GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Shifa Hospital was once the cornerstone of the health system in the Gaza Strip. Now, after 21 months of war and two major Israeli raids, it barely functions.

Israel has created “green zones” and “red zones” to distinguish between safe and dangerous areas. There’s little difference.

A senior Israeli official predicts Israel and Hamas will come to a ceasefire in the "next week or two," a longer timeframe than previously expected. Until a ceasefire can be reached, fighting goes on and Israel continues its airstrikes.

Israel’s defense minister said he told the military to advance plans for what he called a “humanitarian city” built on the ruins of Rafah in southern Gaza, according to reports in Israeli media.

One by one, displaced Gazans would pass through security checkpoints where they would be searched for weapons or signs of links to Hamas before being allowed into a new “humanitarian city” built on ruins.

At Gaza's largest hospital, doctors say crippling fuel shortages have led them to put several premature babies in a single incubator as they struggle to keep the newborns alive while Israel presses on with its military campaign.

As negotiators scramble to cut a Gaza ceasefire deal, the enclave’s hospitals say they are again on the brink of shutting down amid a months-long fuel blockade.

The encirclement began shortly after five IDF soldiers were killed and an additional 14 wounded due to a Hamas ambush and several IEDs in the area.