Israel expands Gaza hospital operation

GAZA/JERUSALEM — Gaza braced for a further expansion of Israeli military operations on Monday, even when there is cautious hope for a deal to release hostages in exchange for a pause in fighting.

Heavy fighting erupted on Monday around a hospital in northern Gaza where thousands of patients and displaced people have been sheltering for weeks.

The advance on the Indonesian Hospital came a day after the World Health Organization evacuated 31 premature babies from Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, the territory's largest, where they were among more than 250 critically ill or wounded patients stranded there days after Israeli forces entered the compound.

Marwan Abdallah, a medical worker at the Indonesian Hospital, said Israeli tanks were visible from the windows.

"You can see them moving around and firing," he said. "Women and children are terrified. There are constant sounds of explosions and gunfire."

Abdallah said the hospital had received dozens of dead and wounded in airstrikes and shelling overnight. He said medical staff members and displaced people fear Israel will besiege the hospital and force its evacuation.

Even as fighting raged on the ground, Israel's Ambassador to the United States Michael Herzog told ABC's This Week that Israel was hopeful a significant number of hostages could be released by Hamas "in coming days".

The Qatari foreign minister stated on Sunday that mediation efforts between Israel and Hamas are underway, with "good progress "being made in the past few days.

The plight of Gaza's hospitals is at the focus of a conflict that has killed at least 13,000 Palestinians, thousands of whom have been killed or buried in rubble since Hamas' Oct 7 surprise attack in Israel. Around 1,200 Israelis were killed.

'Staggering, unacceptable'

The civilian death toll in Gaza was "staggering and unacceptable", United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said, appealing again on Sunday for an immediate humanitarian cease-fire.

The heavy death toll has sparked worldwide protests. Holding olive branches and white banners, French performers led thousands of people on a silent march through central Paris on Sunday to call for peace between Israelis and Palestinians.

The crowd, which included actors Isabelle Adjani and Emmanuelle Beart as well as singers and other cultural figures, marched from the Arab World Institute toward the Museum of Art and History of Judaism, located across the Seine River.

Separately, Yemen's Houthi militia on Sunday confirmed that they have hijacked an "Israeli cargo ship" in the Red Sea.

"The Houthis announce the implementation of a military operation in the Red Sea, the results of which included the seizure of an Israeli ship," Houthi military spokesman Yehya Sarea said in a statement aired by the group's al-Masirah TV.

The spokesman reiterated that the group would continue to carry out military operations against Israel until "its aggression against the Gaza Strip" stops.

Hours earlier, the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement that the Houthis took control of the cargo ship near Yemen in the southern Red Sea, adding that the vessel was heading from Turkiye to India. The IDF warned that the hijacking was "a very grave incident of global consequence".

Agencies - Xinhua