A day after its troops stormed Gaza's biggest hospital, Al-Shifa, the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) said they have gathered 'concrete evidence' of Hamas's use of the hospital as a military facility.
Besides weapons and combat gear, the IDF also recovered automatic weapons, grenades, ammunition and flak jackets, said chief Israeli military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari. The IDF also released a video of the materials being recovered from an undisclosed building within the large hospital complex, some of which Israel claimed were hidden behind M.R.I. machines.
The IDF would publicise portions of what had been found inside, reported The Times of Israel quoting an unnamed source.
Hamas, which is battling Israeli forces within Gaza, dismissed the announcement as "lies and cheap propaganda". The militant group also dismissed the Israeli account as "a fabricated story that no one would believe." It also accused Israel of fabricating evidence, saying it was "trying to justify its genocidal crimes destroying the health sector in Gaza".
Meanwhile, reports have emerged stating the Israeli soldiers were conducting what they claimed were "a violent police raid" in the hospital. The IDF men were reportedly interrogating some people inside the hospital and medical workers and patients were locked down in wards, unable to move between departments, hospital director Mohammad Abu Salmiya told Al-Jazeera.
He added that by Wednesday evening, the Israeli ground forces had reached the hospital’s X-ray facilities, a warehouse and its main pharmacy, as well as its internal medicine, dialysis and specialised surgery departments.
A bullet proof vest with a Hamas insignia that the IDF says was found in a medical closet at the MRI center at al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City | AP
The Al Jazeera report added that an entire building at al-Shifa Hospital has been completely damaged from the inside and the soldiers have blown up a warehouse for medicine and medical equipment inside the hospital. The soldiers also tore up all partitions, and walls between the rooms and destroyed all medical equipment.
There are also unconfirmed reports of 200 people being blindfolded interrogated and taken to unknown areas.
However, Israel dismissed the claims, stating that there had been no "friction" between troops and patients and medical staff. Incubators for newborns, baby food, and medical supplies were brought by IDF tanks from Israel and delivered to Shifa, the military said.
The army stressed that the military was "not overrunning" the hospital, asserting troops were conducting a "focused" operation "in a defined area" of the hospital.
