Israeli forces raid hospital before dawn

TEL AVIV: Israel’s military said it made its deepest incursion into Gaza City in about two weeks when its troops undertook a ‘‘precise operation’’ targeting the main hospital in the northern metropolis that bore the brunt of the first weeks of fighting in the conflict.

Yesterday’s raid at al-Shifa hospital, which has been largely dysfunctional since November, came after Israel claimed intelligence emerged ‘‘indicating use of the hospital by senior Hamas terrorists to conduct and promote terrorist activity,’’ the military said.

It came four months after Israeli troops raided the hospital, where the military said it uncovered underground tunnels and military infrastructure for Gaza’s Hamas rulers.

Hamas released a statement saying the attack by heavily armed Israeli troops, drones and tanks at dawn amounted to a ‘‘war crime’’.

A Palestinian journalist posted a video to Instagram from inside the hospital, saying there were intense clashes in the vicinity, and the situation was ‘‘catastrophic’’.

‘‘This might be my last video … We’re been shot at,’’ Wadea Abu Alsoud said.

Earlier, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed in a cabinet meeting to press on with the campaign against Hamas by sending troops into Rafah despite mounting global pressure – including from the US – for a ceasefire. And he has railed against growing criticism from the US against his leadership, describing calls for a new election as ‘‘wholly inappropriate’’.

US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, the country’s highest-ranking Jewish official and a strong Israel supporter, last week called on Israel to hold a new election, saying Netanyahu had ‘‘lost his way’’.

US President Joe Biden expressed support for Schumer’s ‘‘good speech,’’ and earlier accused Netanyahu of hurting Israel because of the huge civilian death toll in Gaza.

Netanyahu told Fox News that Israel never would have called for a new US election after the September 11 attacks in 2001.

‘‘We’re not a banana republic,’’ he said. ‘‘The people of Israel will choose when they will have elections and who they’ll elect.’’

When asked by CNN whether he would commit to a new election after the war ended, Netanyahu said ‘‘I think that’s something for the Israeli public to decide’’.

The US supports a new round of talks aimed at securing a ceasefire in exchange for the return of Israeli hostages taken in Hamas’ October 7 attack. The Israeli delegation to those talks was expected to leave for Qatar meetings of the Security Cabinet and War Cabinet.

Despite the talks, Netanyahu made it clear he would not back down from the fighting that has killed more than 31,000 Palestinians since Hamas’ attack on southern Israel killed 1200 people and another 250 were taken hostage.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi reiterated his warning that an Israeli ground offensive in Rafah would have ‘‘grave repercussions on the whole region’’.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, after meeting with Netanyahu on Sunday, warned that ‘‘the more desperate the situation of people in Gaza becomes, the more this begs the question: no matter how important the goal, can it justify such terribly high costs?’’