The Israeli army displays a tunnel under Shifa that it says served as a Hamas hideout

GAZA (Reuters) – The Israeli military on Wednesday displayed a fortified tunnel next to Gaza’s Shifa Hospital that included a bathroom, a kitchen and an air-conditioned meeting room that it said served as a command center for Hamas fighters.

The tunnel opening, about two meters high, is accessed through an external opening in the grounds of the hospital complex, which was once crowded with tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians, who the army said served as a human shield from a war.

“This is how they live because they use the hospital as a human shield to protect them,” said Colonel Elad Tsouri, commander of an Israeli armored brigade that found the tunnel. “And here they can stay for a long time. There is an air-conditioned room inside.”

Israel has long accused Hamas of using the Shifa Hospital complex as a command and control center as part of a broader strategy that seeks to hide its forces among the civilian population.

Hamas and hospital officials denied the accusations and the hospital site was the focus of war crimes accusations from both sides, with the Palestinians accusing Israel of targeting hospitals and Israel saying the sites were being used to shelter armed fighters.

The journalists were transported in Israeli military vehicles to a hospital complex in the northern Gaza Strip, passing through buildings destroyed or evacuated during Israel’s nearly seven-week-long invasion of the Palestinian enclave.

The tunnel, decorated with arches, was a well-built structure lined with stone and concrete. The army escort used flashlights to light the way in the darkness and showed a small kitchen and a bathroom equipped with a toilet and sink behind a closed door, as well as a room large enough for meetings with two metal beds.

“We assume that there is another road they have prepared. It is not open yet and we are sure that there are roads to the city from here,” Tsouri said. He said that the army knew that the tunnel led to another opening in a kindergarten in Gaza.

Israel has faced international criticism over its campaign in Gaza, including its attacks on Al-Shifa Hospital, the largest hospital in the Strip. Medical officials say Israel has killed about 13,000 people in the Strip since the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, which Israel says killed 1,200 people and took 240 hostage.

Outside, the military displayed dozens of weapons, grenades and other explosives, which Army spokesman Admiral Daniel Hagary said had been collected in recent days inside the hospital, a mobile home and nearby cars.

He added that the army recovered the body of hostage Noa Marciano (19 years old) outside a nearby medical clinic. Hamas earlier broadcast a video clip in which it said that it was killed in an Israeli air strike. It was impossible to verify this claim.

In Washington, the White House said its independent intelligence supports Israel’s claim that Hamas is using Gaza hospitals, including Al-Shifa Hospital, to hide command centers.

Hamas responded at the time: “The White House and Pentagon’s adoption of the false (Israeli) narrative claiming that the resistance is using the Shifa Medical Complex for military purposes was a green light for the occupation (Israel) to commit more massacres.” against civilians.”

But Hajari, referring to Hamas’ use of a hideout under the hospital, said: “The world must now say that what happened in Al-Shifa, and what happened in the hospitals, is a war crime.”

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