Displaced Palestinians are fleeing from an area near Gaza City's Al-Shifa Hospital and are walking along the coastal highway as they arrive at the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, March 18, 2024. /CFP
The Israeli military said on Monday that it had taken over Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, claiming they had killed at least 20 militants.
Israeli troops have been continuing the military operation since overnight into Monday afternoon.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has expressed concern about the developments in the hospital. "Hospitals should never be battlegrounds. We are terribly worried about the situation at Al-Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza, which is endangering health workers, patients and civilians," Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO director-general, said on social media platform X.
Heavy gunfire could be heard in videos circulating on social media, and Palestinian health authorities confirmed that Israeli troops had utilized heavy weaponry to attack the hospital, causing multiple casualties.
Israel Defense Forces spokesman Daniel Hagari announced the raid in a video statement in the morning, claiming that Hamas militants were regrouping in the Al-Shifa complex.
A total of 20 militants were killed and dozens of "suspects" were arrested and are undergoing interrogation, and "numerous" weapons were located in the room adjacent to where the Hamas official was killed, according to the Israeli army.
An Israeli soldier was killed during the raid on the Al-Shifa complex, the military said.
According to Israeli public radio, the soldier was a sergeant from the Hanahl Brigade, whose death brings the total number of Israeli fatalities since the start of the conflict to 593.
During the attack, a fire broke out in the entrance, causing displaced women and children sheltering there to suffocate, according to Gaza's Hamas-run Health Ministry. It said communication had been cut off, with people trapped inside the surgery and emergency units of one of the buildings.
The Palestinian death toll in the Gaza Strip due to the ongoing Israeli attacks has risen to 31,726, with 73,792 others wounded, the health ministry said in a press statement on Monday.
The Israeli army killed 81 Palestinians and wounded 116 others during the past 24 hours, according to the ministry.
The Rubymar cargo ship partly submerged off the coast of Yemen after a Houthi missile attack, March 7, 2024. /CFP
Red Sea tension escalates
Fighter jets of the U.S. and British naval forces stationing in the Red Sea waged 10 airstrikes against Houthi military targets in Yemen's Hodeidah port city on Monday, the Houthi-run al-Masirah TV reported.
According to al-Masirah TV, six strikes hit the area of al-Jabbanah in the western part of the city, while the four others hit the al-Fazah coast of the At-Tuhayat district, to the south of the city. No casualties were specified.
Residents across the coastal city said on social media platforms that, the strikes were very powerful in Houthi-controlled sites.
There were no comments from the U.S.-British coalition yet.
The UN Security Council on Monday demanded an end to attacks on vessels at the Red Sea by Yemen's Houthi militia and calls for restraint in order to avoid further escalation of the situation.
In a press statement, the members of the Security Council condemned Houthi attacks against commercial vessels in the Red Sea and demanded an immediate end to such attacks.
They called for practical cooperation, including with the Yemeni government, to prevent the Houthis from acquiring the arms and related materiel necessary to carry out further attacks and reiterated that all UN member states must adhere to their obligations in regards to the targeted arms embargo.
They emphasized the need to prevent further regional spillover of the conflict and its impact on the security and the stability of the region and beyond, and in this regard, reiterated the necessity to address the root causes contributing to regional tensions and to the disruption of maritime security in order to ensure a prompt, efficient, and effective response.
The council members urged caution and restraint to avoid further escalation of the situation in the Red Sea and the broader region, and encouraged enhanced diplomatic efforts by all parties to that end, including continued support for dialogue and Yemen's peace process under UN auspices.
(With input from agencies)