Live updates | Israeli tanks enter Gaza's Shifa Hospital compound

Two and a half weeks after sending tanks and ground troops into northern Gaza, Israeli forces entered a hospital early Wednesday where they claim Hamas militants operate. Mohammed Zaqout, the director of hospitals in Gaza, said Israeli tanks were inside the medical compound and that soldiers had entered buildings, including the emergency and surgery departments, which house intensive care units.

Shifa Hospital has become a symbol of the widespread suffering of Palestinian civilians during the war between Israel and Hamas, which erupted after the militant group killed some 1,200 people and seized around 240 captives in a surprise October 7 attack into southern Israel.

The Israeli army claims the militant group uses hospitals as cover for its fighters, and has set up its main command center in and beneath Shifa Hospital, the largest in the besieged territory. Both Hamas and Shifa Hospital staff deny the Israeli allegations.

More than 11,200 Palestinians — two-thirds of them women and minors — have been killed since the war began, according to the Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, which does not differentiate between civilian and militant deaths. About 2,700 people have been reported missing.

Here's what's happening in the latest Israel-Hamas war: UN SECURITY COUNCIL PLANS TO VOTE ON REQUEST FOR 'HUMANITARIAN PAUSES' UNITED NATIONS — After four failed attempts, the UN Security Council has scheduled a vote on a fifth resolution on the Israel-Hamas war which would call for “urgent and extended humanitarian pauses and corridors throughout the Gaza Strip.” The final draft to be voted on Wednesday afternoon watered down that language from a “demand” to a “call.” It also watered down a demand for “the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages held by Hamas and other groups” to a call.

UN Security Council resolutions are legally binding -- including calls -- but in practice many parties choose to ignore the council's requests for actions.

Malta, one of the council's 10 elected members who sponsored the resolution, called for the vote after lengthy negotiations, and several diplomats said they expect it to be adopted. That requires nine “yes” votes in the 15-member council, and no veto by one of its five permanent members – the US, Russia, China, Britain and France.

WHITE HOUSE SAYS US DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT ISRAEL RAID ON SHIFA HOSPTIAL BEFORHAND WASHINGTON — US National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said Wednesday that the United States did not sign off on Israel's raid on Shifa hospital.

Kirby, responding to questions about the timing of the operation and his statement that the US knows Hamas militants shelter in hospitals, said the United States doesn't expect advance notice from Israel before its military operations.

“We did not give an OK to their military operations around the hospital,” Kirby said, speaking to reporters from San Francisco, where President Joe Biden was preparing to meet with China's leader on Wednesday. “We don't expect the Israelis to inform us.” Kirby suggested the timing of his announcement about US intelligence findings that Hamas uses hospitals for command and control and for shelter followed the Israeli military operation was a coincidence. He said his delivery of some “downgraded” intelligence information “had nothing to do with operational timing.” He said “it is a violation of the law of war to headquarter yourself in a hospital” and that what Hamas is doing in that regard should not be forgotten. Kirby said Shifa is an “active, legitimate hospital.

3/4 OF GAZA'S HOSPITALS AREN'T WORKING, WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION SAYS GENEVA — Only a quarter of Gaza's hospitals are still functioning, with about 26 out of 36 institutions now closed — either because they have been damaged or because they ran out of fuel, the World Health Organization said Wednesday.

The UN health agency has lost contact with health workers at Shifa hospital, the largest in the Gaza Strip, said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in Geneva. He said the Israeli military raid of the institution “totally unacceptable.” Approximately 82 bodies from Shifa were buried in a mass grave Wednesday, with another 80 bodies left unburied, said Dr. Rik Peeperkorn, WHO's representative in the West Bank and Gaza. He said about 45 patients were receiving dialysis and that there were no central supplies of oxygen, water or fuel.

Peeperkorn said several organizations, including the WHO, were “urgently exploring the possibility of an evacuation of patients and medical staff.” He called for a plan to evacuate about 2,000 critically ill patients out of Gaza over the next three months, possibly to Egypt.

A HOSPTIAL IN NORTHERN GAZA TREATS DOZENS OF PATIENTS EACH DAY, AS ISRAELI BOMBS FALL CAIRO — Around 40 patients a day are coming in to Awda Hospital in the Jabaliya area of northern Gaza, said Dr. Ahmed Mhanna, the hospital's manager.

Awda Hospital is still operating but the facility's main generator is no longer functioning, he said, and the hospital is also delivering around 20 babies each day, he said.

“The situation is critical,” he said in a recorded message. Jabaliya has been heavily bombed since October 7.

Mhanna said that Israel strikes were still pounding the areas immediately around the hospital, with shrapnel striking the building. Eight staff members have been injured from the bombing, he added.

NETANYAHU VISITS ISRAELI TROOPS NEAR GAZA ZIKIM, Israel — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told troops at the Zikim military base near north Gaza: “There is no place in Gaza that Israel will not reach.” Standing next to soldiers at the base, Netanyahu said: “Do you remember when we were told that we would not break into Gaza? We broke through. We were told that we would not reach the outskirts of Gaza City – we arrived. We were told that we won't enter Shifa – we entered.

“There is no hiding, no shelter, no refuge for the murderers of Hamas,” Netanyahu said. “We will arrive and eliminate Hamas and return our abductees – these are two sacred missions.” 26 PATIENTS LEAVE GAZA FOR TREATMENT IN TURKIYE ANKARA, Turkiye — Turkiye's health minister says 26 patients from Gaza and 13 people accompanying them have passed through the Rafah crossing into Egypt on Wednesday.

Speaking to reporters in Egypt, Fahrettin Koca said Turkish officials hope to evacuate the patients and the people escorting them to Turkiye by air later on Wednesday for treatment in Turkish hospitals.

Koca also said Turkiye plans to set up a field hospital close to the Rafah crossing.

Turkiye has long offered to treat cancer patients in the country. Koca described the patients evacuated Wednesday as “Gazans” and did not specify if any have Turkish nationality.