destroyed homes.

“All of a sudden, all we could see was flames. We were all buried under the rubble, no one could see anyone else,” said Ali Abu Jazar, who survived a strike in Rafah, in the far south of Gaza.

“We started yelling to let them know ‘we’re here, underneath you,’ so they began clearing the rubble to rescue us,” he added.

A trickle of aid has made it into the besieged territory in the five weeks of war, and crucially fuel for generators has been in short supply.

Just hours after receiving its first delivery of fuel since the Hamas-Israel war began on October 7, the UN warned Wednesday its operations in Gaza were on the brink of collapse.

CAIRO — A fuel truck entered Gaza through the Rafah border crossing from Egypt on Wednesday, state-aligned Al Qahera News reported, in the first such delivery since the Hamas-Israel war began on October 7.

An Egyptian source said the fuel would be delivered to the United Nations "to facilitate the delivery of aid after trucks on the Palestinian side stopped operating for lack of fuel".

Witnesses at the Egyptian border said two more trucks were waiting to pass through the crossing.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said it was unable to confirm the reported delivery.

"No fuel has come to Gaza since October 7," the agency's director of communications Juliette Touma told AFP, adding that "if there is any change, UNRWA will provide an update".

COGAT, the Israeli defence ministry body that handles Palestinian civil affairs, had said earlier that "UN trucks transporting humanitarian aid through the Rafah crossing will be refuelled at the Rafah crossing, per US request".

The UN had warned on Monday that its operations would "grind to a halt in the next 48 hours" unless it could refuel trucks that have been transporting aid to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians displaced by Israel's unrelenting bombardment.

"It is unbelievable that humanitarian agencies have to beg for fuel and operate on life support," UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said in a statement Tuesday.

“Since the beginning of the war, fuel has been used as a weapon of war and this should stop immediately.”

Israel’s attacks by air and land have killed 11,320 people, mostly civilians, including thousands of children, according to the health ministry in Gaza.

Aid agencies have repeatedly underlined the desperate need for fuel, used to power hospital generators and purify drinking water.

The health ministry has said that fuel shortages have forced the shutdown of all hospitals in northern Gaza.

At the Al Shifa hospital, which Israeli forces raided on Wednesday, dozens of intensive care patients have died since the hospital ran out of fuel, according to health officials.

GENEVA — The UN humanitarian chief demanded on Wednesday immediate action to "rein in the carnage" in Gaza, presenting a plan to help ease the crisis in the Palestinian territory.

"As the carnage in Gaza reaches new levels of horror every day, the world continues to watch in shock as hospitals come under fire, premature babies die, and an entire population is deprived of the basic means of survival," Martin Griffiths said in a statement.

"This cannot be allowed to continue."

He put forward a 10-point plan to help ease the humanitarian catastrophe, calling in particular for a ceasefire.

His comments came after Israeli forces entered Al Shifa hospital on Wednesday, targeting what they say is a Hamas command centre in tunnels beneath the patients and the civilians seeking refuge there from the fighting.

Earlier on Wednesday, Griffiths said on X, formerly Twitter, that he was "appalled by reports of military raids in Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza".

"Hospitals are not battlegrounds."

The health ministry in Gaza says Israel's ensuing air and ground offensive has killed 11,320 people, mostly civilians, including thousands of children.

The United Nations estimates that at least 2,300 people, patients, staff and displaced civilians, are inside the hospital and may be unable to escape because of fierce fighting.

In his statement, Griffiths stressed that the UN and its partners in Gaza were “committed to responding to the mounting humanitarian needs, guided, as always, by the principles of humanity, impartiality, neutrality and independence”.

“We have the expertise, know-how and most certainly the will,” he said.

He urged the parties and those with influence over them to implement his plan.

 ‘Act before too late’ 

The plan also urges the release of the hostages held by Hamas, and calls on the international community to fully fund a $1.2 billion appeal to address the towering needs in Gaza.

Griffiths stressed the need to “facilitate aid agencies’ efforts to bring in a continuous flow of aid convoys and to do so safely”.

He asked that additional crossing points be opened for aid and commercial trucks, and for the UN and other humanitarian organisations to be allowed to access sufficient quantities of fuel to deliver aid and provide basic services.

Humanitarian organisations needed to be able to “deliver aid throughout Gaza without impediment or interference”, he said.

Griffiths also called for an improved humanitarian notification system to help ensure civilians and civilian infrastructure are spared in the hostilities.

“These are the actions required to rein in the carnage,” he said.

“The world must act before it is too late.”

DOHA — Qatar on Tuesday urged Israel and Hamas to reach an agreement on releasing hostages seized in the October 7 surprise attack, cautioning the situation in Gaza was worsening on a daily basis.

Qatar Ministry of Foreign Affairs Spokesman Majed Bin Mohammed Al Ansari told a news conference in Doha that the "deteriorating" situation in Gaza was hampering mediation efforts.

"We believe that there is no other chance for both sides other than for this mediation to take place and to reach a situation where we can see a glimmer of hope in this terrible crisis", he added.

The Gulf state has been leading negotiations for the release of hostages and to secure a temporary ceasefire, following the Hamas surprise attack on southern Israel over one month ago.

About 240 hostages were also seized and taken back to Gaza.

Israel launched a relentless bombardment and subsequent ground invasion of Gaza, killing 11,240 people, also mostly civilians and including thousands of children, according to the territory's government.

Hamas said on Monday Israel had requested the release of 100 women and children hostages in return for 200 Palestinian children and 75 women held in Israeli prisons.

Abu Obeida, a spokesman for Hamas's military wing, said the group informed mediators as many as 70 could be released "if we obtained five days of truce... and passage of aid to all of our people throughout the Gaza Strip."

He noted a higher number of Israeli hostages could not be secured for release "because some are in the hands of different groups and factions" and accused Israel of dragging its feet.

Israeli leaders have insisted there will be no broader ceasefire until hostages are released.

Al Ansari declined to comment on the specifics of hostage negotiations but said the Gulf state remained “hopeful” for further releases as it mediates with Hamas and Israel.

The Gulf emirate, which hosts the largest US military base in the Middle East, also hosts Hamas’s political office and is the main residence of the Islamists’ self-exiled leader Ismail Haniyeh.

It has used its channels with Hamas, to play a lead role in the release of four of the hostages so far.

RAFAH, Occupied Palestine — With eyes wide open and his tiny fists clenched tightly, Mohammed Kullab is just a few days old, having started life in Gaza amid the chaos of the Hamas-Israel war.

"Nobody should be born in such circumstances," sighed his mother Fadwa Kullab, who has sought shelter at a UN school building in Gaza's southern city of Rafah.

Kullab now has seven children but said Mohammed's "birth was the most difficult experience of my life".

Like other mothers of newborns AFP spoke to in Gaza, she said her baby son had been refusing her breast milk.

"I'm not eating well," Kullab said, stressing that she had successfully breastfed her other six children.

Breastfeeding mothers are advised to drink at least three litres of water a day and eat well to produce sufficient milk, but finding clean water and food in Gaza is becoming harder by the day.

The already poverty-stricken and long blockaded Palestinian territory was plunged into its worst ever war since October 7.

The war has seen Israel relentlessly bombard and besiege Gaza and launch a ground invasion.

More than 11,200 Palestinians have been killed, most of them women and children, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.

Nearly two thirds of Gaza’s 36 hospitals, already overwhelmed with war-wounded, have been knocked out of service due to a lack of fuel to power their generators.

Gaza City’s biggest hospital Al Shifa, packed with patients and displaced, is now inside a fierce urban combat zone, with its director reporting scores of dead buried in a mass grave in the complex.

Among those who died were seven premature babies in its disabled neonatal unit, Gaza’s Deputy Health Minister Youssef Abu Rish said.

 ‘I could lose the baby’ 

Countless new mothers in Gaza now fear the very worst, among them Kullab who said she feels helpless and unable to protect her children.

She has struggled to find baby formula and nappies, she said as she cradled her tiny son, swaddled in blankets.

Another woman, Najwa Salem, 37, said her newborn has jaundice, marked by yellowish skin and eyes. The condition can be worsened by low milk intake and dehydration and is often treated with daylight exposure.

To minimise the risk of neurological damage, Salem would like to take her infant boy outside, but said she hesitates because of the “rubbish piling up and the bombing”.

Inside the UN school classroom Salem now shares with about 70 others, the mother worried because the scar from her Caesarian section had become infected.

Although she gave birth in a hospital, she said she was asked to leave after just one night “because they had too many wounded people to care for”.

Outside, the huge amount of dust from the incessant bombing is causing breathing difficulties that spell special dangers for infants.

Another woman, eight-months-pregnant Umm Ibrahim Alayan, complained of coughing fits since she fled her neighbourhood as it was being bombarded.

Her intense coughing may have provoked the early contractions she has suffered, she said, her hands flitting nervously between her rounded belly and her face.

“I’m terrified, all I want to do is hold my baby in my arms,” she said, sobbing. “I feel I could lose the baby at any moment.”

‘Utterly hellish conditions’ 

The UN Population Fund’s top official for the Palestinian territories, Dominic Allen, said pregnant women in Gaza “have nowhere to go, there is nowhere safe”.

The UN says there are more than 50,000 pregnant women and an average of 180 births a day in Gaza, with a population of 2.4 million.

“We estimate that a minimum of 15 per cent of these births will have complications, which will require basic or comprehensive obstetric care,” Allen said.

The war is creating “a high-stress environment” likely to foster “complications of birth and may lead to miscarriages”, he said.

The UN agency has cited the “nightmarish” case of one woman discharged just three hours after giving birth.

It said there were shortages of blood to treat postpartum haemorrhage and of antiseptic for stitches and treatment after umbilical cords are cut.

So far, the UN agency has managed to get 8,000 delivery kits into Gaza. They contain umbilical cord cutters, blankets for newborns, disposable sheets and other items.

But these only address a fraction of the need, and Gaza’s health ministry says some women have been forced to give birth without a midwife in the overcrowded shelters.

“The nightmare in Gaza is much more than a humanitarian crisis, it’s a crisis of humanity,” said Allen.

One aid group still working in northern Gaza’s heavily bombed Jabalia refugee camp is ActionAid, helping women inside the Al Awda hospital which has been without power for days.

Surgeons there said they performed 16 C-sections on Sunday, without anaesthetic or other crucial supplies.

“Thousands of women in Gaza are risking their lives to give birth, undergoing Caesareans and emergency operations without sterilisation, anaesthesia or painkillers,” said ActionAid’s Riham Jafari.

“These women deserve quality healthcare and the right to give birth in a safe place. Instead, they are being forced to bring their babies into the world amid utterly hellish conditions.”