'Massive incursion': Israeli gunfire, shelling bring chaos to Gaza hospital. Live updates

Editor's Note: This page is a summary of news on the Israel-Hamas war for Thursday, Feb. 15. For the latest news on the conflict in the Middle East, view our live updates file on the war for Friday, Feb. 16.

Israeli troops on Thursday charged into Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza in a dramatic raid searching for the remains of hostages held by Hamas and pursuing its fighters.

Gaza’s Health Ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qidra described a “massive incursion” punctuated by gunfire after overnight shelling killed one patient and wounded six others in the hospital, Gaza's largest still-functioning medical facility, which also houses thousands displaced by the war.

Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, Israel's chief military spokesperson, said Israeli forces were acting on "credible intelligence" that Hamas had held hostages at the Khan Younis medical complex and said troops were conducting a “precise and limited” operation and would not forcibly evacuate doctors or patients.

But Qidra said Israeli forces had ordered medics to move patients into an older building that was not equipped to treat those in need. “Many cannot evacuate, such as those with lower limb amputations, severe burns or the elderly,” he told Al Jazeera network.

Video of the strike showed a terrifying scene as doctors rushed to wheel patients on stretchers through smoke-filled hallways while gunfire rumbled, the Associated Press reported, noting the video could not be authenticated but was consistent with AP's reporting.

Israel pulls out of truce talks: Israeli leader cites Hamas' 'delusional demands'

Developments:

∎ CIA Director William Burns, who participated in cease-fire negotiations in Cairo earlier this week, traveled to Israel and met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other officials Thursday, Israeli media reported.

∎ At least 11 people were killed, including four children, in airstrikes in central Gaza late Wednesday, officials said. Relatives gathered around bodies wrapped in white shrouds outside Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah before the remains were placed in a truck to be transported for burial.

∎ U.S. Central Command said it seized a shipment of weapons sent from Iran to Yemen's Houthi rebels in the Arabian Sea last month. The 200-plus packages of armaments included components for ballistic missiles and sea drones along with explosives and other military supplies.

∎ Israel asked the U.N.'s  International Court of Justice to reject South Africa's urgent request to consider whether the Israeli military's planned invasion of the southern Gaza city of Rafah violate the court's provisional orders from last month in a case alleging genocide.

∎ Negotiations over a truce between Hamas and Israel remain stalled. Israel pulled out its delegation from high-level discussions Wednesday in Cairo aimed at pausing fighting in Gaza and freeing the more than 100 remaining hostages. Netanyahu blamed Hamas' "delusional demands'' and a lack of new proposals.

Deteriorating situation at hospital 'escalating every hour'

Dr. Khaled Alserr, one of the remaining surgeons at Nasser Hospital, said patients injured Thursday were already being treated for past war-related wounds. “The situation is escalating every hour and every minute,” he said.

The raid came one day after the Israeli military pushed to evacuate the thousands sheltering at the medical complex amid the intense Israeli offensive in Khan Younis, and it followed a weeklong siege with Israeli troops, tanks and snipers surrounding the hospital.

MedGlobal, a nonprofit that provides health care to people in distressed settings, cited doctors at the hospital saying the orthopedic department was bombed and the facility is running very low on medicines, oxygen and supplies.

“There’s no water, no food. Garbage is everywhere. Sewage has flooded the emergency ward,” said Raed Abed, a wounded patient who was among those who left the hospital on Israeli orders Wednesday.

The aid group Doctors Without Borders said its staff had to rush out of the medical facility, leaving patients behind, and that one of their colleagues was detained at an Israeli checkpoint. The group called for his safety and for an immediate stop to the Israeli attack.

“People have been forced into an impossible situation,” said Lisa Macheiner of Doctors Without Borders. “Stay at Nasser Hospital against the Israeli military’s orders and become a potential target, or exit the compound into an apocalyptic landscape where bombings and evacuation orders are a part of daily life.”

Danger lurks in Rafah and around hospital area

The Health Ministry said some of the people forced out of the hospital headed north to Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza, and about 2,000 went south to Rafah, the border city that has become the temporary residence of an estimated 1.4 million Palestinians.

Israel sees Rafah as the last Hamas stronghold in Gaza and has designs on taking its offensive there, raising alarm among foreign governments and humanitarian organizations about the carnage such an attack could cause. President Joe Biden has demanded protection for civilians and Martin Griffiths, head of U.N. emergency relief efforts, warned of a "slaughter'' in the crowded city.

And even getting to Rafah or other parts of Gaza can be perilous. Mohammad al Moghrabi, among those who were sheltering at the Nasser medical compound, told Reuters some of the people who tried to leave Wednesday had to scramble back because of gunfire.

"This morning they said there was a safe passage, so we left, but it wasn't safe,'' he said. "They approached us with a bulldozer and a tank, they insulted us and left us for four hours under the sun."

Hezbollah responds with rockets after deadly Israeli strikes

Hezbollah launched dozens of rockets toward northern Israel on Thursday in what the Iran-backed militant group said was a "preliminary response'' to Israeli airstrikes the previous day, as hostilities between the Middle East neighbors intensified, Reuters reported.

The civilian death toll from two Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon rose to 10, Lebanese state media reported. The assault Wednesday, the deadliest day of the fire exchanges that began with the war in Gaza, hit in the city of Nabatiyeh and a village in southern Lebanon, just hours after an Israeli soldier was killed and eight other people were injured in a strike from Lebanon. The Israeli military said it killed two Hezbollah commanders in what it called a "precise airstrike."

Lebanon’s Prime Minister Najib Mikati denounced the escalation. “At a time where we are insisting on calm and call all sides to not escalate, we find the Israeli enemy extending its aggression,” read a statement from his office.

Sheikh Nabil Kaouk, a senior member of Hezbollah, was more combative, saying the group would meet “escalation with escalation, displacement with displacement, and destruction with destruction.”

Contributing: The Associated Press

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Israel Hamas war live updates: Israeli troops raid Nasser Hospital