(JNS) The Israel Defense Forces released extensive video evidence of Hamas's terror tunnels under Gaza City's Shifa Hospital on Wednesday, saying its latest findings "unequivocally prove the modus operandi of the terrorist organization Hamas, which systematically operates from hospitals."
"The Hamas terrorist organization builds underground complexes under hospitals while exploiting the hospital infrastructure and conducts warfare from them," according to a military statement.
Behind a breached blast door under Shifa Hospital, IDF troops discovered an air-conditioned hideout, complete with bathrooms. Soldiers also located two tunnel shafts near the hospital—one on the street and the other in a nearby house.
According to the IDF, the videos published today are: "further proof that the Hamas terrorist organization uses the residents of the Gaza Strip as a human shield, with an emphasis on patients and doctors."
IDF Spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari explained in one of the videos that the tunnels under Shifa "keep on going to different kind of bases, meaning commanders of Hamas go to the hospital, give directions to the forces, go out by these tunnels, proceed their terror acts against our soldiers, firing rockets on our civilians, and go back directly to the hospital as a human shield."
In a second clip, Hagari tours a tunnel shaft in what appears to be a school building on a street "parallel to the Shifa Hospital."
"Just imagine how people are building tunnels underneath a home— in a room that has a classroom," said Hagari.
Israeli forces have operated in and around Shifa since Nov. 15, uncovering weapons and other terror infrastructure inside the hospital, as well as killing terrorists at the compound. The IDF in recent weeks has provided evidence that Hamas uses Shifa and other hospitals in Gaza for its operational activities, which are conducted in a massive tunnel system underneath the complexes.
“The tunnel shaft was uncovered in the area of the hospital underneath a shed alongside a vehicle containing numerous weapons, including RPGs, explosives and Kalashnikov rifles,” said the IDF.
According to the military, the entrance to the tunnel was outfitted with “various defense mechanisms” to prevent Israeli forces from entering, such as a blast door and a firing hole. Hamas held at least three of the estimated 240 hostages it kidnapped on Oct. 7 at Shifa, the IDF revealed on Sunday night, presenting CCTV footage of the hostages being brought into the hospital.
In addition to Marciano, two hostages from Nepal and Thailand were hidden at Shifa Hospital in the immediate aftermath of the Oct. 7 massacre, said Hagari.
