Tanks were massed near the gates of Gaza`s main hospital where Palestinians were trapped in dire conditions on Tuesday as US President Joe Biden pressed Israel to protect the complex.
After days of heavy air strikes around Gaza City`s Al-Shifa hospital, witnesses said tanks and armoured vehicles were metres (yards) from the besieged facility, which has become a focal point of the five-week-old war.
The United Nations believes that thousands, and perhaps more than 10,000 people -- patients, staff and displaced civilians -- may be inside and unable to escape because of fierce fighting nearby.
Amid reports of premature babies dying for lack of electricity and patients facing gunfire, a surgeon working for Doctors Without Borders said the situation inside the hospital had become "very bad".
"We don`t have electricity. There`s no water in the hospital. There`s no food," said the doctor, who was not named by his organisation. "It is inhuman."
Israel accuses Hamas fighters of using tunnels under the hospital as a command "node", effectively engaging the sick and injured as human shields. It is a charge that Hamas denies.
Israel says it is not targeting the hospital, but has vowed to destroy Hamas in response to the attacks of October 7, which killed an estimated 1,200 people, mostly civilians and resulted in 240 hostages being taken back to Gaza.
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says Israel`s assault has already killed 11,240 people, also mostly civilians, including thousands of children.
Israel says 46 of its troops have been killed in fighting in Gaza.
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