The European Union on Sunday condemned Hamas for using “hospitals and civilians as human shields” in Gaza, while also urging Israel to show “maximum restraint” to protect civilians.

Hospitals in the north of the Palestinian enclave are blockaded by Israeli forces and barely able to care for those inside, according to medical staff. Gaza’s largest and second largest hospitals, Al Shifa and Al-Quds, said they were suspending operations.

Israel says Hamas has placed command centres under and near hospitals and it needs to get at them to free around 200 hostages the militants took in Israel in an attack just over a month ago. Hamas has denied using hospitals in this way.

“The EU condemns the use of hospitals and civilians as human shields by Hamas,” European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said in a statement issued on behalf of the 27-nation bloc. “Civilians must be allowed to leave the combat zone.”

At the same time, he urged Israel to exercise maximum restraint, stressing the obligation under international humanitarian law to protect hospitals, medical supplies and civilians inside hospitals.

“These hostilities are severely impacting hospitals and taking a horrific toll on civilians and medical staff,” Borrell warned.

“Hospitals must … be supplied immediately with the most urgent medical supplies, and patients that require urgent medical care need to be evacuated safely,” he added. “In this context, we urge Israel to exercise maximum restraint to ensure the protection of civilia

A Jewish school in Montreal was fired on Sunday for the second time this week as tensions remain high in Canada over the Israel-Hamas war, police said.

Police spokeswoman Veronique Dubuc said no one was in Yeshiva Gedola when shots were heard around 5:00 am (1000 GMT), and there were no reported injuries.

Officers discovered bullet damage to the building’s facade and found cartridges on the ground, Dubuc said.

The incident took place only two days after that school and another Jewish school in Montreal, Canada’s second-largest city, were fired upon, also without casualties.

“The fact that people took the liberty to attack the same target more than once demonstrates the situation’s seriousness,” school spokesman Lionel Perez said during a press conference, adding that classes would continue as usual.

Earlier in the week, a Montreal synagogue suffered minor damage in a firebombing, and three students were injured when pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel groups clashed at the city’s Concordia University.

Both Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Francois Legault, the premier of French-speaking Quebec province, have condemned the violence.

“Let’s not import the hatred and violence that we see elsewhere in the world,” Legault posted on X, formerly Twitter, adding that “all effort will be made to find and punish those guilty.”

Montreal’s Mayor Valerie Plante condemned the “odious gesture” and urged residents to “absolutely fight anti-Semitism.”

“We will not accept Montreal being the scene of such acts,” she said on X.

Several countries around the word, notably in Europe, have seen attacks on Jewish targets amid the intense Israeli strikes on Gaza in response to the bloody October 7 attack by militants of the Palestinian group Hamas.

Some 1,200 people in Israel, most of them civilians, were killed that day, Israeli authorities say.

Health authorities in Gaza say more than 11,100 people, including many children, have died in Israel’s bombardment of the Palestinian territory.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told US media Sunday a deal could be afoot to free hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, but declined to provide details for fear of scuttling the potential plan.

“We heard that there was an impending deal of this kind or of that kind and then we learned that it was all hokum. But the minute we started the ground operation, that began to change,” Netanyahu told NBC show “Meet the Press.”

Asked whether there is a potential deal to free more of the hostages being held by Hamas militants, Netanyahu replied: “There could be.”

But the leader stopped short of providing specifics about any plan that might be coming together to free some or all of the 239 hostages that Israel says are being held captive.

“I think the less I say about it, the more I’ll increase the chances that it materializes,” he said.

Netanyahu has flatly rejected calls for a ceasefire in Gaza without release of the hostages.

In a series of appearances on US Sunday talk shows, he sought to make clear Israel was doing everything it can to rescue or secure release of those held captive.

Asked on CNN whether he agrees with the US position that an extended pause in Gaza fighting is needed in order to get the hostages released safely, Netanyahu said: “We don’t disagree with that. We need to get our hostages out.”

A Palestinian official in Gaza, however, laid the blame for inaction at Netanyahu’s feet.

“Netanyahu is responsible for the delay and obstacles in reaching a preliminary agreement on the release of several prisoners,” the official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

“He is not interested in finding them alive,” the source said. “He is only concerned with preserving his political future.”

White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told MSNBC that there has been “active negotiation and conversations going on with our counterparts in the region” on a potential hostages deal.

But like Netanyahu, he stayed quiet on details.

“The less said publicly about these sensitive negotiations and conversations, probably the better,” Kirby said.

Meanwhile, Netanyahu also addressed the issue of Gaza’s hospitals, which have become trapped in the fighting, and in particular Al-Shifa, the Hamas-run territory’s largest hospital, which authorities say faces a catastrophic situation.

“There’s no reason why we can’t get the patients out of there,” the prime minister told CNN.

“We’re telling them to leave, and in fact we’re creating — helping them by creating safe corridors” through which patients and others can evacuate to areas of less fighting in southern Gaza, he said.

According to Netanyahu, some 100 patients have already been evacuated from Al-Shifa hospital.