JERUSALEM, March 19

Israeli forces have killed more than 50 Palestinian gunmen and detained 180 suspected militants in a raid on Al-Shifa Hospital in the Gaza Strip, the army said on Tuesday.

The raid on Gaza’s biggest hospital began before dawn on Monday, with the military accusing Hamas of using it to hide fighters and plan attacks. At least one soldier has been killed by Palestinian gunfire within the compound, the military said.

UNHRC: restrictions to aid may be war crime

• Israel’s restrictions on humanitarian aid for Gaza may amount to a starvation tactic that could be a war crime, the United Nations human rights chief said on Tuesday
• The stark appraisal followed a UN-backed report saying famine is likely by May without an end to fighting in the more than five-month war between Israel and Hamas in the Palestinian enclave of 2.3 million people

Meanwhile, the United States urged a rethink of a promised ground sweep against Hamas hold-outs in the refugee-clogged city on the southern tip of the Gaza Strip. More than a million Palestinians displaced by the five-month-old Israeli assault elsewhere in the enclave have been sheltering in Rafah, which abuts Gaza’s border with Egypt.

Israel says one-sixth of Hamas’ combat strength – four battalions of the rifle- and rocket-wielding fighters – is in Rafah and must be crushed before the war can conclude. But the prospect of a spiralling civilian toll has raised alarm abroad. The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the overnight strikes in Rafah. Medics said the dead included three women and three children. The identities of the eight men killed were not immediately clear. — Reuters