Israel has claimed that the hospital serves as an operational headquarters for Hamas.
The Israeli Defense Force (IDF) today shared videos claiming to have found a "terrorist tunnel" underneath Gaza's biggest hospital. The Al-Shifa hospital, the biggest in the besieged Palestinian enclave, serves as the lifeline for the region's residents.
Following the October 7 attacks and the subsequent Israeli military incursion into Gaza, Israel has claimed that the hospital serves as an operational headquarters for Hamas.
In a recent video, Israeli special forces claim to have entered a shaft located in the middle of a courtyard inside the Al-Shifa premises. The IDF claims that the shaft leads to a tunnel that opens up to a corridor.
"We went inside, escorted by the special forces because we needed to go through a warehouse where they located a lot of ammunition, guns, and explosives that needed to be discarded," an IDF official said.
"The first time our forces entered the Shifa complex, they went in with a bomb-sniffing dog and they discovered a truck full of ammunition," she claimed.
"Further investigations, including the use of specialised equipment lowered into the shaft, revealed that it was a 10-metre deep shaft that led to a corridor. At the end of the corridor was a blast-proof door with a shooting hole at the top. After ensuring that all defense mechanisms were safely dismantled, our forces opened the door, revealing another door leading deeper into the complex," she added.
Last night, the head of the Al-Shifa hospital was arrested by Israeli forces. Hospital director Mohammad Abu Salmiya has been vocal about the conditions inside the Al-Shifa hospital after repeated Israeli airstrikes on Gaza.
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 images, decontextualised videos unrelated to the ongoing crisis have often been found circulating on social media with illegitimate claims.
While authentic footage and firsthand accounts of the destruction have been circulated extensively, there have also been occurrences of people disseminating misinformation and misrepresenting videos from unrelated incidents.