Israeli forces dropped leaflets warning Palestinians to flee parts of southern Gaza, residents said Thursday, signaling a possible expansion of their offensive to areas where hundreds of thousands of people who heeded earlier evacuation orders are crowded into U.N.-run shelters and family homes.

Meanwhile, soldiers continued searching Shifa Hospital in the north, in a raid that began early Wednesday. They displayed guns they found hidden in one building, but have yet to release any footage of the central Hamas command center that Israel says is concealed beneath the complex.

The war, now in its sixth week, was triggered by a senseless Hamas attack into southern Israel on Oct. 7 in which the terrorists killed over 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted some 240 men, women and children. Israel responded with a weekslong air campaign and a ground invasion of northern Gaza, vowing to remove Hamas from power and crush its military capabilities.

SOME GUNS, BUT SO FAR NO TUNNELS
Israeli troops stormed into Gaza’s largest hospital Wednesday, searching for traces of Hamas inside and beneath the facility.

Troops searched the underground levels of the hospital on Thursday and detained technicians responsible for running its equipment, the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza said in a statement.

The military said its soldiers were accompanied by medical teams bringing in incubators and other supplies.

After encircling Shifa for days, Israel faces pressure to prove its claim that Hamas used the patients, staff and civilians sheltering there to provide cover for its fighters. The allegation — which the U.S. has said it has intelligence to support — is part of Israel’s broader accusation that Hamas uses Palestinians as human shields.

The military released video from inside Shifa showing three duffel bags it said it found hidden around an MRI lab, each containing an assault rifle, grenades and Hamas uniforms, as well as a closet that contained a number of assault rifles without ammunition clips.

Israeli forces battled terrorists outside the hospital for days, but there were no reports of any fighting within the hospital after Israeli troops entered.

LOOKING SOUTH
The leaflets, dropped in areas east of the southern town of Khan Younis, warned civilians to evacuate and said anyone in the vicinity of terrorists or their positions “is putting his life in danger.” Similar leaflets were dropped over northern Gaza for weeks ahead of the ground invasion.

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Wednesday the ground operation will eventually “include both the north and south. We will strike Hamas wherever it is.”

Even as Israel signals a wider offensive, it has yet to put forth a long-term plan, aside from saying it will maintain security control over Gaza indefinitely.

The U.S. has urged Israel not to reoccupy the territory, from which it withdrew soldiers and settlers in 2005, and supports the eventual creation of a Palestinian state including Gaza and the occupied West Bank — also the long-held aspiration of the Palestinians. Israel’s government was staunchly opposed to Palestinian statehood even before the war.

The military says it has largely consolidated its control of the north, including seizing and demolishing government buildings. Video released by the army Thursday showed soldiers moving between heavily damaged buildings through holes blown in their walls.

The military said it had blown up a residence belonging to Ismail Haniyeh, a senior Hamas leader based abroad. It was unclear if anyone was inside the building.

(AP)