One of the Israeli army’s main targets is the underground headquarters of the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas hidden beneath Gaza City’s largest hospital, Al Shifa, Israel says.
As the Israeli invasion of Gaza looms, the Israel Defense Forces have flagged the need to destroy Hamas’ 300-mile-long tunnel network, which reportedly runs beneath several medical facilities, including Al Shifa, and connects to the terrorists’ key command center there.
IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari named Al Shifa as the base of several underground centers used collectively by the Hamas leadership.
On Sunday, Hagari published a layout of the medical center, describing at least five entrances to the “Hamas Underground Complex” that are supposedly located in Al Shifa Hospital.
The IDF has claimed that “hundreds of terrorists flooded the hospital to hide there after the October 7 massacres” in Israel.
The Israeli military also accused Hamas of using the hospital’s energy reserves to power its terrorist infrastructure while other medical facilities are running out of fuel.
The IDF released images of Hamas’s underground headquarters allegedly beneath Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza. TBN Israel
“Gaza is the largest terrorist base ever built by man,” Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told reporters on Tuesday.
“This entire city is one big terrorist base. Underground, kilometers of tunnels connect to hospitals and schools, they are interconnected. It contains communications rooms, ammunition depots, sleeping places and everything necessary to serve as a terrorist base from which citizens of the State of Israel and IDF soldiers can be harmed.”
Hamas has repeatedly rejected the claims, arguing that the IDF is seeking a justification to attack its hospitals and other civilian enclaves.
Al Shifa allegedly hosts five underground bases from which Hamas directs its terrorist attacks. TBN Israel
Avi Issacharoff, a former member of an ultra-elite IDF unit and creator of the award-winning Yes network hit “Fauda,” has said the underground headquarters is an open secret.
“I swear, every child in Gaza knows there is a Hamas headquarters under Shifa, but no one talks about it,” Issacharoff said, according to the Times of Israel.
Israel has recently been launching airstrikes around Al Shifa, and the latest bombardment destroyed the hospital’s solar panels on Monday, threatening its electrical system, Al Jazeera reported.
Last week, Israel also claimed responsibility for an attack that hit an ambulance outside Al Shifa. Palestinian officials said the blast killed at least 15 people.
Along with Al Shifa, the IDF accused several other medical centers of harboring Hamas, including the Indonesian Hospital in Beit Lahia.
The medical center is the largest hospital complex in Gaza City. REUTERS A hospital ambulance was attacked last week. REUTERS
The Indonesian-funded medical center, located in northern Gaza near the border with Israel, was accused of harboring Hamas operatives after the IDF on Sunday published evidence of terrorist tunnels that allegedly existed in at least two hospitals. local.
“Hamas systematically built the Indonesian Hospital to disguise its underground terrorist infrastructure,” Hagari told reporters.
A layout marked a tunnel entrance in the corner of one of the hospital buildings, along with a nearby rocket launcher.
Indonesia’s Foreign Ministry sharply criticized the IDF for the accusation, reiterating that the hospital was built for Palestinians living in the enclave and not for Hamas’ terrorist tactics.
“The Indonesian Hospital in Gaza is a facility built by the Indonesian people entirely for humanitarian purposes and to address the medical needs of the Palestinian people in Gaza,” the ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.
The IDF also established the tunnel and rocket system allegedly found at the Indonesian Hospital. IDF
Officials added that the medical center is struggling to care for those wounded in the war, noting that Indonesia “is currently treating patients in numbers that far exceed its capacity.”
Sarbini Abdul Murad, president of the MER-C volunteer group that funded the hospital, said the IDF claim was simply a “precondition for them to attack the Indonesian hospital in Gaza.”
Murad also warned that the hospital had already run out of fuel and was practically “collapsed” on Tuesday.
Indonesia says it funds an Indonesian hospital to care for the Palestinian people.Rumah Sakit Indonesia
Along with the accusations leveled against the Indonesian Hospital, Hagari claimed that tunnel entrances were found at the Sheikh Hamad Hospital in Gaza, and a video also shows Hamas opening fire on Israeli forces from the medical center.
Israel has repeatedly alleged that Hamas has been operating inside hospitals, traveling through its intricate system of underground tunnels to avoid detection by the IDF.
It is still unclear how the IDF plans to attack the tunnels it says exist in hospitals without endangering civilian lives.
Hospital officials operating in Gaza have long said they refuse to evacuate the facilities given the large number of people in critical care and babies in incubators, as well as the tens of thousands of civilians sheltering in the buildings.
The IDF highlighted the entrance of an underground tunnel at the Sheikh Hamad Hospital in Gaza. IDF
The IDF has issued repeated warnings to hospitals and airstrikes continue to affect some medical facilities.
“Human shields are a key pillar of Hamas’ terrorist operations,” Hagari said. “Hamas systematically exploits hospitals as a key part of its war machine.”
On Sunday, at least eight people were killed at the Nasser Medical Complex in Gaza City when the area was shelled by Israeli missiles, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
Suleiman Qaoud, a doctor at the large medical complex, told Al Jazeera that “solar panels and water tanks” were damaged during the airstrike, leaving his hospital without “a single drop of running water.”
A video released Sunday shows Hamas fighters entering and leaving Sheikh Hamad Hospital, Israel says.
To prevent damage to civilian infrastructure, experts have said the IDF will deploy a new weapon called “sponge bombs” to turn the tunnels into a huge liability for Hamas.
The new bombs consist of chemical compounds that expand and harden rapidly when activated, allowing Israeli soldiers to seal the tunnel passages.
The device would reportedly leave Hamas fighters with no escape and allow Israeli commandos to secure safe routes while searching for hostages.
With postal cables
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Source: vtt.edu.vn