DUBAI, Nov 15, 2023 (BSS/TASS) - Units of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) continue to storm the Al-Shifa hospital in the Gaza Strip, blowing up inner walls and doors, Lebanon's Al Mayadeen television said.

According to the report, the operation continues in the building's western wing.

Iran's Fars news agency wrote on Telegram that the hospital was disconnected from Internet services and power supplies shortly before the assault. Journalists present near the building "were detained by Israeli servicemen."

The raid began in the early hours of Wednesday. The IDF believes that radical Palestinian movement HAMAS uses the hospital building as its headquarters. It also said that the medical facility houses an entrance to a network of underground bunkers and tunnels, where around 200 radicals are hiding. It is believed that an unknown number of Israeli hostages may be kept in these tunnels.

The situation in the Middle East sharply escalated following an incursion of Hamas militants from the Gaza Strip into Israel on October 7, accompanied by killings of residents of Israeli settlements near the border and taking more than 200 hostages, including children, women and elderly people. Hamas regards the attack as a response to Israeli actions against the Al-Aqsa Mosque on Jerusalem's Temple Mount. Israel has declared a complete siege of the Gaza Strip and has started delivering strikes on that area and parts of Lebanon and Syria. Clashes are also taking place in the West Bank.