Israel’s special forces have carried out a raid on the besieged Nasser medical complex, the main hospital in southern Gaza.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Hamas fighters were hiding inside and that Israeli hostages’ bodies might also be there.
A spokesperson for Hamas denied that, calling it “lies”.
Video footage shows medical staff rushing patients on stretchers through a corridor filled with smoke or dust.
Footage verified by the BBC shows a patient – who is still in their bed – being moved through a corridor where the ceiling is damaged. Other patients can also be seen, including one person being carried away in what looks like a blanket.
Nasser hospital, in Khan Younis, is one of the few still functioning in Gaza.
This comes a day after the IDF ordered thousands of displaced people who had been sheltering at the site to leave.
IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari said forces were aiming to reach Hamas fighters inside, “including those suspected of involvement in the 7 October massacre”.
He said a number of suspects had been detained at the hospital.
Israel’s military said it had assured Nasser hospital staff that patients and staff were not obliged to leave, and that medics could continue treating Gazan patients.
Dr Ashraf al-Quadra, a spokesperson for the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza, denied that was the case, saying Israeli troops had forced the hospital management to “keep intensive care patients without medical equipment”.
On Wednesday, the UN’s humanitarian office said there were allegations of sniper fire at the complex, putting the lives of doctors, patients and displaced people at risk.
The medical charity Medicins San Frontieres said those ordered to evacuate faced an impossible choice: to stay “and become a potential target” or leave “into an apocalyptic landscape” of bombings.
Israel launched its military offensive after waves of Hamas fighters burst through Israel’s border on 7 October, killing about 1,200 people – mainly civilians – and taking 253 others back to Gaza as hostages.
The Hamas-run health ministry says more than 28,600 people, mainly women and children – have been killed in Israel’s campaign. Israel says its aim is to destroy Hamas and secure the return of the hostages.
Israel is facing increasing international pressure to show restraint. On Wednesday France’s President Emmanuel Macron phoned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to say Israel’s operations in Gaza “must cease” and that the human cost of the Gaza operation was “intolerable”.
But Mr Netanyahu insisted his troops will advance on the Gazan city of Rafah, which has already come under bombardment. Some 1.4 million Palestinians are sheltering in the area.
The prime ministers of Australia, Canada and New Zealand issued a joint statement expressing their “grave concern” that a military operation in Rafah would be “catastrophic”.
