The Israeli military raided Gaza’s largest hospital early Wednesday in a “precise and targeted operation against Hamas” and urged the terrorists reportedly hiding underneath the facility to surrender.

The Israel Defense Forces entered Al Shifa Hospital after warning Hamas that using the hospital to conceal military operations threatens its protected status under international law.

“The IDF forces include medical teams and Arabic speakers, who have undergone specified training to prepare for this complex and sensitive environment, with the intent that no harm is caused to the civilians,” the military said in a statement.

“We call upon all Hamas terrorists present in the hospital to surrender,” the IDF added.

Because of the hundreds of patients and medical staff inside, Israeli authorities have up until Wednesday morning refrained from barging into the Shifa Hospital in their hunt for Hamas.

Hamas has denied it uses the hospital for cover, though US intelligence has sided with Israel’s assertions that the terror group has extensive tunnels beneath the medical center.

Medical facilities in the area have been forced to shelter in place from sniper fire from nearby fighting.

The Doctors Without Borders humanitarian group said one of its three facilities located near the hospital was under lockdown Tuesday after three patients were shot from inside the building.

“In front of the main gate, there are many bodies. There are also injured patients; we can’t bring them inside,” the organization said in a statement about the gunfire. “The situation is very bad, it is inhuman.”

Doctors Without Borders noted that along with its patients, their medical facility is sheltering 65 children displaced by the war.

It was not immediately clear who was behind the gunshots, but Gaza’s health ministry has repeatedly blamed the IDF for sniper fire reported near hospitals since the facilities became surrounded by Israeli forces over the weekend.

The Hamas-backed Palestinian Health Ministry said three babies were among 40 people that died since Shifa’s emergency generator ran out of fuel Saturday with another 36 babies at risk of dying because there is no power for incubators.

“There is no more water, food, milk for children and babies… the situation in the hospital is catastrophic,” Dr. Muhammad Abu Salmiya, the center’s director, told CNN.

Israel said its offer to provide 300 liters of fuel to the hospital was rejected by Hamas, but Dr. Ahmed El Mokhallalati said the deal didn’t go through because the fuel was left more than a mile away from the hospital in an “active war zone,” NBC News reported.

With more than 650 patients, about 700 staffers, and thousands of refugees living in al-Shifa, the hospital is seeing its worst crisis in the war, with a mass grave now being constructed by hand.

Doctors said that after failing to dig graves on Monday amid gunfire, staff members spent hours Tuesday burying 180 bodies that could no longer be stored in the hospital.

Images from the medical complex on Monday showed that al-Shifa staff had run out of the traditional white blankets used to cover bodies and were now using colorful sheets to wrap the dead.

US State Department spokesperson Matt Miller said Tuesday that the US is currently discussing ways to allow an independent third party to conduct evacuations at the medical facilities in Gaza.

“We think an appropriate step would be to support those evacuations so babies and other vulnerable populations are not in harm’s way,” Miller said.

Miller questioned if Hamas would allow the evacuations, as the terrorist group has been accused of using hospitals as shields in the past. Officials said that talks are underway with Qatar and other intermediaries to help with the hospital conditions.

Israel has rejected calls for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, with its leadership stating that military pressure was the key to eradicating Hamas and securing the freedom of the nearly 240 people taken hostage during the Oct. 7 terrorist attack.