Thousands trapped in war-hit Gaza hospital

Thousands of displaced Palestinians looked to Gaza's largest hospital, Al-Shifa, as a safe haven, but with Israeli strikes intensifying and the fighting reaching the gates of the compound, there seems nowhere for them to escape.

Crowds of people have crammed into the corridors of Al-Shifa to escape the fighting in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, adding to the overwhelming number of war casualties at the hospital.

The facility was hit repeatedly overnight in a new round of strikes that knocked out the power for several hours, its director said.

The outage had resulted in the death of two premature babies, the NGO Physicians for Human Rights Israel said, citing doctors inside the hospital.

Many of the displaced were afraid to leave the hospital, with medics including from Doctors Without Borders (MSF) saying they saw people being shot at as they attempted to flee the hospital.

The United Nations humanitarian agency (OCHA) said Israeli bombardments around hospitals in Gaza City and the north of the Palestinian territory intensified on Friday, with "several being directly hit".

Some 20 out of 36 hospitals throughout Gaza are "no longer functioning", according to OCHA. Despite the intense fighting, doctors inside the complex said they intended to stay put.