Heavy fighting rages near main Gaza hospital

BRUSSELS, Nov 13 (AFP/AP/Reuters): Health officials and people trapped inside Gaza's largest hospital rejected Israel's claims that it was helping babies and others evacuate Sunday, saying fighting continued just outside the facility where incubators lay idle with no electricity and critical supplies were running out.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has dismissed urgent calls for a cease-fire unless it includes the release of all the nearly 240 hostages captured by Hamas in the Oct. 7 rampage that triggered the war.
A day after Netanyahu said Israel was bringing its "full force" with the aim of ending Hamas' 16-year rule in Gaza, residents reported heavy airstrikes and shelling, including around Shifa Hospital. Israel, without providing evidence, has accused Hamas of concealing a command post inside and under the compound, allegations denied by Hamas and hospital staff.
"They are outside, not far from the gates," said Ahmed al-Boursh, a resident sheltering there.
The hospital's last generator ran out of fuel Saturday, leading to the deaths of three premature babies and four other patients, according to the Health Ministry. It said another 36 babies are at risk of dying.
EU for 'meaningful'
pauses in Gaza war
The EU's humanitarian aid chief called Monday for "meaningful" pauses in the fighting in Gaza and urgent deliveries of fuel to keep hospitals working in the territory.
"It is urgent to define and respect humanitarian pauses," Janez Lenarcic, European Commissioner for Crisis Management, said at a meeting of the bloc's foreign ministers in Brussels.
"Fuel needs to get in. As you could see, more than half of the hospitals in the Gaza Strip stopped working, primarily because of lack of fuel, and fuel is desperately needed."
The appeal went out as battles between Israeli and Hamas forces have raged around Gaza's largest hospital, which has become the focus in the five-week-old war.
44 Israeli soldiers killed in
Gaza since start of war
The Israeli army on Monday announced the death of two additional soldiers in northern Gaza, raising to 44 the number killed in the Palestinian territory since October 7.
An army spokesperson told AFP that 44 were killed "inside Gaza during the war" that began when Hamas militants stormed Israel's southern border.
Hezbollah attack leaves 7 Israeli
troops, 10 people injured
Attacks by Lebanon's Hezbollah group Sunday wounded seven Israeli troops and 10 other people, Israel's military and rescue services said.
The clashes came as skirmishes between the Iran-backed group and Israeli military continue to intensify along the Lebanon-Israel border, threatening to escalate into another front in the Mideast's latest war.
The assault was the most serious incident involving civilians along the Lebanon-Israel border since an Israeli airstrike in south Lebanon on Nov. 5 killed a woman and three children.
The Israeli army's chief spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, said the Hezbollah attack on Israeli civilians was "very serious."
Hamas refused fuel offer for
Shifa hospital: Netanyahu
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that Israel had offered fuel to Gaza's Al Shifa hospital, which suspended operations after running out of fuel, but that the militants had refused to receive it.
Netanyahu was asked by NBC News whether Israeli allegations that Hamas had a command post under Gaza's main hospital justified jeopardizing the lives of sick people and babies.
"On the contrary, we offered actually, last night, to give them enough fuel to operate the hospital, operate the incubators and so on, because we (have) no battle with patients or civilians at all," Netanyahu said.
Hamas denies Israeli allegations it has command posts under Shifa and other Gaza hospitals. It had no immediate comment on Netanyahu's remarks.