The Israeli army released images on Sunday evening purportedly from the surveillance cameras at Al-Chifa Hospital in Gaza that showed hostages being brought into the facility’s premises on October 7.
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“These results prove that the terrorist organization Hamas used the Al-Chifa hospital complex as terrorist infrastructure on the day of the massacre,” the Israeli army and intelligence service said in a statement.
In one of the videos, a man can be seen being carried on a stretcher, surrounded by several men, at least four of whom are armed.
In another instance, a person appears to be struggling as they are pushed down a hallway.
“Here you see Hamas taking a hostage inside,” army spokesman Daniel Hagari commented during a press conference.
Photo from the Israeli army
“We have not found these two hostages yet,” he added.
“We don’t know where they are.”
These images, whose authenticity AFP could not immediately verify, appear to be dated October 7, 2023, the day on which the Palestinian Islamist movement carried out its attack on Israel, the most violent in the country’s history since 1948, with killings around 1,200 people, most of them civilians according to the Israeli authorities, and around 240 hostages.
In retaliation, Israel vowed to “destroy” the movement and its army relentlessly shelled the small Palestinian territory, where it launched a ground operation on October 27. But the extent of the destruction has met with criticism from parts of the international community.
According to the Hamas government, a total of 13,000 people have been killed in Israeli bombings since October 7, including more than 5,500 children.