Gaza war: 100 people killed in Israeli strikes overnight as fears grow for patients in raided hospital

Israel said it had taken 100 people into custody at one of Gaza's main hospitals on Saturday after troops raided the facility, with fears mounting for patients and staff trapped inside.

The deadly bombardment of Gaza continued overnight with another 100 people killed in Israeli strikes, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

At least 120 patients and five medical teams are stuck without water, food and electricity in the Nasser hospital in Gaza's main southern city of Khan Yunis, according to the health ministry.

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Israel has for weeks concentrated its military operations in Khan Yunis, the hometown of Hamas' Gaza leader Yahya Sinwar, the alleged architect of the October 7 attack that triggered the war.

Intense fighting has raged around the Nasser hospital — one of the Palestinian territory's last major medical facilities that remains even partly operational.

Lack of oxygen

The power was cut and the generators stopped after the raid, leading to the deaths of six patients due to a lack of oxygen, according to Gaza's health ministry.

"New-born children are at a risk of dying in the next few hours," the ministry warned Saturday.

Israel's army said troops entered the hospital on Thursday, acting on what it said was "credible intelligence" that hostages seized in the October 7 attack had been held there and that the bodies of some may still be inside.

It said it has detained 100 people from the hospital suspected of "terrorist activity", seized weapons and retrieved "medications with the names of Israeli hostages" in the hospital.

But the raid has been criticised by medics and the United Nations. The army has insisted it made every effort to keep the hospital supplied with power, including bringing in an alternative generator.

A witness, who declined to be named for safety reasons, told AFP the Israeli forces had shot "at anyone who moved inside the hospital".

World Health Organisation spokesperson Tarik Jasarevic slammed the operation Friday, saying "more degradation to the hospital means more lives being lost".

"Patients, health workers, and civilians who are seeking refuge in hospitals deserve safety and not a burial in those places of healing," he said.

Forced to flee

Doctors Without Borders said its medics had been forced to flee and leave patients behind, with one employee unaccounted for and another detained by Israeli forces.

The UN Human Rights Office said the Nasser hospital raid appeared to be "part of a pattern of attacks by Israeli forces striking essential life-saving civilian infrastructure".

High-level negotiations to pause the war were held this week in Cairo, but their outcome is still unclear.

A day after US President Joe Biden called for a "temporary truce" to secure the release of hostages, Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh on Saturday reiterated the group's demands, including a complete pause in fighting, the release of Hamas prisoners, and withdrawal of Israeli troops.

Qatar-based Haniyeh said Hamas would "not agree to anything less".

Biden has also urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to launch an offensive in Rafah without a plan to keep civilians safe — but Netanyahu insisted he would push ahead with a "powerful" operation there to defeat Hamas.

Trapped in Rafah

Around 1.4 million displaced civilians are trapped in Rafah after taking refuge in a makeshift encampment by the Egyptian border, with dwindling supplies.

"We are dying slowly due to the scarcity of resources and the lack of medications and treatments," said displaced Palestinian Mohammad Yaghi.

In northern Gaza, many are so desperate for food they are grinding up animal feed.

"We need food now," said Mohammed Nassar, 50, from Jabalia in northern Gaza.

"We're going to die from hunger, not by bombs or missiles."

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