What Has Israel Found Inside Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital?
Israel has been searching the hospital, which it alleges conceals a Hamas stronghold, for days. Here, what it says it has and hasn’t found.
Early Wednesday, Israeli ground forces in Gaza began storming the grounds of Al-Shifa hospital, which Israel has repeatedly alleged was being used as a secret stronghold by Hamas — which both hospital officials and Hamas have denied. Al-Shifa is the largest medical center in Gaza, and it has been struggling to function amid a shortage of fuel, oxygen, food, and water after Israel cut off the Gaza Strip in response to Hamas’s October 7 attack. Thousands of Palestinian civilians have sought refuge at the hospital, as well.
Israel has not finished searching Al-Shifa, but says it has already found evidence that Hamas was using the hospital — though it has not produced concrete proof to corroborate its claims that the facility was a critical hub for Hamas. Below is a look at the evidence Israel has put forward thus far, and why the hospital and its fate have become a focal point in the war and ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
What is the situation at Al-Shifa now?
Israeli forces began storming the hospital at about 2 a.m. on Wednesday. The Israel Defense Force said it “encountered explosives and terrorist squads” when troops fought to reach the hospital grounds. Israeli troops remained at Al-Shifa on Friday, and the IDF says it is continuing to search and clear the 45,000-square-foot complex and has questioned staff and patients.
Nearly all outside communication with staff and patients inside Al-Shifa has been cut off since Israeli forces arrived, but the United Nations reported that when the raid began, there were about 700 patients and 400 medical workers at the 800-bed hospital, in addition to roughly 3,000 displaced Gazans seeking shelter there. On Friday, Al-Shifa director Muhammad Abu Salmiya told Al Jazeera that 7,000 people remained trapped at the hospital complex and that conditions inside were dire. Per the Washington Post:
Doctors are amputating limbs “as a last resort to save lives,” with limited means to relieve pain, Salmiya said. Without electricity and oxygen, the hospital is unable to operate incubators. Mohkalalati said some three dozen premature babies there were “all suffering from intestinal inflammation and severe diarrhea.” Most patients in the intensive care unit who depended on oxygen have died, he said.
“While 20 stable patients remain, the atmosphere is tense, with the sounds of gunfire echoing continuously,” he added. “Residents are confined to buildings, avoiding doors and windows due to the ongoing threats.” Jihad Abu Shanab, an Al Jazeera contributor based near al-Shifa, said the sound of gunfire and shells “never ceases” in the area, particularly to the southeast of the medical complex.
What does Israel say it has found at Al-Shifa?
Israel continues to report that it has found indications of “Hamas activity” at the hospital but has not yet produced evidence that Al-Shifa was an important Hamas stronghold, as it has repeatedly alleged.
Regarding any further — or more conclusive — evidence, the IDF has said it is continuing to search the complex and that it would take days or weeks to uncover additional evidence and present it to the world. One IDF spokesperson also said that in preparation for the arrival of Israeli forces at Al-Shifa, Hamas “tried to hide evidence of their war crimes,” citing “sand to cover some of the floors” and “double walls.”
There has been no independent verification of the images, footage, or allegations Israel has put forward thus far.
Small weapons caches
On Wednesday, the IDF released images and video of small caches of weapons and other equipment it said it had found in a radiology unit at Al-Shifa, as well as laptops it alleged were part of a Hamas command center inside. It also offered brief escorted tours of the radiology unit to a pair of international news crews.
The IDF posted a few videos of their tour through the hospital. No tunnels, command centers, etc. to be found in any of these clips or pictures. Instead, focus is on "grab bags" of some guns and body armor scattered around, and a laptop next to CD-Rs.https://t.co/nSYuOmP1Nk
— Aric Toler (@AricToler) November 15, 2023
The IDF also released a video on Thursday showing a white pickup truck it said it had found in the complex which contained automatic guns, rocket-propelled grenades, and other weapons.
Another video released by the IDF from the Shifa hospital in central #Gaza shows a vehicle the army said it found inside the hospital, filled with weapons.
— Michael A. Horowitz (@michaelh992) November 16, 2023
The soldier seems to suggest those weapons were used during the October 7 attacks. pic.twitter.com/d8GWFzsAUA
What about hostages?
On Thursday night, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an interview, “We had strong indications that [hostages] were held in the Shifa Hospital, which is one of the reasons we entered the hospital,” but “if they were [there], they were taken out” before Israeli forces arrived.
The IDF says it has found the bodies of two hostages near Al-Shifa.
On Thursday, Israel said it had discovered the body of 65-year-old Yehudit Weiss, a kindergarten teacher and cancer patient who was kidnapped by militants from the Be’eri kibbutz on October 7. Her husband was killed in the attack. The IDF said it recovered her body from a structure adjacent to the hospital. Where exactly she was found, and how and when she died, are not yet clear. IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari said Thursday that militants’ weapons were found near her remains and that she “was killed by terrorists in the Gaza Strip, and we didn’t manage to reach her in time.”
On Friday, the IDF announced that it had discovered the body of another hostage, 19-year-old Israeli soldier Noa Marciano, in a building adjacent to Al-Shifa. The timing and circumstances of her death are not clear either. Hamas had previously announced that Marciano was killed in an Israeli airstrike on November 9.
Evidence of tunnels
Also on Thursday, the IDF released footage of what it said was an “operational tunnel shaft” it had found after excavating beneath what appeared to have been a demolished small structure on the northern perimeter of the hospital grounds. Where the passage led and what it was used for are not yet clear.
Seems to be around 31°31'29"N 34°26'39"E where there’s meant to be a building.
— ELINT News (@ELINTNews) November 16, 2023
So was this inside the structure and what was the purpose for the building above ground… https://t.co/AVidVo2DrT pic.twitter.com/rA3C4ilIUk
What are Israel’s previous allegations about the hospital?
Israel has long maintained that Hamas uses Gaza hospitals to shield its terrorist operations and has specifically alleged that the militant group built its “main headquarters” under Al-Shifa. On October 27, the IDF put out a package of information to back up its case, including infographics and a video 3-D diagram detailing Hamas infrastructure in, under, and around the hospital complex:
Underneath [Al-Shifa] lies a labyrinth of tunnels and underground compounds used by Hamas’ leaders to direct terrorist activities and rocket fire and to manufacture and store a variety of weapons and ammunition. Additionally, the hospital’s generators are used to launch rockets. The entrance to Hamas’ underground headquarters consists of a number of tunnel shafts adjacent to the hospital. Additional entrances are located in various departments of the hospital, including the admissions department, putting all patients at risk.
Per the maps and diagrams, the IDF alleged that there were four subterranean complexes constructed under hospital buildings, as well as a command center inside a clinic.
The U.S. has largely backed up Israel’s allegations
On Tuesday, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby announced that the U.S. believed Hamas and another militant group, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, have been using Al-Shifa “as a way to conceal and support their military operations and hold hostages.” A Pentagon spokesperson said that:
They have tunnels underneath these hospitals. And so Hamas and PIJ members operate a command-and-control node from Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. They have weapons stored there and are prepared to respond to an Israeli military operation against the facility.
The assessment was based on independently gathered signals intelligence and other information, but The Wall Street Journal reported that “The U.S. hasn’t been able to determine details of Hamas’s alleged operations at Al-Shifa, including their size and scope or whether the group’s fighters are operating inside the hospital, underground or both, a U.S. official said.”
On Wednesday, President Biden defended Israel’s Al-Shifa raid, arguing that “one thing that’s been established is that Hamas does have headquarters, weapons, materials below this hospital and I suspect others,” adding that the U.S. has spoken with Israel about “the need for them to be incredibly careful.”
On Thursday, the White House and Pentagon declined to further elaborate:
WASHINGTON,Nov 16 (Reuters) -The United States will not share any Israeli intelligence or elaborate on its own intelligence assessment that Hamas used Gaza's Al Shifa hospital as a command center and possibly as a storage facility, White House spokesman Kirby said on Thursday.
— Idrees Ali (@idreesali114) November 16, 2023
At today's briefing, DoD deputy spox unable to specify *when* Hamas was purportedly using al-Shifa hospital as a command node.
— Brian Finucane (@BCFinucane) November 16, 2023
As flagged by one of the questioners, the timing matters in terms of the protection (or potential loss thereof) of the hospital under the law of war.