Heavy fighting erupted around a hospital in northern Gaza where thousands of patients and displaced people have been sheltering for weeks. Israeli forces are focusing on clearing out medical facilities that they say Hamas militants use for cover. The plight of Gaza's hospitals is at the focus of a battle of narratives over the war's brutal toll on Palestinian civilians. Israel says Hamas uses civilians as human shields, while critics say Israel's siege and relentless aerial bombardment amount to collective punishment of the territory's 2.3 million Palestinians.