Israel has dropped leaflets into southern Gaza telling Palestinian civilians to leave four towns on the eastern edge of Khan Younis, raising fears that its war against Hamas could spread to areas it previously said were safe.

In northern Gaza, the Israeli operation in al-Shifa hospital continued on Thursday after the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) entered the sprawling compound in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

The UN’s human rights chief, Volker Türk, said that five weeks into the war, “massive outbreaks of infectious disease, and hunger” seemed inevitable in the densely populated Palestinian territory.

In Gaza City, IDF troops were searching the underground levels of al-Shifa hospital and detaining technicians responsible for running its equipment, the Hamas-run health ministry said.

Munir al-Boursh, a senior official inside the hospital, said troops ransacked the basement and other buildings and questioned and face-screened patients, staff and people sheltering in the facility, the Associated Press reported.

Meanwhile, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group, which is separate from Hamas, said its fighters were involved in “fierce clashes” with Israeli forces near the hospital complex, the BBC reported.

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