FACTS: Latest developments in Israel-Hamas war

Fighting raged in Gaza on Wednesday, more than five weeks after Hamas's shock October 7 attack sparked a furious response from Israel which has vowed to destroy the Palestinian militant group.

About 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed in Israel in the attack and around 240 people taken hostage, according to Israeli officials.

In Gaza, more than 11,300 people, also mostly civilians, have been killed, health officials in the Hamas-run territory have said.

Here are five key developments from the past 24 hours:

Israeli forces leave hospital

Israeli forces entered Al-Shifa, Gaza's largest hospital, before withdrawing from the facility and redeploying around its outskirts.

The hospital, which Israel says sits atop a Hamas command centre -- a claim denied by the militant group -- has become a focal point of the fighting in Gaza City.

A journalist in the compound told AFP the Israeli troops, some wearing face masks, ordered all males over 16 to exit the hospital.

About 1,000 Palestinian men and boys, their hands above their heads, were in the courtyard to be searched, while some were stripped naked, the journalist said.

Israel said its entry into the hospital was "a precise and targeted operation".

US did not 'OK' raid 

The United States "did not give the OK" for the Israeli raid, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters, adding that such decisions were for the Israeli military.

The United Nations, meanwhile, voiced alarm over the Israeli operation, demanding that thousands of patients and civilians be protected.

In a post on social media, UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths said he was "appalled" by the raid.

"The protection of newborns, patients, medical staff and all civilians must override all other concerns," he said.

Hostage gives birth 

A woman abducted by Hamas militants has given birth in captivity, the wife of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a letter.

"One of the kidnapped women was pregnant. She gave birth to her baby in Hamas captivity," Sara Netanyahu said in a letter addressed to US First Lady Jill Biden.

Her husband, US President Joe Biden, said on Tuesday he believed that a deal to free hostages was "going to happen, but I don't want to get into detail".

Erdogan labels Israel 'terror state' 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called Israel a "terror state", stepping up his condemnation of the war in Gaza.

"I say clearly that Israel is a terror state," Erdogan told members of his Islamic-rooted ruling party in parliament.

"We do not forget those who openly support these massacres and those who go out of their way to legitimise them," he said in a broadside against the United States and other Western supporters of Israel.

UN 'fears worst' 

UN humanitarian chief Griffiths also discussed with Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian concerns about the Israel-Hamas war spreading, with both agreeing that this "would not be good".

"If there is to be a war in the north with Hezbollah and Israel, then I fear the worst," Griffiths said at a press briefing in Geneva.

"It will be a war that makes even Gaza with its awful horrors of daily struggle look like just a beginning."