Gaza communications down as Israel searches hospital

GAZA STRIP — Israeli troops carried out building-by-building searches at Gaza's main hospital, as a new communications blackout in the territory on Friday compounded fears for Palestinian civilians trapped inside the facility.

Al-Shifa hospital has become a focal point for Israeli operations in northern Gaza since soldiers raided the complex on Wednesday, hunting for a command center they say militant group Hamas operates there.

Hamas said in a statement late on Thursday that claims by the Pentagon and US State Department that the group uses Al-Shifa for military purposes "is repetition of a blatantly false narrative".

There has been international concern about several thousand people, including wounded patients and premature babies, believed to be trapped inside.

Israel has vowed to eradicate Hamas in response to the group's Oct 7 attack, which killed 1,200 people and saw about 240 taken hostage, according to Israeli officials.

Israel's air bombardment and ground operation has killed 11,500 people, including thousands of children, according to Hamas-run authorities in Gaza.

Israeli authorities have defended their operation, and the military said on Thursday it found rifles, ammunition, explosives and the entrance to a tunnel shaft at Al-Shifa.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu alleged that hostages may even have been held at the facility.

Allegations about the hospital have not been verified and on Friday, communications with the Gaza Strip were severed once again.

Network provider Paltel said all telecommunications were down because "all energy sources sustaining the network have been depleted, and fuel was not allowed in".

The United Nations voiced concern that no aid would be delivered to Palestinians on Friday via the Rafah crossing with Egypt, warning that the blackout would compound the misery of civilians, complicating efforts to distribute aid and possibly triggering looting of its supplies.

Anxiety, panic

"When you have a blackout and you cannot communicate with anyone anymore ... that triggers and fuels even more the anxiety and the panic," said Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA.

Israel said its forces were searching Al-Shifa "one building at a time", and announced the discovery of the body of a female hostage at a building nearby.

Negotiations are ongoing for the release of hostages, some of them just infants, in exchange for a pause in fighting.

Qatar, where Hamas has political offices, and Egypt have been mediating what Cairo described on Thursday as "very delicate" discussions.

"We are hopeful that our efforts and the efforts of others will bring about the speedy release," Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said.

On the ground, conditions are rapidly deteriorating for Palestinian civilians, UN agencies have warned.

Over 1.5 million people have been internally displaced, and Israel's blockade of the territory means "civilians are facing the immediate possibility of starvation", World Food Programme Executive Director Cindy McCain said.

Food and water have become "practically nonexistent", the agency added, with Lazzarini describing children sheltering at a UN school "pleading for a sip of water, or for a loaf of bread".

Agencies - Xinhua