Israel has ordered the closure and evacuation of one of the last hospitals still partly functioning in a besieged area in northern Gaza, forcing medics to search for a way to bring hundreds of patients and staff to safety.
The head of the Kamal Adwan hospital in Beit Lahiya, Husam Abu Safiya said via text message that obeying the order to shut down was "next to impossible" because there were not enough ambulances to get patients out.
"We currently have nearly 400 civilians inside the hospital, including babies in the neonatal unit, whose lives depend on oxygen and incubators," he said.
"We cannot evacuate these patients safely without assistance, equipment, and time.
"We are sending this message under heavy bombardment and direct targeting of the fuel tanks, which if hit will cause a large explosion and mass casualties of the civilians inside."
The Israeli military did not respond to a request for comment on Mr Abu Safiya's remarks.
It said that on Friday it had sent fuel and food to the hospital and helped evacuate more than 100 patients and caregivers to other Gaza hospitals, some in coordination with the Red Cross, for their own safety.
Mr Abu Safiya said the military had ordered patients and staff to be evacuated to another hospital where conditions are even worse.
Photos from inside the hospital showed patients on beds crammed into corridors to keep them away from windows.
Reuters could not immediately verify those images.
Israel says its operation around three communities on the northern edge of the Gaza Strip - Beit Lahiya, Beit Hanoun and Jabalia - is targeting Hamas militants.
Palestinians accuse Israel of seeking to permanently depopulate the area to create a buffer zone, which Israel denies
Israeli strikes kill at least 35 - Gaza's civil defence
Meanwhile, Gaza's civil defence agency has said that Israeli strikes killed at least 35 Palestinians across the territory.
Israel has faced growing criticism of its actions during the war, triggered by Hamas's 7 October 2023 attack, including from rights groups accusing it of "acts of genocide" which the Israeli government strongly denies.
Pope Francis denounced has denounced the "cruelty" of Israel's bombardment, highlighting the deaths of children and attacks on schools and hospitals in Gaza for the second time in as many days, while Israel accused the pontiff of "double standards".
On the ground in Gaza, civil agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said that at least 13 people were killed in an air strike on a house in central Gaza's Deir el-Balah belonging to the Abu Samra family.
Residents searched through the debris for survivors, while others looked for belongings they could salvage.
In a nearby compound, bodies covered in blankets were laid on the ground.
"We are... losing loved ones every day," said Deir el-Balah resident Naim al-Ramlawi.
"I pray to God that a truce will be reached soon" and would allow Gazans to finally "live a decent life, instead of this miserable life", he said.
There was no comment from the Israeli military, which has confirmed a separate strike further north, on a school in Gaza City.
Mr Bassal said that eight people including four children were killed in the attack on the school, which had been repurposed as a shelter for Palestinians displaced by the war.
The Israeli military said it had carried out a "precise strike" overnight targeting a Hamas "command and control centre" inside the school compound in the city's east.
Israeli drone hits car killing four
Mr Bassal said in a statement that an overnight strike killed three people in Rafah, in the south.
And a drone strike earlier hit a car in Gaza City, killing four people, the spokesman added.
An Israeli security source, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed the hit on the car.
A military spokesperson said the army was unable to comment on the other strikes reported by the civil defence.
The unprecedented Hamas attack last year that sparked the war resulted in the deaths of 1,208 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Militants also took 251 hostages, of whom 96 remain in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel's retaliatory offensive in Gaza has killed at least 45,259 people, a majority of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory's health ministry that the United Nations considers reliable.
Ceasefire talks
Hamas and two other Palestinian armed groups said yesterday in a rare joint statement that an agreement to end the bloodshed was "closer than ever".
The groups, which include Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, said that a truce in Gaza and hostage release deal may be within reach, provided Israel does not impose new conditions in negotiations.
Negotiations have faced multiple challenges since a one-week truce in November 2023, with the primary point of contention being the establishment of a lasting ceasefire.
Israeli leaders have repeatedly stated they oppose a full military withdrawal from Gaza. Another unresolved issue is the territory's post-war governance.
Indirect talks between Israel and Hamas, mediated by Qatar, Egypt and the United States, were held last week in Doha, rekindling hope of a potential breakthrough after months of stalling.
On Wednesday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he was "hopeful" for a deal, but avoided making any predictions as to when it would materialise.
