Israel Says Hamas Command Center Held in Hospital: How Long Can It Be Before Evidence?
Israel is trying to provide solid evidence to support its claim that Hamas used tunnels under Gaza’s Al-Shifa hospital as a command center. But an Israeli army-led tour with journalists of the hospital grounds on Thursday evening showed only a shaft in the ground with a staircase, which did not resolve the issue.
A definitive answer almost certainly won’t come overnight, military experts say.
What is the evidence so far?
Both Israel and the Biden administration say they have evidence that Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad are operating command centers and ammunition depots beneath hospitals in Gaza, part of an effort to turn civilians who use the hospitals into human shields.
Thursday evening’s Israeli military tour showed the shaft had electrical wiring, along with a metal staircase. In the darkness it was unclear where the shaft led and how deep it went. The military said it sent a drone at least several meters into the shaft, which was reportedly found in the sand at the northern edge of the complex.
Israel also released a pair of videos from Gaza’s main children’s hospital, showing what Israel said were weapons and explosives found in the medical center and a room where the army said hostages were being held. The videos contained a series of claims that could not be independently verified.
The Israeli military said soldiers had also found weapons at Al-Shifa and recovered the bodies of two Israelis taken hostage at locations adjacent to the hospital.
Palestinian officials and doctors at Al-Shifa have denied that the hospital has been used by the Hamas army.
U.S. officials said this week that they have intelligence, separate from Israeli intelligence services, confirming that Hamas operates command centers and ammunition depots beneath hospitals. One official said the intelligence is based on intercepts of fighters.
But the sensitive nature of the intelligence means that US officials have not described exactly what the intercepted communications say. They also did not show the interceptions to journalists.
How much time can it take before Israel can provide a conclusive report?
It could take weeks, months, or never come, U.S. military officials said Friday.
U.S. and Israeli officials said many of the tunnels could be booby-trapped with bombs that can be activated remotely or explode if something passes over a tripwire. In 2013, six Israeli soldiers were injured, and one blinded, when a booby trap exploded as they tried to push a camera into a Hamas tunnel.
Whether this is the case below Al-Shifa Hospital or not, the Israeli Defense Forces will consider sending soldiers to the tunnels as a last resort, a Pentagon official said Friday.
Colonel Elad Tsury, commander of Israel’s Seventh Brigade, said it could take days before troops descend the shaft.
Pentagon officials privately said there was frustration that Israel did not take more time to plan the invasion of Gaza, which would have allowed the Israeli military to evacuate civilians. The lead-up to the U.S. and Iraqi battle to retake the Iraqi city of Mosul from Islamic State in 2016 lasted nine months, according to U.S. officials, in part so officials could figure out how to limit civilian casualties.
By intervening without a strategy for how they would minimize civilian casualties, a senior US official said, Israel put itself in the position of justifying the high number of civilian casualties by proving that Hamas was using the hospital as a command center. That puts pressure on Israel, the official said, to pursue a case that could take months.
What is the broader significance of the hospital conflict?
Israel and Hamas are not only engaged in a physical war – with Hamas’ brutal attack on October 7 killing 1,200 Israelis and killing 11,000 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-led Health Ministry in Gaza. The two sides are also engaged in a war for global public opinion. That second war put pressure on Israel.
A large part of the Israeli story is that Hamas operates command headquarters beneath hospitals – essentially making human shields of civilians, a war crime. But attacking a hospital is also a war crime in most circumstances.
Both parties are therefore trying to show that the other is guilty of endangering citizens. Global opinion has turned against Israel as the Palestinian death toll has risen.
Critics of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu say the Israeli government has been too extensive in its argument about human shields, as there are believed to be hundreds of tunnels throughout Gaza, not just under the hospital.
“The idea of human shields, when applied so broadly, allows Israel to preemptively say that everything is a legitimate target,” said Daniel Levy, a former Israeli peace negotiator and now chairman of the American Middle East Project, a policy institute.
How many kilometers of tunnels are there under Gaza?
No one knows for sure. A US official likened the tunnel network under Gaza to “miniature cities,” with underground pathways, chambers, cells and even roads for vehicles.
Hamas has spent years refining its tunnel network under the small coastal strip of more than two million inhabitants. Tunnels have been a part of life in Gaza for years, but they have multiplied sharply after 2007, when Hamas took control of the enclave and Israel tightened its blockade of the area. The Palestinians responded by building hundreds of tunnels to smuggle in food, goods, people and weapons.
Some analysts estimate the number of kilometers of tunnels in the hundreds. Hamas leader in Gaza Yahya Sinwar said in 2021 that there were 500 kilometers of tunnels in Gaza.
In 2018, the Israeli army destroyed a tunnel more than a mile long.
What would it take to clear the tunnels?
A US military official said it would likely take years for Israel to clear all Gaza tunnels.
Aaron Bokserman contributed reporting from Jerusalem.