JERUSALEM — Israeli forces are nonetheless inside Gaza’s largest hospital, al-Shifa, after launching what the Israel Protection Forces referred to as a “exact and focused operation towards Hamas” early Wednesday. About 18 hours after the navy first warned of the raid, the IDF mentioned the operation was nonetheless underway. A Palestinian official contained in the medical complicated confirmed that troopers had been nonetheless current within the hospital, the place hundreds of sufferers, workers and displaced Gazans stay. Israel and the USA have asserted that Hamas is utilizing hospitals — together with al-Shifa — and the tunnels beneath them for his or her navy operations. Hamas has denied this. An Israeli navy assertion mentioned troops “encountered explosives and terrorist squads” within the struggle for entry, although a military-run information outlet mentioned forces looking out the hospital had to this point not discovered any signal of hostages on-site. Particulars of the raid, which the IDF mentioned started round 2 a.m. native time, stay murky as a result of ongoing communications outages, Israeli bombardments and floor preventing.