Israeli forces reached the perimeter of the Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza City on Monday (November 13), with tanks positioned at the hospital gates and surrounding the area.
The hospital has become the primary target in Israel's battle to seize control of the northern half of Gaza, with medics saying its patients - including newborn babies - were dying for lack of fuel.
According to Gazan health ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qidra, who was inside Al Shifa, 32 patients have already died in the past three days as a result of the siege of the hospital and the cut-off of its power.
"We are besieged and are inside a circle of death," he said.
Hamas Refuses Israel's Demands
Israeli officials said the hospital sat on top of a tunnel network housing a headquarters for Hamas fighters, who were to blame for its plight for using patients as human shields, which Hamas denied.
"The tanks are in front of the hospital. We are under full blockade," Al Shifa surgeon Dr. Ahmed El Mokhallalati told Reuters via telephone. "It's a totally civilian area. Only hospital facilities, hospital patients, doctors, and other civilians stay in the hospital. Someone should stop this."
At least 650 patients were still inside and desperate to be evacuated to another medical facility by the Red Cross or another neutral agency.
Israeli field commanders told civilians to leave and medics to send patients elsewhere. They also attempted to evacuate babies from the neonatal ward and left 300 liters of fuel to power emergency generators at the hospital entrance, with both offers blocked by Hamas.
Al-Qidra stressed that 300 liters would only power the hospital for about 30 minutes as Al Shifa needed 8,000 to 10,000 liters of fuel per day delivered by the Red Cross or an international agency. However, an Israeli official said - on the condition of anonymity - that 300 liters was sufficient to keep just the emergency room running as it was the only part of the hospital that was operational.
CNN also reported that some of the premature babies at Al Shifa were being wrapped in foil and placed next to hot water in a desperate bid to keep them alive.
A second major hospital in northern Gaza, al-Quds, has ceased to function. The Palestinian Red Crescent said it was surrounded by heavy gunfire, and a convoy of Red Cross vehicles sent to evacuate patients and staff inside had been unable to reach it.]
EU Condemns Hamas for Using Hospital Patients as Human Shields
Meanwhile, the Associated Press reported that 27 European Union (EU) nations unanimously condemned Hamas for what they described as the use of hospitals and civilians as "human shields" in its war against Israel.
EU top diplomat Josep Borrell said on Monday that the bloc has also asked Israel to exercise "maximum restraint and targeting in order to avoid human casualties."
"You know how difficult it has been [since] the last time, after the vote in the United Nations, where countries were voted in different ways, to present a completely united approach," he added, referring to the member states being split in a vote on the UN General Assembly resolution calling for humanitarian truces in Gaza leading to a cessation of hostilities between Israel and Hamas.
The statement was released during the EU's Foreign Ministers meeting in Brussels as a show of unity following weeks of contrasting statements on how the bloc should address the Israel-Hamas War.