GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories, Nov 10, 2023 (BSS/AFP) - Palestinians 
said a deadly strike on Friday hit Gaza's largest hospital compound as 
medical facilities sheltering tens of thousands were caught in intense combat 
between Israel and Hamas.

Gaza's Hamas government, which reported a death toll of 13, and the director 
of Gaza City's Al-Shifa hospital blamed Israeli forces for the strike. Israel 
did not immediately comment.

Al-Shifa hospital director Mohammad Abu Salmiya reported two people were 
killed and 10 wounded in a strike that he said hit the compound's maternity 
ward.

A Hamas government statement added that dozens were wounded in an Israeli 
strike on the hospital compound, giving a toll AFP was not immediately able 
to independently verify.

On Thursday Israel reported heavy fighting near the hospital, saying it had 
killed dozens of militants and destroyed tunnels that are key to Hamas's 
capacity to fight.

"There is no safe place left. The army hit Al-Shifa. I don't know what to 
do," said 32-year-old Abu Mohammad, who was among those seeking refuge at the 
hospital. "There is shooting... at the hospital. We are afraid to go out."

The Israeli army has repeatedly accused Hamas of using hospitals, 
particularly Al-Shifa, to coordinate their attacks against the army and also 
as hideouts for its commanders. Hamas authorities deny the accusations.

Israel launched an offensive in Gaza after Hamas fighters poured across the 
militarised border on October 7, killing 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and 
taking around 240 hostages.

Vowing to destroy the militants, Israel retaliated with bombardment and a 
ground campaign that the health ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip says has 
killed more than 11,000 people, mostly civilians and many of them children.

Witnesses told AFP that hundreds of people sheltering at Gaza City's Al-
Rantisi hospital fled on instruction from the Israeli military, which was 
surrounding it with armoured vehicles.

AFPTV footage showed a fireball and smoke rising over the city at dawn. Early 
Friday sounds of apparent gunfire and explosions could be heard.

As the fighting raged in Gaza, air raid sirens sounded in Tel Aviv, while 
Hamas's military wing said it targeted the Israeli commercial hub with 
rockets. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

- 'No safe place' -

The United Nations called for an end to the "carnage" in Gaza, saying "razing 
entire neighbourhoods to the ground is not an answer for the egregious crimes 
committed by Hamas".

"To the contrary, it is creating a new generation of aggrieved Palestinians 
who are likely to continue the cycle of violence. The carnage simply must 
stop," Philippe Lazzarini, head of the United Nations' agency for Palestinian 
refugees UNRWA, wrote in an opinion piece.

The war in the densely populated coastal territory, which is effectively 
sealed off, has prompted repeated calls for a ceasefire to protect civilian 
lives and allow in more humanitarian aid.

Tens of thousands of people have fled to the south of the territory in recent 
days, often on foot and with only the things the could carry.

"Enough destruction, there's nothing left. We need a truce to see what will 
later happen to us, a truce to bring medicine or aid to the hospitals," said 
Mohammed Khader, who was displaced in Rafah.

"Those hospitals are now full of displaced people and not only injured and 
martyrs," he added.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly rejected halting the 
fighting, telling Fox News Thursday that a "ceasefire with Hamas means 
surrender to Hamas, surrender to terror."

He also said Israel does not "seek to govern Gaza" in the long run.

"We don't seek to occupy it, but we seek to give it and us a better future," 
he told the US broadcaster.

Almost 1.6 million people have been internally displaced since October 7, 
UNRWA said, more than half Gaza's population.

But the UN estimates hundreds of thousands of civilians remain in the 
fiercest battle zones in the north.

- Hostages -

Complicating Israel's military push is the fate of the hostages abducted on 
October 7.

CIA director Bill Burns and David Barnea, head of Israel's Mossad spy agency, 
were in Doha for talks on pauses that would include hostage releases and more 
aid for Gaza, an official told AFP on Thursday.

Four hostages have been freed so far by Hamas and another released in an 
Israeli operation, and the desperate relatives of those still held in Gaza 
have piled pressure on Israeli and US authorities to secure the release of 
their loved ones.

The conflict has also stoked regional tensions, with cross-border exchanges 
between the Israeli army and Lebanon's Hezbollah, and Yemen's Iran-backed 
Huthi rebels saying they launched "ballistic missiles" at southern Israel.

Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said the expansion of the 
Israel-Hamas war has become "inevitable".

The Islamic republic, which supports Hamas financially and militarily, has 
hailed the militant group's attack on Israel as a "success" but denied any 
involvement.

Saudi Arabia is hosting Arab leaders and Iran's president for two summits 
this weekend for emergency meetings of the Arab League and the Organisation 
of Islamic Cooperation.

The world's biggest oil exporter and its neighbours are "united in fearing 
one thing in particular, which is a broader escalation", said Elham Fakhro of 
Chatham House.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken wrapped up a marathon diplomatic push 
Friday in India after a whirlwind Middle East trip and G7 talks, saying 
Israel's pauses in its Gaza offensive would "save lives" but more was needed.

"Far too many Palestinians have been killed," Blinken said in New Delhi, his 
last stop before heading home, where he repeated US support for ally Israel 
but was firm that more aid had to reach civilians in Gaza.