Israeli special forces raided Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza on Thursday, the largest operating hospital in the Strip, after imposing a siege on it for several days.

The Israeli army said it “arrested a number of suspects” at the hospital, adding that the operation was continuing.

IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari said they had “reliable intelligence from a number of sources, including from released hostages,” that Hamas had previously held hostages at the hospital, and that the bodies of deceased hostages may be at the hospital. The army did not release this evidence publicly.

He claimed that “Hamas terrorists are likely hiding behind injured civilians inside Nasser Hospital at the present time,” and said that the operation would be “precise and limited.”

Hamas denied to CNN that it works at Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis.

“Hamas has no involvement in the hospital,” Muhammad Nazzal, a member of Hamas’s political bureau, told CNN on Thursday.

Dr. Ashraf Al-Qudra, spokesman for the Ministry of Health, said: “The Israeli occupation storms the Al-Nasser Medical Complex and turns it into a military barracks after demolishing the southern wall and entering through it.”

Dr. Al-Qudra said that Israeli military bulldozers are exhuming mass graves that were dug within the walls of the complex.

He said that Israeli forces forced nearly 200 patients to live in “harsh and terrifying conditions, without food, without baby formula, and with an acute water shortage.”

IDF forces also destroyed two ambulances, the Health Ministry in the Hamas-controlled enclave claimed on Thursday. They claimed that the forces “stormed the maternity building and conducted a search inside it.”

CNN asked the Israeli army to respond to these allegations. The Israeli army has not yet responded to any allegations from the ministry.

This comes a day after hundreds of civilians were killed Israeli forces forced him to leave the hospitalWhich they were using as a shelter.