Israel said its soldiers discovered what the army described as “military equipment used by Hamas” during a raid on Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.
Israeli forces entered Al-Shifa in the early hours of Wednesday after weeks of signaling their intention to move into the complex, which is said to be home to an underground Hamas command and control center.
Israel Defense Forces spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said the military operation at the hospital was “still ongoing and will take some time.”
“It is a complicated area where many people still live. We have to move at the right pace,” he said.
Doctors and health officials in the Hamas-controlled enclave have consistently denied allegations that the hospital was home to a command center.
In a statement, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said soldiers found a room in the hospital where they found “technological assets as well as military and combat equipment used by Hamas.”
“In another section of the hospital, soldiers located a Hamas operational command center and technical facilities,” the statement continued, suggesting “that the terrorist organization is using the hospital for terrorist purposes.”
The statement said the IDF continued to operate in the hospital complex.
CNN is attempting to contact the hospital to speak to doctors there, but phone calls are not going through.
Earlier in the day, a senior Israeli defense official said troops had found “concrete evidence that Hamas terrorists were using Shifa Hospital as a terror headquarters,” promising to present the evidence later.
Israel is under significant international pressure to prove its claims about Hamas’s infiltration of the hospital in order to justify some of its military decisions – which could otherwise constitute a possible serious violation of international humanitarian law.
There is certainly no evidence yet that troops have uncovered a multi-level tunnel structure with underground chambers – as depicted in an animation presented by the Army spokesman at a briefing nearly three weeks ago.
Hamas responded to earlier statements by the Israeli army – that troops had found weapons in the hospital – as blatant lies and propaganda.