Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed that there were "strong indications" that hostages held by Hamas were at Gaza's Al-Shifa Hospital, but they were no longer there when Israeli forces entered the hospital. Netanyahu said his government had intelligence about the hostages but declined to provide further details. The Israel Defense Forces carried out a targeted operation against Hamas in a specified area of the hospital after warning the group not to use the medical complex as a base. Hamas has denied the accusation that it had a command center underneath the hospital. Only four hostages out of the 240 taken during an attack on Israel by Hamas militants on October 7 have been released so far. BBC journalists were recently given access to Al-Shifa Hospital by the Israel Defense Forces and were led around the compound, where they were shown stashes of weapons and military equipment. While international humanitarian law requires the protection of hospitals during armed conflicts, there have been claims that Hamas has co-opted hospitals and ambulances in the past.