DUBAI, November 15. /TASS/. The Israeli military raided the Al-Shifa hospital in the Gaza Strip in the early hours of Wednesday, the Al Mayadeen television reported.

According to the report, "the occupying forces are storming the western wing of the Al-Shifa hospital." Sounds of gunfire are heard in certain parts of the medical facility.

According to earlier reports, around 700 patients and 700 staffers are currently in the hospital. Besides, the facility offered shelter to between 2,000 and 3,000 refugees, who have since been unable to leave due to heavy Israeli bombing of the adjacent areas.

The situation in the Middle East sharply escalated following an incursion of Hamas militants from the Gaza Strip into Israel on October 7, accompanied by killings of residents of Israeli settlements near the border and taking more than 200 hostages, including children, women and elderly people. Hamas regards the attack as a response to Israeli actions against the Al-Aqsa Mosque on Jerusalem's Temple Mount. Israel has declared a complete siege of the Gaza Strip and has started delivering strikes on that area and parts of Lebanon and Syria. Clashes are also taking place in the West Bank.