A hospital in Gaza funded by foreign Muslim donors was custom-built with tunnels for Hamas terrorists to use, Israel claimed on Sunday.

The Israel Defense Forces produced video evidence that it said proved that two hospitals in Gaza, funded by donors from Qatar and Indonesia, were equipped with underground tunnels that were part of Hamas’s “terror Metro”.

The IDF alleged that Hamas fighters had opened fire on Israeli troops from the buildings of Gaza’s Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani Hospital, built by Qatar’s former ruler in 2016.

And they said that the Indonesia Hospital, funded by Indonesian donors including the Indonesian Red Cross Society, had been specially equipped with tunnels for Hamas to use when its foundations were first laid.

“Hamas systematically built the Indonesia Hospital to disguise its underground terror infrastructure,” said Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, an IDF spokesman, in a media briefing on Sunday.

The IDF presented evidence of its claims in an attempt to counter accusations that it had targeted hospitals and other civilian infrastructure during its ongoing operation to wipe out Hamas from Gaza. Mr Hagari accused the terror group of “cynically” using hospitals to protect its fighters and infrastructure.

In a half-hour video presentation on Sunday afternoon, Mr Hagari showed images and videos that he said had been shared with other friendly intelligence agencies for verification.

One of the videos purported to show IDF troops exposing a tunnel under the Qatari-funded hospital, which has already suffered significant damage during the Israeli incursion into Gaza.

“If it weren’t enough that we exposed a tunnel under the hospital, the terrorists also shot at our soldiers from within the hospital,” Mr Hagari said.

He claimed that the Indonesia Hospital - “funded by several NGOs from Indonesia” - had been equipped with tunnels for Hamas to use when its foundations were being built. He referred to images taken in 2010 when the hospital was first under construction, which showed a number of cement archways that he said provided the tunnel roofs.

“Hamas built the hospital on top of their terror infrastructure, before they started to construct the hospital,” he said. “Cement archways are not needed when building hospitals, they are used to build an underground metro of tunnels.”

He also said that a Hamas rocket launch pad had been built just 75 metres from the hospital which was used to fire rockets at Israel.

“Why? They know precisely that if Israel strikes a launch pad like that, the hospital will be damaged.”

The Indonesia Hospital is located in Beit Lahia, a city of about 90,000 people in northern Gaza. It is understood to have been funded by donations from Indonesian citizens in conjunction with organisations including the Indonesian Red Cross Society and the Muhammadiyah Society, one of Indonesia’s largest Muslim organisations. 

There is no suggestion that donors were aware that Hamas had altered the hospital design in the way the IDF alleged.