Israel-Gaza updates: IDF says it exposed Hamas tunnel under Shifa Hospital

Israeli ground troops continued to carry out a raid on the largest hospital in the Gaza Strip for a third day.

A spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces told ABC News that, as of 1 p.m. local time on Friday, soldiers were still inside Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, some 58 hours after launching the raid.

The IDF alleges that Hamas has placed its command centers under Al-Shifa and other hospitals in Gaza and is deliberately sheltering behind Palestinian civilians -- claims that the militant group denies. While searching an area of Al-Shifa Hospital this week, the IDF claimed to have found weapons and military equipment there, evidence it says proves Hamas is using the medical complex.

-ABC News' Joe Simonetti and Morgan Winsor

An additional 150,000 liters (40,000 gallons) of fuel will be delivered to the Gaza Strip on Friday, according to Egyptian media.

The fuel, which is earmarked for Gaza's hospitals, will enter the war-torn enclave from neighboring Egypt through the Egyptian-controlled Rafah border crossing, according to Egyptian state-allied television channel Al-Qahers News.

Al-Qahers News reported that "Egyptian pressure on all parties have succeeded in increasing the volume of aid" and "restoring the flow of fuel" to Gaza.

World Health Organization spokesperson Tarik Jašarević had said last month that 150,000 liters of fuel are required to offer basic services in Gaza's five main hospitals.

-ABC News' Ayat Al-Tawy

Many details remain up in the air regarding a deal to release the Hamas-held hostages in exchange for a pause in fighting in Gaza, according to U.S. officials.

One of the biggest sticking points is the number of hostages that will be released, according to an Israeli source.

Israel wants all the children, their mothers and all of their family members released, the source said. If you count just women and young children, that's about 50 hostages; if you add the family members, you get up to about 80 hostages, according to the source.

The discussions remain fluid, the source said.

It's too soon to tell if a deal will come together, but people participating in negotiations have yet to throw in the towel, the U.S. officials said.

Asked about the deal by "World News Tonight" anchor David Muir on Thursday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the U.S. is focused "intensely" on bringing hostages home.

"But having said that, honestly the less that I say the better at this moment because we don't want to jeopardize anything that we're doing to try to bring people home," he said. "I'm hopeful that we can bring people home."

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Antony Blinken discusses latest in US role in Israel-Hamas conflictDavid Muir speaks with the Secretary of State about the latest developments in the Israel-Hamas conflict, including intelligence over alleged Hamas activity in hospitals.

ABCNews.com

-ABC News' Shannon K. Crawford and Matt Gutman

State Department spokesperson Matt Miller, who said earlier that the U.S. supported evacuating patients from Gaza's Al-Shifa Hospital and was liaising with partners who could potentially carry that out, said Thursday the conditions in Gaza wouldn't allow for it.

"There are third parties that have expressed an interest to do so," he said, however, "it’s been impossible to ensure that they could move safely to conduct these evacuations."

He later specified that "the problem has been Hamas."

Miller again expressed confidence in U.S. intelligence supporting the assertion that Hamas was using Al-Shifa Hospital as cover for a command-and-control center.

Miller disagreed with the assertion that the evidence supplied by the Israel Defense Forces -- like weapons recovered from the hospital -- was not compelling.

“I saw a host of assault rifles," Miller said. "I’m not aware that there’s a sort of acceptable threshold level for assault rifles held in hospitals -- that’s not general humanitarian practice."

Miller later added, "It is an ongoing operation. I think people should wait until the operation is finished to draw their own conclusions.”

About 300 American citizens as well as approximately 600 legal, permanent U.S. residents and their eligible family members remain in Gaza, Miller said.

-ABC News' Shannon Crawford