Israel releases video of 'Hamas weapons' at Gaza's Al-Shifa Hospital

Israeli Defense Forces continue operation at Al-Shifa Hospital, allege it is a Hamas command centre

Israel has claimed that its soldiers found evidence that Hamas, the Palestine militant group that attacked the country on October 7, uses hospitals in Gaza to store explosives and weapons for terror activities.

The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) shared on social media a video that purportedly shows Hamas using a building at Al-Shifa Hospital, the largest in Gaza, as an operational headquarters as well as a storage facility for equipment.

The IDF continued its operation at Al-Shifa Hospital, which it believes is a Hamas command centre hiding behind 2,000 civilians using it as a shelter.

In the video, Israeli military spokesperson Jonathan Conricus, accompanied by camerapersons, purportedly entered the hospital to present "evidence" of Hamas' weapons cache within the facility's premises. The video, which the IDF claims to be "unedited", shows CCTV cameras at the MRI building of the hospital.

"Without any doubt, Hamas systematically uses hospitals for its military operations in violation of international law," Conricus said inside the hospital.

The spokesperson and the camerapersons then proceed to the MRI room, where they find military "grab-bags" (bags stocked with weapons and ammo for grab-and-go circumstances in a combat zone). The camera then zooms in on the bag, which clearly shows an AK-47, cartridges and a grenade, among other things.

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"These weapons have absolutely no business being inside a hospital. The reason they are here is because Hamas put them here because they use this place like many other hospitals and ambulances for illicit military purposes," Conricus said in the video.

Meanwhile, witnesses say that Israel’s raid on Gaza’s al-Shifa Hospital has brought “terror and death” to the thousands trapped inside.

Omar Zaqout, an emergency room employee at al-Shifa told Al Jazeera that Israeli soldiers have “detained and brutally assaulted some of the men who were taking refuge at the hospital”.

“Israeli forces took the detained men naked and blindfolded. They did not bring any aid or supplies, they only brought terror and death,” he said.

“More than 180 dead bodies are deteriorating and are still lying in the hospital’s yard,” he said, adding, “The situation is very terrifying, gunshots are heard everywhere in the hospital’s perimeters.”

Both the Israeli military and Hamas have accused each other of waging a "propaganda war" against each other since the region plunged into chaos following the October 7 attacks. Morphed photos and decontextualized videos unrelated to the ongoing crisis have often been found doing the rounds on social media with false claims.

While authentic footage and firsthand accounts of the destruction have been circulated extensively, there have also been instances of people disseminating misinformation and misrepresenting videos from unrelated incidents.

For example, the IDF claimed yesterday that a Hamas-operated tunnel leads to Gaza's Rantsi hospital. In a video quite similar to the one released today, IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari enters the basement of the Ransi hospital, through the tunnel, where he finds "operational gears" of Hamas.

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Hagari then points to a poster carrying Arabic inscriptions on a wall, alleging it mentions "Operation Al-Aqsa Flood", the name given to the October 7 Hamas attack, and a list of Hamas operatives guarding Israeli hostages.

However, multiple fact-checkers have refuted the claim and countered that the inscriptions are just days of the week written in Arabic script.