Today the IDF accused Hamas of hiding its main base of operations underneath a hospital in Gaza. The hospsital in question is Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. This is not the same as al-Ahli Hospital, the scene of an explosion last week.

IDF spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari briefed international reporters Friday and said Hamas has placed its main base of terror operations beneath the largest hospital in Gaza.

Hagari said Shifa Hospital, which has over 1,500 beds and 4,000 staff, houses an “underground terror complex” used by the Islamist group to plan attacks on Israel. He referred to Israeli intelligence reports that Hamas uses an expansive network of tunnels connecting hospitals in Gaza from which to plan and launch rocket attacks targeting residential areas in Israel. He said that terrorists do not need to enter the hospital from outside to reach the tunnels, but there is an entrance to the underground complex inside the hospital wards.

“We have concrete evidence that hundreds of terrorists flooded into the hospital to hide there after the massacres of October 7,” Hagari said…

“Hamas uses Shifa hospital as a shield for Hamas terror infrastructure,” Hagari said.

The IDF presented a video illustrating specific areas beneath the hospital compound where they said Hamas was based.

Hamas headquarters is located inside and under Al Shifa hospital in Gaza.

You can’t get more cynical than that.pic.twitter.com/DaFBtqqhoz

— Adam Milstein (@AdamMilstein) October 27, 2023

That video is without audio but during the presentation today the IDF spokesman did narrate the video saying they had evidence the hospital had direct connections to the tunnels beneath Gaza City. They also provided an illustration of what was beneath the hospital but stressed that they would not reveal “the true material” on which the illustration was based (see below).

During the presentation they also played two call intercepts. In the first, two individuals discuss the alleged lack of fuel in Gaza. The two people speaking aren’t identified but an unnamed “energy officials” says there is lots of fuel in the underground tunnels for Hamas and that they will be fine no matter what happens to civilians.

In the second intercept a man only identified as speaker A tells a woman that the main Hamas infrastructure is beneath Shifa hospital (see below). Another IDF spokesman was asked if the IDF knew the identities of the people speaking in that intercept. He said that they did but would not reveal it.

Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner, spokesperson for the IDF, claims Hamas soldiers are hiding inside the Al Shifa hospital in the Gaza Strip, saying this shows "how merciless" the the group is.

Live updates: https://t.co/eSFyH9pR62

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— Sky News (@SkyNews) October 27, 2023

The IDF promised it had more information which it would share with the public and with foreign intelligence agencies. Hamas has already denied these allegations:

Hamas official Ezzat El-Reshiq, a member of the movement’s political bureau, said on Telegram: “There is no basis in truth to what was reported by the enemy army spokesman,” accusing Israel of spreading lies as “a prelude to committing a new massacre against our people”.

Israel can’t bomb the hospital because there are thousands of people sheltering there.

More than 50,000 displaced Palestinians have taken refuge at the al-Shifa Hospital, squeezing in corridors, waiting rooms and outside in the courtyard.

The hospital, which is barely functioning on solar-powered generators, is in a state of collapse like the rest of the healthcare system in the Gaza Strip.

But for many families, they preferred to stay in the hospital, believing it to be a safer option than heading down south to Khan Younis. Still, the living conditions are far from ideal, due to lack of clean water and adequate shelter.

If Israel wants to destroy the base below the hospital, they will have to enter on the ground to do it. Here’s the full presentation by the IDF including the call intercepts.

Update: Another video about the Hamas tunnels.

𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗛𝗮𝗺𝗮𝘀 𝘂𝘀𝗲𝘀 𝗶𝘁𝘀 𝗹𝗮𝗯𝘆𝗿𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗵 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝘂𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗹𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝗚𝗮𝘇𝗮 (Warning: Disturbing images)

If as anticipated, the Israel Defence Forces push into Gaza as part of a ground offensive in retaliation for the deadly attack on Israel by Hamas, they will be… pic.twitter.com/SlN4V7Ame0

— Bangladesh News 24 (@bdnews24) October 27, 2023

Also, Ed reminds me that he wrote about the Hamas base beneath Shifra hospital here:

Hamas has its command headquarters in Al-Shifa, an open secret for more than a decade. The Washington Post wrote about it in 2014 during the last major Israel-Hamas conflict. Guy Benson also wrote about it here nine years ago, linking a Tablet blast against the media for ignoring it — even though reporters routinely met with Hamas propagandists at Al-Shifa:

The idea that one of Hamas’ main command bunkers is located beneath Shifa Hospital in Gaza City is one of the worst-kept secrets of the Gaza war. So why aren’t reporters in Gaza ferreting it out? The precise location of a large underground bunker equipped with sophisticated communications equipment and housing some part of the leadership of a major terrorist organization beneath a major hospital would seem to qualify as a world-class scoop—the kind that might merit a Pulitzer, or at least a Polk.

So why isn’t the fact that Hamas uses Shifa Hospital as a command post making headlines? In part, it’s because the location is so un-secret that Hamas regularly meets with reporters there. On July 15, for example, William Booth of the Washington Post wrote that the hospital “has become a de facto headquarters for Hamas leaders, who can be seen in the hallways and offices.” Back in 2006, PBS even aired a documentary showing how gunmen roam the halls of the hospital, intimidate the staff, and deny them access to protected locations within the building—where the camera crew was obviously prohibited from filming. Yet the confirmation that Hamas is using Gaza City’s biggest hospital as its de facto headquarters was made in the last sentence of the eighth paragraph of Booth’s story—which would appear to be the kind of rookie mistake that is known in journalistic parlance as “burying the lede.”

So the information being presented today really shouldn’t come as a shock to reporters who’ve been covering this conflict for a while. This is from the 2014 Post article linked above:

At the Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, crowds gathered to throw shoes and eggs at the Palestinian Authority’s health minister, who represents the crumbling “unity government” in the West Bank city of Ramallah. The minister was turned away before he reached the hospital, which has become a de facto headquarters for Hamas leaders, who can be seen in the hallways and offices.

Will the media pretend to be shocked or will they admit Israel is right about Hamas using civilians as human shields?