BEIRUT, November 13. /TASS/. Israeli forces have encircled Al-Quds Hospital in the north of the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said on Monday.

"Israeli tanks and military stationed near Al-Quds Hospital from all directions," it wrote on its X (formerly known as Twitter) account. According to the PRCS, preparations for the evacuation of patients and their families, as well as medical personnel are underway.

The Arab media reported on November 8 that Israel had struck the hospital. Israel, however, said that the strikes had been delivered on Hamas militants seated in a building adjacent to the hospital, which had entailed secondary blasts. The Israeli side has repeatedly accused Hamas of organizing its infrastructure facilities in the exact vicinity of civilian structures, as well as in tunnels under them.

Tensions flared up again in the Middle East on October 7 after militants from the Gaza Strip-based radical Palestinian group Hamas launched a surprise incursion on Israeli territory, killing many Israeli kibbutz residents living near the Gaza border and abducting more than 200 Israelis, including women, children and the elderly. Hamas described its attack as a response to Israeli authorities’ aggressive actions against the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City. Israel declared a total blockade of the Gaza Strip and launched bombardments of the enclave and some areas in Lebanon and Syria, as well as a ground operation against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Clashes are also reported in the West Bank.

Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said earlier that the IDF was expanding its ground operation in Gaza.