6:39 a.m. ET, November 20, 2023
Israel releases CCTV video purportedly showing hostages at Al-Shifa Hospital on October 7
By CNN’s Andy Carey and Mitchell McCluskey A still image from a CCTV video released by the Israeli Defense Forces that purports to show Hamas militants bringing hostages into Al-Shifa Hospital on October 7. Israel Defense Forces The Israel Defense Forces released CCTV videos and still images of Hamas militants taking hostages to Al-Shifa Hospital on October 7.
IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari presented two short videos and several still images that he said showed Hamas fighters moving the hostages – a Nepalese and a Thai – through the hospital, the largest in the Gaza Strip.
One of the CCTV videos shows a hostage being taken to the hospital through the main entrance, Hagari said. The hostage is forcibly led through the building.
Hagari said at a news conference on Sunday that the second CCTV video showed a second hostage – who has a bandaged hand and is clearly bleeding – being pushed on a stretcher down a hallway and into a room.
Hagari did not explain how the IDF obtained the videos, but said Israeli intelligence officers were involved in the operation at the hospital to try to locate the hostages.
CNN cannot independently verify the content of the videos and still images.
Contrasting narratives: The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry responded to the IDF briefing by questioning the authenticity of the videos and still images – but it went on to say that, if true, the images showed that hospitals were providing medical care to anyone who needed it provided care.
The IDF spokesman rejected suggestions that the hostages were taken to hospital because they were wounded, claiming that one of the two hostages was not injured and did not require medical treatment. They were initially taken to the hospital before later being moved to hiding places, such as nearby apartments, he said.
“If medical care had been provided at the hospital and the hostages had stayed there, the Red Cross would have come and the people would have been released. None of that happened,” he said.
In a statement released Saturday before the release of the CCTV videos, Hamas said it had taken several hostages to hospitals for medical treatment after they were injured in Israeli airstrikes.
Hagari said the latest videos had been shared with diplomats from the hostages’ countries of origin, adding that the IDF had not yet located the Nepalese and Thai hostages in Gaza.
The Nepalese Embassy in Israel and the Nepalese Foreign Ministry had confirmed to CNN before the video was released that a Nepalese citizen remained missing after the October 7 attack and was believed to have been taken hostage by Hamas.
Ten Nepalese citizens were killed and several others injured when Hamas militants attacked southern Israel on October 7, Nepal’s ambassador to Israel told CNN after the attack.
More context: Following last Wednesday’s raid on Al-Shifa Hospital, the IDF is under enormous pressure to prove its long-standing claim that Hamas is using Gaza’s largest medical center for combat and command purposes.
The military also released a video on Sunday from an exposed tunnel shaft at the Al-Shifa compound, showing an underground tunnel extending downward from the shaft opening.