Israel finds hostages, tunnels and weapons at hospital in Gaza

Once a refuge for tens of thousands of Palestinian war refugees, Al Shifa Hospital has been evacuated of patients and staff since Israeli troops stormed in last week, on what they call a mission to eradicate Hamas hideouts.

Israel says hostages and weapons were found in a tunnel at Gaza's largest hospital (Figure 1). — The entrance to a tunnel that, according to the Israeli army, was used by Palestinian militants beneath Al Shifa Hospital in the Gaza Strip. Photo: Israeli Army.

Another major task for Israel is to locate the approximately 240 hostages that Hamas abducted and took to Gaza after the October 7 cross-border attack on southern Israeli territory – the trigger for the outbreak of fighting.

One of them was Noa Marciano, a 19-year-old female soldier in the Israeli army. Her body was found near Shifa last week. Hamas said she died in an Israeli airstrike and released a video showing her body with no injuries except for a head wound.

"According to intelligence – reliable intelligence – Noa was held captive by Hamas terrorists inside Shifa Hospital. There, she was murdered by a Hamas terrorist," Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari stated.

In a televised press conference, Hagari said that Hamas gunmen had also brought a Nepalese and a Thai national, two of the foreign workers taken hostage from Israel, to Al Shifa Hospital.

Security camera footage released by Hagari appears to show a group of men carrying someone into the hospital, much to the surprise of medical staff. A second clip shows an injured man lying on a stretcher.

Hamas has not yet responded to Hagari's statement. The Palestinian Islamist group, which governs Gaza, previously said it had taken some hostages to hospitals for treatment.

On Sunday alone, the Israeli army released video of what they described as a 55-meter-long tunnel dug 10 meters deep by Palestinian militants beneath the Al Shifa hospital complex.

While acknowledging that they have a network of hundreds of kilometers of tunnels, bunkers, and secret passages throughout Gaza, Hamas denies that these tunnels are part of civilian infrastructure such as hospitals.

The video shows a narrow passageway with a vaulted concrete roof, ending at what the military described in a statement as a blast-proof door. It also shows the tunnel leading to a warehouse inside Al Shifa Hospital, which contained a large quantity of weapons and ammunition.

Mounir El Barsh, Director of the Gaza Ministry of Health , denied Israel's claims about the tunnel. He told Al Jazeera: "They've been at this hospital for eight days now and still haven't found anything."

Hoang Anh (according to Reuters, CNN, Al Jazeera)

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