The World Health Organization (WHO) has admitted Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City "is not functioning as a hospital any more" as U.S. President Joe Biden called for the region's largest medical center to be protected amid ongoing fighting.

Israel has accused Hamas of running a command centre under Al-Shifa, which the hospital and Hamas deny. The medical facility, Gaza's biggest, is "nearly a cemetery," the WHO has warned. 

"My hope and expectation is that there will be less intrusive action relative to hospitals and we remain in contact with the Israelis," Biden told reporters. "Also, there is an effort to get this pause to deal with the release of prisoners and that's being negotiated, as well, with the Qataris... being engaged. So I remain somewhat hopeful but hospitals must be protected." 

Al-Shifa hospital's director said on Tuesday 179 people, including babies and patients who died in the intensive care unit, had been buried at the complex. "We were forced to bury them in a mass grave," said Mohammad Abu Salmiyah, adding that seven babies and 29 intensive care patients were among those buried after hospital fuel supplies ran out. 

A spokesman for the Gaza health ministry said on Tuesday there was no objection to having babies evacuated from the centre but there was no mechanism for an evacuation to take place. "What we care most is about the wellbeing and the lives of those babies," Ashraf Al-Qidra said.

Eight Palestinians were killed in clashes with Israeli troops in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said on Tuesday. Seven Palestinians were killed during an Israeli military raid on the northern city of Tulkarem, the health ministry and a local hospital said. Witnesses reported clashes in the area and a large deployment of Israeli soldiers seeking to make arrests. 

Hamas' armed wing prepared to release hostages

Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, posted an audio recording on Telegram saying the group was ready to release as many as 70 women and children hostages in return for a five-day ceasefire, an offer Israel is unlikely to accept. 

"We told the (Qatari) mediators that in a five-day truce, we can release 50 of them and the number could reach 70 due to the difficulty that the captives are held by different factions," said al-Qassam Brigades spokesman Abu Ubaida said, saying Israel had asked for 100 to be freed. 

Israel, which effectively blockades Gaza, has rejected a ceasefire, arguing Hamas would simply use it to regroup but has permitted brief humanitarian "pauses" to allow food and other supplies to flow in and foreigners to flee. 

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters Washington would "like to see considerably longer pauses – days, not hours – in the context of a hostage release." 

Israeli forces bombarded southern Gaza on Tuesday after tanks advanced to the gates of the enclave's biggest hospital in the north where health officials say dozens of patients, including babies, have died due a lack of power and the heavy fighting. 

At least 13 people were killed when Israeli forces targeted their homes in the southern city of Khan Younis, Gaza health ministry officials said. The military has also positioned tanks outside Al Shifa, Gaza City's main medical center. 

Israel's military on Tuesday confirmed the death of a soldier held captive in Gaza after Hamas issued video of her alive followed by images of what the Palestinian faction said was her body after she was killed in an Israeli strike. 

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Returning Cameron discusses Gaza conflict with Blinken

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has said the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel were motivated not just by "hatred" but also by an unease that Israel was forging new ties within the region. 

Referring to meetings with Israelis, he said "I sat with them, held their hands and saw the profound pain in their eyes. I heard the existential fear that the Israelis are feeling." 

David Cameron, the former prime minister who was appointed the UK's new foreign secretary on Monday, has spoken to his American counterpart Antony Blinken about the Israel-Gaza conflict. 

According to a social media post from his new office, Cameron and the U.S. Secretary of State discussed "Israel's right to self-defense and the need for humanitarian pauses to allow the safe passage of aid into Gaza."

Meanwhile in France, more than 1,500 anti-Semitic acts and comments have been recorded since the escalation between Israel and Hamas, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said on Tuesday. There have been growing tensions in France, home to large Jewish and Muslim communities, as the conflict rages in the Gaza Strip.

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