Israel sent troops into a hospital in war-torn Gaza on Thursday where it said hostages may have been held, as medics warned the key medical facility was operating in "near impossible" conditions.
The raid came after days of intense fighting between troops and Hamas around the Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis - one of the largest medical sites in southern Gaza, and one of the territory's few hospitals that are still operational.
The health ministry in Gaza reported that thousands of people who had sought refuge in the complex, including patients, have been made to leave in recent days.
It has called the situation at Nasser "catastrophic", with staff unable to move bodies to the morgue because of the risks involved. Medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) described a "chaotic situation" in the hospital after it was shelled early Thursday, killing and wounding multiple people.
"Our medical staff have had to flee the hospital, leaving patients behind," MSF said, with one employee unaccounted for and another detained by Israeli forces.
The World Health Organization has described Nasser Hospital as a critical facility "for all of Gaza", where only a minority of hospitals are even partly operational.
At least 28,663 people, mostly women and children, have been killed in Israel's assault on the Palestinian territory, according to the health ministry. Israel launched more deadly strikes on southern Gaza on Thursday after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted it would push ahead with a "powerful" operation in the overcrowded city of Rafah for "complete victory".
- 'No safe place' -
Hundreds of thousands of people have been driven into Rafah, seeking shelter in a sprawling makeshift encampment near the Egyptian border. The city now hosts more than half of Gaza's population, with displaced people "crammed" into less than 20 percent of the territory, according to UN humanitarian agency OCHA.
"We were displaced from Gaza City to the south," said Ahlam Abu Assi. "(Then) they told us to go to Rafah, so we went to Rafah. "We can't keep going and coming," she added.
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