Israeli troops search at main Gaza hospital

GAZA, Nov 16 (Reuters/AP): Israel said its forces were operating in and around Gaza's biggest hospital, a chief objective in its campaign to destroy Palestinian Hamas militants that the army says stored weapons and ran a command centre in tunnels beneath the buildings.

Israeli troops forced their way into Al Shifa hospital in the early hours of Wednesday and spent the day deepening their search, the army said. An army video showed automatic weapons, grenades, ammunition and flak jackets it said were recovered from an undisclosed building within the complex.

"The troops continue to search the hospital in a precise, intelligence-based, manner," army spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said at a press briefing late on Wednesday. "We will continue to do so, in order to gather further information, to discover additional assets, and to expose the terror activities within the hospital."

The military made no mention on Wednesday of finding any tunnel entrances in Al Shifa. It previously said Hamas had built a network of tunnels under the hospital. Hamas has denied it and dismissed the latest army statements.

"The occupation forces are still lying ... as they brought some weapons, clothes and tools and placed them in the hospital in a scandalous manner," Qatar-based Hamas senior member Ezzat El Rashq said. "We have repeatedly called for a committee from the United Nations, the World Health Organization and the Red Cross to verify the lies of the occupation."

UNSC for urgent humanitarian pauses, corridors in Gaza

The U.N. Security Council on Wednesday adopted its first resolution since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war, calling for "urgent and extended humanitarian pauses" in Gaza to address the escalating crisis for Palestinian civilians during Israel's aerial and ground attacks. Israel immediately rejected the resolution.

The vote in the 15-member council was 12-0 with the United States, United Kingdom and Russia abstaining. The U.S. and U.K. abstained because of the resolution's failure to condemn Hamas' surprise cross-border attacks into Israel on Oct. 7, and Russia because of its failure to demand a humanitarian cease-fire, which Israel and the United States oppose.

The final draft watered down language from "demands" to "calls" for humanitarian pauses, and for "the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages held by Hamas and other groups."

Still, the resolution, which was sponsored by Malta, managed to overcome the serious differences that had prevented the council from adopting four previous resolutions.

Supplies alone

won't save Gaza

hospital patients

As concerns grow for patients stranded inside Gaza's biggest hospital, experts warned that transporting vulnerable people, including babies, is a perilous proposition under even the best circumstances.

On Tuesday, Palestinian authorities proposed a supervised evacuation of Shifa Hospital, a sprawling complex that runs several city blocks in the heart of Gaza City. Hours later, Israeli forces raided the facility - further complicating the picture.

Dr. Irwin Redlener of Columbia University in New York said that moving newborns and premature babies with health problems is fraught but possible with trained personnel, proper equipment and a transportation plan.

"Babies in incubators have complex health needs and there needs to be temperature control, hydration, medication for infections and breathing support," said Redlener, a pediatrician and disaster response expert, who spoke before the raid.

Redlener said that when hospitals in New York were evacuated due to Superstorm Sandy in 2012, medical workers walked down numerous flights of stairs carrying babies to waiting ambulances and there were no known tragedies - at least among the infants.

The storm, which hit the most populous metro area in the U.S., killed dozens of other people after devastating coastline communities, knocking out power and setting neighborhoods ablaze.