How can the world be convinced that the destruction wrought in Gaza by the Israeli army as part of its offensive against Hamas forces – which it declared to be "expanding" on November 18 – is fully justified by the use made of civilian infrastructure by the armed Islamist group, despite videos showing the extent of the human devastation it has been causing? Warfare which just as complex in nature as that being waged by infantry and armored vehicles in the ravaged urban environment of the Gaza Strip.
On Sunday evening, November 19, on the 44th day of the war unleashed by the October 7 Hamas attack, the Israeli army broadcast new evidence intended to demonstrate that the Al-Shifa Hospital, the largest in the Gaza Strip – where its troops have been operating for the past five days – was indeed a Hamas operational center. "This is important for Israel's legitimacy, so that people understand that we need time, but also so that they know that when we target places like this, they are legitimate military objectives," asserted Yaakov Amidror, former National Security Advisor of Israel.
For the time being, however, the Israeli military hierarchy has struggled to substantiate the claim that Al-Shifa is one of the Islamist movement's headquarters. Those Western journalists who were taken to two Gaza hospitals, including Al-Shifa – driven in Israeli army armored vehicles – expressed doubts about how to interpret all the elements of proof presented to them: small weapons, explosives, traces of a supposed hostage detention site and tunnel entrances. On Sunday, the Israeli army released a video of what it said was a tunnel "about 55 meters long" dug under the hospital.
To support this statement, CCTV footage was released on Sunday evening showing two hostages – a Nepalese national and a Thai national who were working on kibbutzim adjacent to Gaza, according to Israeli army spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari – being forcibly led inside the hospital. One of them, covered in blood, was lying on a gurney.
"These findings prove that the terrorist organization Hamas used the Shifa hospital on the day of the massacre itself as a terrorist infrastructure," the Israeli army said. An accusation that was contested by Hamas. "The army spokesman is acting as if he has discovered something incredible," said Izzat Al-Rishq, a senior political official in the Islamist movement. He added that Hamas had repeatedly said it had taken several captives to hospital for treatment, "particularly because some had been wounded in airstrikes" by Israel.
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