On Monday, the Israeli military released images and video it said showed Hamas-stored weaponry in the basement of a Gaza children’s hospital, where it also claimed hostages seemed to have been kept.
According to military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, forces discovered a command centre in the basement of Rantissi Hospital, a paediatric facility that specialises in treating cancer kids, equipped with an arsenal of weaponry kept by Hamas terrorists, including suicide vests, grenades, and other explosives.
“And we also found signs that indicate that Hamas held hostages here,” he told a televised briefing. “This is currently under our investigation. But we also have intelligence that verifies it.”
He played video showing what seemed like modest living quarters, complete with a little kitchen, and an adjacent underground shaft that, according to him, went to the home of a senior Hamas naval officer.
“Hamas took all this area under its control and conducted its war against Israelis from this hospital,” he said.
Furthermore, he said that after the surprise attack on October 7, when Hamas gunmen stormed into southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people and seizing about 240 prisoners, Israeli authorities discovered a motorbike with gunshot marks that appeared to have been used to transport hostages to Gaza.
Israel has responded by heavily bombarding the Gaza Strip and then launching a military operation in which its forces have advanced far into the territory. Palestinian health officials report that over 11,000 people have died in Gaza.
The major Gaza hospital, Al Shifa, has hundreds of patients waiting to be evacuated, and Israeli tanks were stationed outside its gates on Monday.
Israel has charged Hamas of utilising civilian infrastructure, including hospitals, to conceal gun positions and command centres, as well as with employing people and hospital patients as human shields during the assault.
Health facilities in Gaza have not been exploited in this manner, according to Hamas and hospital officials. Attacks on Gaza’s healthcare system need to stop, according to the UN. Israel claims to be permitting the evacuation of people and patients.
