Hamas puts Gaza hospital at forefront of Israel war with hidden underground terror headquarters: ‘Human shields are a key pillar’
One of the Israeli army’s main targets is the underground headquarters of the Palestinian terror group Hamas hidden beneath Gaza City’s largest hospital, Al Shifa, Israel says.
As Israel’s invasion of Gaza looms, the Israel Defense Forces has outlined the need to destroy Hamas’ 300-mile-long tunnel network, which allegedly runs beneath several medical facilities including Al Shifa and connects to the terrorists’ key command center there.
IDF spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari named Al Shifa as the base of several underground hubs collectively used by Hamas’ leadership.
On Sunday, Hagari released a layout of the medical facility, outlining at least five “Hamas Underground Complex” entrances allegedly being housed at Al Shifa Hospital.
The IDF has claimed that “hundreds of terrorists flooded into the hospital to hide there after the massacres of Oct 7” in Israel.
The Israeli military also accused Hamas of using the energy reserves in the hospital to power its terrorist infrastructure while other medical facilities are running out of fuel.
“Gaza is the biggest terrorist base ever built by man,” Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told reporters Tuesday.
“This whole city is one big terror base. Under the ground, kilometers of tunnels connect to hospitals, to schools, they are interconnected. It contains communication rooms, ammunition depots, places to sleep, and everything to serve as a base of terrorism from which the citizens of the state of Israel and IDF soldiers can be harmed.”
Hamas has repeatedly rejected the claims, arguing that the IDF is looking for a justification to target its hospitals and other civilian enclaves.
Avi Issacharoff, a former member of an ultra-elite IDF unit and who created the award-winning Yes network hit “Fauda,” has said the underground headquarters is an open secret.
“I swear, every kid in Gaza knows there’s a Hamas headquarters under Shifa, but no one talks about it,” Issacharoff said, according to the Times of Israel.
Israel has been recently launching airstrikes around Al Shifa, with the latest bombardment taking out the hospital’s solar panels Monday, threatening its power system, Al Jazeera reported.
Last week, Israel also claimed responsibility for a strike that nailed an ambulance outside Al Shifa. Palestinian officials said the blast killed at least 15 people.
Along with Al Shifa, the IDF accused several other medical centers of housing Hamas, including Indonesian Hospital in Beit Lahia.
The Indonesian-funded medical center, located in northern Gaza near the border with Israel, was accused of harboring Hamas agents after the IDF released evidence Sunday of the terror tunnels that allegedly existed in at least two local hospitals.
“Hamas systematically built the Indonesian Hospital to disguise its underground terror infrastructure,” Hagari told reporters.
A layout of the land pointed to a tunnel entrance at the corner of one of the hospital’s buildings, along with a rocket launcher nearby.
Indonesia’s Foreign Ministry slammed the IDF over the accusation, reiterating that the hospital was built for the Palestinians living in the enclave and not for Hamas’ terror tactics.
“The Indonesian Hospital in Gaza is a facility built by the Indonesian people entirely for humanitarian purposes and to serve the medical needs of the Palestinian people in Gaza,” the ministry said in a statement Tuesday.
Officials added that the medical facility is struggling to tend to those wounded in the war, noting that Indonesian “is currently treating patients in the amount that far exceeds its capacity.”
Sarbini Abdul Murad, chairman of the MER-C volunteer group that funded the hospital, said the IDF’s claim was merely a “precondition so that they can attack the Indonesian hospital in Gaza.”
Murad also warned that the hospital had already run out of fuel and was practically “collapsed” Tuesday.
Along with the accusations leveled at Indonesian Hospital, Hagari claimed tunnel entrances were found at the Sheikh Hamad Hospital in Gaza, with video also showing Hamas opening fire at Israeli forces from the medical center.
Israel has repeatedly alleged that Hamas has been operating inside hospitals, traveling through its intricate underground tunnel system in order to avoid detection by the IDF.
It remains unclear how the IDF plans to attack the tunnels that it says exist at the hospitals without endangering the lives of civilians.
Hospital officials operating in Gaza have long since said they refuse to evacuate the facilities given the sheer number of people in critical care and infants in incubators, as well as the tens of thousands of civilians taking refuge in the buildings.
The IDF has delivered repeated warnings to the hospitals, with airstrikes continuing to hit some of the medical facilities.
“Human shields are a key pillar of Hamas’ terror operations,” Hagari said. “Hamas systematically exploits hospitals as a key part of its war machine.”
On Sunday, at least eight people were killed at the Nasser Medical Complex in Gaza City when the area was bombarded by Israeli missiles, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
Suleiman Qaoud, a doctor at the large medical complex, told Al Jazeera that “solar panels and water tanks” were damaged during the airstrike, leaving his hospital without “a single drop of running water.”
To avoid damage to civilian infrastructure, experts have said the IDF will deploy a new weapon called “sponge bombs” to turn the tunnels into a huge disadvantage for Hamas.
The new bombs consist of chemical compounds that swiftly expand and harden when set off, allowing Israeli soldiers to seal off passages in the tunnel.
The device would leave Hamas fighters with no escape and allow Israeli commandos to secure safe routes while searching for hostages, according to reports.
With Post wires
