Pressure is mounting as Israel searches the Gaza hospital for the presence of Hamas
Israeli forces searched Gaza’s largest hospital for a second day on Thursday, looking for the presence of Hamas or any evidence that the armed Palestinian group had used the tunnels below as a secret base, even as Israel came under increasing pressure from Western allies to restrict access to the hospital. reduce civilian deaths and alleviate the suffering of the people of Gaza.
Although the military has not yet presented public documentation of an extensive network of tunnels, an Israeli military spokesman, Vice Admiral Daniel Hagari, said troops had uncovered a Hamas tunnel shaft under the Al-Shifa hospital complex, as well as a vehicle on the site . hospital grounds full of a large number of weapons. Videos released by the military showed the tunnel shaft, as well as grenades, ammunition and assault weapons.
“They hid all this evil here,” a soldier says in a video clip.
The army previously announced that it had found the body of a woman in a structure “adjacent” to the hospital in northern Gaza. Yehudit Weiss65, one of the hostages Hamas kidnapped during its cross-border attack in Israel on October 7. Admiral Hagari said she was killed by Hamas.
Israel’s claims that Hamas, the armed Palestinian group that controls Gaza, was operating from the sprawling Al-Shifa complex have played a central role in defending the military campaign in Gaza. Israel says the rising number of civilian deaths – more than 11,000 people, according to Gaza authorities – has been caused in part by Hamas’ decision to hide its military fortifications and command centers in civilian infrastructure such as Al-Shifa.
The United States has backed Israel’s claims that Al-Shifa hospital was being used by Hamas’s armed wing, with US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby telling reporters on Thursday that US intelligence agencies had independently reached that conclusion .
“We have our own intelligence that convinces us that Hamas was using Al-Shifa as a command and control hub – and most likely as a storage facility as well,” CNN quoted Mr Kirby as saying.
On Thursday, the Israeli military said troops used scanners at the hospital to search for “underground infrastructure” while under fire. The need for the scans highlighted the difficult reality of the military campaign.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Tuesday that Israeli forces now control “the above-ground area” of northern Gaza. On Thursday, he said in a video statement that Israeli forces had “completed the capture and evacuation of the entire eastern part of Gaza City.” However, thousands of Hamas members could still be holed up in tunnels beneath Israeli positions.
The Israeli military on Thursday released a video of what it said was a tunnel used by Hamas within the Al-Shifa complex, showing an area with excavated soil and an underground passageway and door about two to three meters deep. The New York Times confirmed that the passageway was located on the northern edge of the sprawling complex.
But it was unclear from the video what purpose the passage served and how far it extended. Israeli forces appear to have destroyed a small structure and dug up a large plot of land to expose it, an analysis of satellite images and video showed. The building appeared to be about the size of a car garage, with a roof covering it.
The search of the hospital comes at a time when the international community is increasingly calling for the need to protect civilians in Gaza. On Wednesday, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution calling for an urgent, days-long pause in the war to allow “full, rapid, safe and unhindered humanitarian access.”
The resolution, which was adopted with the abstentions of the United States, Britain and Russia, was a diplomatic turning point for Washington: it was the first time that the Biden administration refrained from blocking a resolution that would not also include the October 7 Hamas convict. to attack.
On Thursday in Geneva, Volker Türk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, called for an investigation into what he described as serious violations of international law during the war. Mr. Türk has accused both Hamas and the Israeli Defense Forces of war crimes — Hamas for the October 7 attacks that Israeli officials say killed 1,200 people, and the Israeli Defense Forces for the rising number of civilian casualties, which he describes as collective punishment.
Mr Türk underlined his comments by calculating that one in 57 Palestinians living in Gaza had been killed or injured in Israel’s airstrikes and ground invasions. The dead include 4,600 children, according to Gaza authorities.
The body of the former hostage found, Ms. Weiss, was taken to Israel for forensic examination by health officials, who confirmed her identity. The military did not say how she died. Ms. Weiss was a resident of the village of Be’eri, Israel, near the Gaza border. Her husband, Shmulik Weiss, was killed during the Hamas attack on October 7, according to a list of dead or missing people provided by Be’eri residents. Israeli news media reported that she was a grandmother of five and was being treated for cancer when she was abducted.
Israel’s ability to prove its claim that Hamas used hospitals as cover could be crucial to whether its foreign allies continue to support its military response to Hamas’ attack.
Israel received widespread international support after Hamas’ deadly attack on villages, towns, military bases and a music festival. But as the Israeli counterattack has continued, destroying much of Gaza, its allies have increasingly urged restraint.
On Wednesday, as the Israeli army began searching Al-Shifa Hospital, it presented as evidence of Hamas’s military presence a video showing about a dozen weapons, a grenade, protective vests and military uniforms that soldiers said they had found in an MRI unit at Al-Shifa Hospital. the hospital. The Times could not verify the origin of the weapons.
A Hamas spokesman, Osama Hamdan, accused Israel on Thursday of planting the weapons, protective vests, military uniforms and other equipment that Israel said it found at the hospital complex. At a news conference in Beirut, Mr. Hamdan called the Israeli video “a weak and ridiculous narrative.” He added: “The occupation resorted to this farce to cover up the falsity of its alleged story.”
He said Israeli forces entering Al-Shifa had “terrorized the patients and barbarically detained them,” accusing them of “destroying the medicine warehouse and rendering the MRI machine unusable.”
An Israeli military spokesman, Major Nir Dinar, said Thursday that troops needed more time to search the hospital grounds because “Hamas knew we were coming” and had run off or hidden traces of its presence there.
“They tried to hide evidence of their war crimes,” Major Dinar said. “They ruined the place, they brought in sand to cover some of the floors, and they created double walls.”
On October 27, the day its forces invaded Gaza, the Israeli army published a map of the site suggesting that Hamas operated four underground complexes under the hospital’s internal medicine department, the breast and dialysis department, the MRI department and a rest area. on its western edge. The map also suggested that Hamas had a command center at or near the hospital’s outpatient clinic.
A communications blackout swept through Gaza on Thursday, making it extremely difficult to reach anyone at Al-Shifa or other hospitals. But Gaza’s health ministry said Thursday that thousands of people remained on the grounds of the main hospital with little food and water.
Ashraf Al-Qidra, a ministry spokesperson, told Al Jazeera Arabic that in addition to the people in the complex, there were approximately 650 patients staying there. Israeli forces had denied access to medical workers and patients and arrested two technicians, he said.
Reporting was contributed by Aaron Bokserman from Jerusalem, Hwaida Saad from Beirut, Lebanon, Karen Zraick And Matthew Mpoke Bigg from London, Iyad Abuheweila from Cairo, Malachy Browne from Limerick, Ireland, Aric Toler from Kansas City and Nick Cumming-Bruce from Geneva.