Nearly 48 hours after entering Gaza’s largest medical complex, the Israeli military on Thursday evening escorted New York Times journalists through a landscape of wartime destruction to a stone and concrete shaft at the site with a staircase leading into the earth – evidence of that said of a Hamas military facility beneath the hospital.
But Colonel Elad Tsury, commander of Israel’s Seventh Brigade, said Israeli forces did not venture into the shaft of Al-Shifa Hospital for fear of booby traps. He said it was discovered earlier in the day beneath a pile of sand on the northern edge of the complex.
In the darkness, it was unclear where the shaft led or how deep it went, although the military said it had sent a drone at least several meters down. Inside, electrical wiring and a metal staircase could be seen.
The controlled visit will not resolve the question of whether Hamas, the Palestinian armed group that rules Gaza, used Al-Shifa hospital to hide weapons and command centers, as Israel has said.
The claim is central to Israel’s defense of the death toll caused by its military operation in Gaza, which has killed more than 11,000 people, according to Gaza health authorities. Israeli officials say the extreme loss of life is partly due to Hamas’ decision to hide its military fortifications and command centers in civilian infrastructure such as Al-Shifa.
A stone and concrete shaft on the grounds of Al-Shifa Hospital, on Thursday. Credit…Daniel Berehulak/The New York Times
Hamas denies the accusation and says Israel is committing war crimes by attacking civilian facilities such as hospitals.
The Israeli military said Hamas used a huge labyrinth of tunnels beneath the hospital as a secret base. However, since announcing early Wednesday that its troops had entered the site, the military has yet to provide public documentation of such an extensive network. As the international community increasingly calls for the protection of civilians in Gaza, Israel is under pressure to prove that the hospital – and the network of tunnels that supposedly hid it – were military targets important enough to offset the immense cost to Palestinian lives justify.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday that Israeli forces had found evidence to support their allegations against Al-Shifa. There were “many terrorists there,” he said in an interview with National Public Radio, but “they fled as our forces approached the hospital.”
“We found a lot of weapons – a lot,” he added. “We found a lot of ammunition. We found bombs. At level minus two we found a Hamas command and control center with military-grade encryption.”
Colonel Tsury acknowledged early Friday the pressure on Israel to produce evidence of Hamas activity at the hospital, but said it could take days for troops to descend the shaft. He added that soldiers systematically searched the complex and discovered weapons, explosives and computers, as well as the body of an Israeli hostage, in a nearby building. The military announced later in the day that soldiers had found the body of a second hostage in a building near Al-Shifa.
Another military official said Israeli troops captured and interrogated a Hamas operative at the hospital, but gave no further details.
Internal Medicine
and dialysis
Internal Medicine
and dialysis
To enter the Gaza Strip, two Times reporters and a photographer had to remain with Israeli troops for the duration of the visit. They agreed not to photograph most soldiers’ faces, landmarks, maps and certain weapon details. The Times did not allow the Israeli military to review its reporting before publication.
The Times journalists were only allowed to see part of the sprawling Al-Shifa complex. The military barred journalists from exploring the hospital or viewing or interviewing patients and medical staff who remained at the facility, saying the facility was not fully secured and that Hamas fighters could still be there.
Before the Israeli raid on Al-Shifa, the World Health Organization declared that it was no longer a functioning hospital. Officials described the desperate conditions: Food, medicine and anesthetics had nearly run out, and generators and life-saving equipment had been shut down due to a lack of fuel. About three dozen premature babies are particularly at risk, they said.
Col. Tsury said the military provided food, supplies and medical equipment to patients and doctors, a claim that could not immediately be verified.
The extent of the damage to the hospital was not entirely clear. But the main emergency room building appeared to be intact and had power after a days-long siege that health officials said had led to increasingly dire conditions.
Throughout the Times’ visit, shots rang out nearby, giving the impression of ongoing gun battles in the surrounding streets. To enter the hospital grounds, special forces escorted the journalists through the bombed-out remains of a building on the edge of the site. They said it was too dangerous to go through the main gate.
Away from the hospital, the extent of the destruction had left parts of Gaza unrecognizable. Parts of the city’s seafront promenade had been leveled, blocks of flats had been hollowed out by shelling and others were flattened by airstrikes. The constant tank traffic had also turned the main coastal road into a bumpy dirt road.
— Philip P. Pan and Patrick Kingsley