Some hostages kidnapped by Hamas on October 7 were taken to the al-Shifa hospital, under whose complex not only a ten-meter-deep tunnel was discovered, but also a militia control room on level -2 of one of the buildings. The Israeli army announced this and released a video in which two of the abducted people can be seen inside the health facility. Soldier Noa Marciano also found her death there.
Military spokesman Daniel Hagari clarified the results of days of extensive searches and investigations inside and outside the hospital campus, with the entire area remaining the focus of Israeli forces with the aim of finding new evidence.
The hostages seen in the video were identified: they were “a Nepalese and a Thai” who were forcibly dragged to the hospital on October 7 “between 10:42 and 11:01 a.m.” and filmed by surveillance cameras. While the tunnel under the hospital complex, built by the militiamen and discovered by the Israeli soldiers, is 55 meters long. Accessed via a deep staircase, it is equipped with various defense systems, including a blast door and an open-air shooting hole.
The find was under a shed next to a vehicle that contained numerous weapons, including grenade launchers, explosives and Kalashnikov rifles. The tunnel is still largely unexplored and Israeli soldiers continue to search its way.
The WHO has defined the hospital as a “death zone” and announced its intention to evacuate all patients and health workers from the hospital. There are 291 patients and 25 medical staff, while the 31 premature children have already left the hospital – according to the general director of the hospital, Mohammad Zaqout – accompanied by “three doctors and two nurses”.
On the ground, Israeli forces are increasingly consolidating control over the northern part of the Gaza Strip, and Army Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi has approved plans to continue the ground operation. Palestinian and Hamas sources have revealed that new Israeli raids have claimed dozens of victims. According to the Wafa agency, 15 Palestinians were killed in an attack on the Nuseirat refugee camps in the north of the Gaza Strip and Khan Yunis in the south. Hamas’ health ministry later reported that 41 members of a single family were killed in a raid on their home in Gaza City. However, the army complained that 35 military tunnel entrances were discovered during searches of the homes of Hamas officials in the Sheikh Ajlin and Rimal districts of Gaza City. Although Rimal is considered essentially a residential area, various Hamas infrastructure has been found there, including rocket-launching positions, he continued.
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has once again attacked the Palestinian Authority (PNA), claiming that “the Palestinian Foreign Ministry has released a shocking statement denying that Hamas is responsible for the horrific massacre at the Kibbutz Reim rave.” attributing it to Israel.” A controversy that arises from a Haaretz article that cites police sources – which he denies – that “an Israeli helicopter firing at terrorists accidentally hit some festival participants.”
Finally, tensions in the West Bank and on the border with Lebanon remain very high. According to the Hamas Ministry of Health, 13,000 people have died in Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip, including more than 5,500 minors and 3,500 women.
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