The Israeli Army assured this Friday that Hamas’ main base of operations in the Gaza Strip is located below the main hospital in Gaza City, an accusation immediately denied by the Palestinian Islamist movement. In a press conference before international media, Army spokesperson, Vice Admiral Daniel Hagari, presented “a series of satellite images that demonstrate Hamas’ underground complexes beneath” the Shifa hospital, the largest in the Palestinian enclave.
Under the foundations of the hospital there are, as Hagari quotes Israeli Intelligence, “several tunnels that connect the medical center with its surroundings” so Hamas militias do not have to risk the open sky to enter the center. “Hamas operates in and beneath Shifa Hospital, as well as other hospitals in Gaza, through a network of tunnels. And Shifa is not the only hospital. It is one among many. Hamas’s use of hospitals is systematic in nature. “Hagari assured before confirming that the Army has already shared this information with Israel’s allies.
The Israeli Army also claims that Hamas has installed a “command center” in the hospital, which it uses to direct rocket fire against Israel, and has denounced that the Islamist movement takes advantage of the hospital’s supplies for the operation of that base, according to the press conference reported by the ‘Times of Israel’. In response, Hamas has denied that it hides its bases under the enclave’s hospitals or that it is housing its militias in Gaza’s medical centers, its spokesman Abdulatif al Qanou told the Al Jazeera network. “The Zionist enemy is trying to present a false narrative to boost the morale of the Army. It is misleading and false propaganda. All Hamas leaders are at home and not in hospitals,” he said.
