“Friends from all over the world: is this convincing enough for you?” This message, published on social networks on November 22nd, serves as an introduction to a nine minute video in which the IDF spokesman visits a tunnel about 150 meters long, buried almost ten meters deep and partially under a building of the Al-Shifa Hospital. According to the IDF, this gallery proves that the hospital, as announced for weeks, was in fact, depending on the wording, a Hamas “command center” or “operations center.”
In addition to these images, on November 19, the IDF released a video showing Hamas men taking two hostages, one of whom was injured (one was identified by CheckNews), to the hospital on the morning of October 7. The IDF did not say whether the two hostages remained at the facility or not. According to Israel, this other document proves that the hospital management was aware of Hamas’s terrorist activities in the hospital. The hospital director has since been arrested.
The broadcast of these various sequences is crucial for Israel as it seeks to support the fact that Al-Shifa Hospital was indeed a legitimate military target. This, in the Jewish state’s view, would justify the intensive bombing around the establishment, its headquarters and the targeted military operations within its walls. According to the management, dozens of patients died in Gaza’s largest hospital over several days, sparking strong reactions from the international community.
Based on images of the tunnels broadcast by the IDF and media authorized to visit them, CheckNews has reconstructed the tunnel discovered (and now destroyed) by the army, as announced on the morning of November 24th. The website revealed by the IDF appears to be far from that 3D modeling shared at the end of October Israeli authorities revealed a vast network of tunnels under the hospital at various levels, leading to numerous rooms. According to our estimates, the underground facility discovered by the armed forces is around 150 meters long, equipped with electrical installations and includes a converted part.
A first access was revealed on November 16th: It is a well about ten meters deep, which, according to the IDF, leads to a 55-meter-long tunnel and ends with an armored door. According to an IDF press release, it is an “explosion-proof door with a hole.” [permettant de tirer avec un fusil]. This type of gate is used by Hamas to prevent Israeli forces from entering Hamas command centers and underground facilities.”
This ruined door leads to another gallery that is not entirely perpendicular to the first segment discovered. This goes under the hospital, more precisely the internal medicine building. At the end of this section, the army discovered “furnished” rooms: there is a room with white tiled walls – equipped with bunks and air conditioning – another smaller room, two bathrooms and a kitchenette. According to the IDF, “the “living room” and the air-conditioned room” were intended for “longer stays.” The tunnel then makes a right angle turn and ends in a dead end seemingly blocked by an “earthen wall”.
Several media outlets, as well as certain IDF communicators, have reported a second entrance discovered leading to the location in the tunnel where the rooms are located. In reality, this access was blocked by the IDF and therefore did not already exist.
A second well was discovered, but this time outside the hospital premises, in the home of an individual, which was also identified as an educational institution, particularly due to the plaque with English-language inscriptions discovered there. In the images we can clearly see an entrance covered by a removable panel, followed by steps leading to a spiral staircase.
Note that this entrance is very close to a building recently identified by the IDF as a weapons factory. In a July 2022 statement, the Israeli army had actually claimed to have identified a Hamas weapons factory in the Al-Shifa district, about sixty meters from the hospital facility. The building identified at the time (colored red on the IDF map below) is “glued” to the exact house where the tunnel entrance was discovered. The IDF did not comment on any connection between these two claims.
The IDF spokesman assures that this second entrance leads to a gallery connected to the tunnel discovered under the hospital. But no image published by the IDF or any media shows this alleged intersection and therefore does not allow for verification. CheckNews noted that this intersection does not appear on an IDF sketch of the gallery visible in this photo.
The lack of visual evidence for this section can be explained by Hamas’s desire to block access, according to an IDF spokesman. “They tried to block the entrances so we couldn’t get in.” The part of the gallery that was supposed to be connected to the entrance to the private house appears to be blocked by a pile of earth or rubble, making it impossible to tell what is hidden behind it.
Citing a plan drawn up by the Wall Street Journal based on data published by the IDF in 2014 that lays out the route of known tunnels in the Gaza Strip at that time, CheckNews found that a segment starting with the hospital actually extends toward of the famous “Lehrstätte” building (the imprecise route runs a few meters further north). According to this mapping, the subsurface would extend even further. However, it cannot be said that this route is consistent with more recent discoveries.
Overall, the underground infrastructure depicted in the transmitted images can be reduced to a tunnel with a length of approximately 150 meters (including all segments), including an external access that is located within the hospital premises and has no other visible connection to the building. A second access would have been updated, but no evidence is provided of its connection to the filmed portion. According to British military analyst Sean Bell, the images of the tunnels appear to be “completely consistent with what is known about Hamas tunnels and the ‘Gaza Metro,’ Hamas’ underground network.” One of the Israeli army’s spokesmen, Daniel Hagari, explains in a video that “the arches (of the tunnel) are a unique technique invented by Hamas” and “signify” the fact that it is a “built over” tunnel of the last fifteen years.
Has Hamas been using this tunnel since October 7th and if so, why?
The IDF suspects, without providing any substantive evidence, that the tunnel has been used in recent weeks. When the Israeli army reported the discovery of weapons and signs of the presence of hostages in the hospital, no such finds were reported in the gallery. The pictures show the two empty rooms. Daniel Hagari confirms that they “were evacuated when they realized we were coming here, to Al-Shifa Hospital.” Without further details. In the report prepared by TF1, Colonel Elad Tsury gives the same explanation: “They took everything with them when they left.” However, without specifying the date of this departure.
Regarding the purpose of these galleries, the IDF explains in one of the videos: “This is not an ordinary tunnel, but a highly secure complex.” The army insists on the existence of cables that allow communication with the outside world, in addition to the presence of electrical lines.
When asked about the nature of the discovery by CheckNews, British military analyst Sean Bell was cautious: “What was discovered clearly proves that tunnels were built to/from hospitals, but it is not certain that there were storage rooms, headquarters and planning rooms among them “Hospital.” “From Hamas’ perspective, it is also not unreasonable to have access to hospitals for Hamas fighters who have been injured and would require treatment in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Authority.”
When contacted by CheckNews, the IDF told us: “These results clearly demonstrate Hamas’s deliberate practice of operating under hospitals. The terrorist organization also operates the hospital buildings, which it uses to store weapons and as terrorist headquarters.”
Friday morning, IDF announced the destruction of the gallery. “In the last hour, IDF troops under the command of Division 36 and with the participation of special forces from the Yalam Unit have destroyed a stretch of underground tunnels and a number of tunnel shafts in the ‘Shifa Hospital’ area, indicating that the Research from the discovered gallery would not continue.