The Israel Defense Forces early Monday morning launched a raid on Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital, amid intelligence that senior Hamas officials were in the area and using the hospital to plan and carry out terror activity, the military said.

One Israeli soldier was killed amid a gun battle with Hamas operatives in the area of the hospital before dawn.

The raid was launched at around 2:30 a.m., with troops of the IDF’s 401st Armored Brigade and other units, including special forces and the Shin Bet security agency, encircling the hospital, the largest medical center in the Gaza Strip.

As troops arrived at the medical center, Hamas gunmen opened fire “from within the hospital compound,” the IDF and the Shin Bet said.