IDF claims tunnels prove command room under Gaza hospital
The Israeli military shared video of tunnels under the al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza on Wednesday, claiming that the footage proves Hamas has used the hospital complex as a “command and control center.”
Videos shared by the IDF show soldiers walking through small, concrete-lined tunnels with sparse electric lights. Another video shows a tiled bathroom attached to the tunnels.
“Hamas has been systematically using hospitals in Gaza to run its terror machine,” IDF spokesperson Brig. Gen. Daniel Hagari said. “Hamas built tunnels underneath hospitals, used them to command their operations...Hamas wages war from hospitals. This is the sick nature of the savage terrorists we are fighting.”
A separate IDF video shows firearms and military supplies, including grenades and drones, which a spokesperson claims were retrieved from the tunnels.
The IDF has long accused Hamas of operating within the tunnels underneath al-Shifa, which doctors and international aid organizations at the hospital have denied. The tunnels were built as part of the hospital’s construction by Israel in the 1980s, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak told CNN this week.
After a raid of the complex last week, following days of surrounding the hundreds of doctors and patients inside the hospital, the IDF released videos showing small caches of weapons and supplies in some hospital rooms.
It is unclear how large the tunnel complex underneath al-Shifa is, or if the IDF videos show the entirety of the tunnels.
The videos provided so far fall well short of previous IDF claims, which described a vast military headquarters complex capable of permanently housing dozens of people, akin to an underground city.
A computer-generated approximation of the purported command center that the Israeli military published last month showed a complex similar to some early media portrayals of Tora Bora — the cave complex believed to house Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda leadership in Afghanistan.
Israel’s claims about al-Shifa and other Gaza hospitals have been at the center of the conflict in Gaza for weeks, as the Israeli military continues its ground invasion in a push south from Gaza City.
The six-week war in Gaza has waged on since Oct. 7, when Hamas militants killed over 1,200 people in a surprise attack on Israel. An Israeli air and ground campaign has since killed over 12,000 Palestinians, including over 4,600 children.
The two sides of the conflict agreed to a four-day pause in the fighting Tuesday in order to free about 50 of the approximately 240 hostages held by Hamas. The pause is set to to go into effect later this week.