Israel says weapons on video ‘totally confirm’ Gaza hospital was Hamas fortress: Updates
Israeli forces said they uncovered weapons and other evidence that “totally confirm” Hamas was using Gaza’s largest hospital for covert military purposes after an early Wednesday raid that brought an extra level of chaos to a medical facility lacking electricity and other basic needs for days.
The Israel Defense Forces posted a seven-minute, one-take video from inside the Al-Shifa Hospital’s MRI wing showing rifles, grenades, ammunition, and fighting vests with the Hamas logo, which the IDF says it found during its incursion.
Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, an IDF spokesman who demonstrates the weapons and other military equipment in the video, said the items “totally confirm, without any doubt, that Hamas systematically uses hospitals in their military operations in violation of international law.”
The findings could not be independently verified. The video did not show any tunnels or the command center the Israeli military says Hamas maintains at the hospital.
In a statement blaming Israel and President Joe Biden for a raid based on a “false claim,” Hamas said the White House and Pentagon had given the Israelis a free pass “to commit more massacres against civilians.”
The U.N. estimates at least 2,300 staff, patients and displaced Gaza civilians have taken refuge at the sprawling Al-Shifa complex as Israeli forces have been rolling through Gaza since Hamas militants’ violent border rampage on Oct. 7.
After storming through the hospital earlier in the day, the Israeli military maintained an imposing presence at nighttime with tanks stationed outside and snipers on nearby buildings, Munir al-Boursh, a senior official with Gaza’s Health Ministry inside the hospital, told The Associated Press.
“Patients, women and children are terrified,” he told the AP by phone.
Israeli officials said in a statement the military brought medical teams, incubators, baby food, and medical supplies into the hospital incursion to ensure that “no harm is caused to the civilians being used by Hamas as human shields.” Lt. Col. Richard Hecht also told CNN that no exchange of gunfire had taken place on hospital grounds.
Israel has claimed for weeks that Hamas was hiding militants and assets in Al-Shifa and other Gaza hospitals. The White House said this week it had intelligence confirming the claim, which Hamas leaders have repeatedly denied.
Source » msn.com
