Israel-Gaza updates: IDF says it exposed Hamas tunnel under Shifa Hospital
World Health Organization officials visited the hospital in Gaza on Saturday.
Thousands of people have died and thousands more have been injured since the militant group Hamas launched an unprecedented surprise attack on Israel on Oct. 7 and Israel retaliated with a bombing campaign and total siege of the neighboring Gaza Strip, leaving the region on the verge of all-out war.
Click here for updates from previous days.
Latest headlines:
What we know about the conflict
The latest outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that governs the Gaza Strip, has passed the four-month mark.
In the Gaza Strip, at least 30,228 people have been killed and 71,377 others have been wounded by Israeli forces since Oct. 7, according to Gaza's Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health.
In Israel, at least 1,200 people have been killed and 6,900 others have been injured by Hamas and other Palestinian militants since Oct. 7, according to the Israel Defense Forces.
There has also been a surge in violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Israeli forces have killed at least 395 people in the territory since Oct. 7, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
The ongoing war began after Hamas-led militants launched an unprecedented incursion into southern Israel from neighboring Gaza via land, sea and air. Scores of people were killed while more than 200 others were taken hostage, according to Israeli authorities. The Israeli military subsequently launched retaliatory airstrikes followed by a ground invasion of Gaza, a 140-square-mile territory where more than 2 million Palestinians have lived under a blockade imposed by Israel and supported by Egypt since Hamas came to power in 2007. Gaza, unlike Israel, has no air raid sirens or bomb shelters.
IDF announces 2 evacuation corridors open in Gaza on Tuesday
The Israel Defense Forces announced Tuesday the temporary opening of evacuation corridors in the war-torn Gaza Strip to allow more people in the north of the Hamas-run enclave to move south.
A "safe passage" will be open "for humanitarian purposes" via the Salah al-Din highway toward the area south of Wadi Gaza on Tuesday between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. local time, according to the IDF.
The IDF said it will also temporarily suspend military activities "for humanitarian purposes" in the neighborhoods of Al-Daraj and Al-Tuffah on Tuesday between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. local time.
"Please, for your safety, join the hundreds of thousands of residents who have moved south in recent days," the IDF said in a statement. "We encourage you to seize the time and move south!"
The IDF also urged Gaza residents to "not surrender to Hamas," alleging that the militant group "has lost control over the northern Gaza Strip area and is trying to do everything it can to prevent you from moving south and protect yourselves."
-ABC News' Jordana Miller
Israel claims to have evidence of Hamas headquarters at hospital
Israeli military officials brought several journalists, including ABC's Matt Gutman, into the Al-Rantisi Hospital inside Gaza, which had been hit with artillery.
The hospital, Gaza's sole children's hospital, was allegedly a Hamas command center, Israel’s chief military spokesperson Daniel Hagari, who led the tour, claimed.
The hospital was surrounded by Israeli tanks from Thursday into Friday, the director of Al-Rantisi Children’s Hospital said on Friday.
Inside the basement of the hospital, which officials said has been evacuated, were abandoned AK-47s, grenades and what Hagari said were suicide vests. In another room of the basement was a chair where Hagari claims a hostage was kept.
The spokesperson said the Israeli military was set to detonate the grenades and vests they claim they found inside and a forensic team was going to probe the hospital for more evidence.
The tour came after the hospital's resources deteriorated due to nearby attacks according to UNICEF.
The hospital’s operations almost ceased between Thursday and Friday, according to UNICEF.
By Friday, Al-Rantisi Hospital had only a small generator powering the intensive care and neonatal intensive care units, UNICEF said.
-ABC News' Matt Gutman
US intelligence on Hamas operations under Al-Shifa Hospital supports Israeli claims: Sources
While the White House is emphasizing the need to protect civilians in and around Gaza’s hospitals, two administration officials say the U.S. has intelligence supporting Israel’s assessment that Hamas is using Al-Shifa Hospital to shelter a command center under the medical complex, further complicating the situation on the ground.
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller declined to weigh in on Hamas’ operations surrounding Al-Shifa specifically, and underscored that regardless of the terror group's activities, hospitals were still serving vital civilian needs and must be safeguarded.
Miller also stressed that Hamas bore responsibility for the suffering at hospitals.
“We would love to see Hamas vacate the hospitals it's using [as] command posts immediately," he said. "We would love to see Hamas take some of the fuel reserves it's sitting on and use that to supply hospitals in northern Gaza. We would love to see Hamas have taken the fuel that Israel offered it yesterday that they declined for use at Al-Shifa Hospital."
-ABC News' Shannon Crawford
White House says Israel shares view that hospitals should be protected
The U.S. and Israel both "do not want to see firefights in hospitals," national security advisor Jake Sullivan said Monday as conditions at Gaza's hospitals worsen.
A Doctors Without Borders surgeon working at Gaza's largest hospital, Al-Shifa Hospital, said when an ambulance was sent outside the hospital gate to bring in patients, the ambulance was attacked.
The surgeon said the medical team has only agreed to leave Al-Shifa if patients are evacuated first.
"We want to see patients protected, we want to see hospitals protected. We have spoken with [the] Israeli government about this, and they have said they share that view," Sullivan said.
Sullivan also said the U.S. is continuing to work on getting fuel to hospitals and allowing evacuations from hospitals if they're in danger.
IDF says it will storm Al-Shifa Hospital soon, Gaza Health Ministry says
The Israel Defense Forces have informed the Gaza Health Ministry that they will storm the Al-Shifa Hospital in several minutes, Dr. Ashraf al Qadra, spokesman of the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry, said on Al-Jazeera TV.
The IDF did not immediately respond to multiple requests for comment on the report.
-ABC News' Nasser Atta