 "Al-shifa, tunnel, hamas, Israel")
The Israeli Army has released video footage that it claims shows the first solid evidence of a sophisticated Hamas tunnel network underneath Gaza City’s Dar Al-Shifa Hospital complex.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement on Sunday that troops operating near the in-patient building at Al-Shifa found a booby-trapped pickup truck in a garage inside the medical complex’s walls. When it was destroyed in a controlled explosion, a tunnel was exposed beneath the floor of the garage, it said.
In footage dated November 16 and 17, taken by army robots, a tunnel shaft about 10 metres long is navigated by a rickety circular staircase, before it reaches a 55-metre-long tunnel. The tunnel contains electricity wires and slopes downwards until it ends at a blast-proof door, with a small slot through which to fire weapons. The IDF says it is yet to reach beyond the door.
Israeli forces first entered the Al-Shifa Hospital complex a few days ago, alleging that the militant group Hamas used it as a command centre and identified it as a key target despite international outcry.
Until Sunday, the IDF had displayed what it said were weapons found during searches of the premises, but was yet to produce evidence to back up the claims of a vast tunnel complex located beneath the hospital, allegations denied by both hospital staff and Hamas.
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The army reported that searches for weapons, tunnel shafts and other Hamas material at al-Shifa were ongoing. Other findings included explosive devices in the physical therapy ward, an interrogation room in the cardiology ward, and weapons and intelligence in the MRI centre, according to the IDF.
As Israeli forces drew closer to the hospital this week, at least 40 people, including eight premature babies, died because of a lack of electricity to operate life-saving equipment such as incubators and dialysis machines, the UN said.
The desperate struggle to save the remaining 300 or so vulnerable patients at Al-Shifa alive as the UN attempts to evacuate them southwards comes as Israel has said it is expanding its operations to destroy Hamas to areas south of Gaza City, raising fears for the hundreds of thousands of civilians who have sought refuge there after being told by the IDF that it would be safer.
