‘Moment of truth’ as Israel displays Al-Shifa Hospital findings

Israel insisted Al-Shifa hospital was Hamas’ command centre and stormed it despite an international outcry. This is how the evidence is stacking up.

ANALYSIS

Does a dozen guns, three bulletproof vests, nine grenades, four walkie-talkies and a laptop constitute the Hamas terror group’s central headquarters? That’s the evidence Israel has so far presented to justify its controversial Wednesday assault on Gaza’s largest hospital.

Israel’s repeated threats to attack the Dar Al-Shifa Hospital had evoked an international outcry.

The international laws of war, as outlined under the Geneva Conventions, state hospitals are not legitimate targets – unless they can be proven to present a clear and present danger.

Even then, every possible effort must be taken to protect its civilian occupants and maintain their access to treatment.

On Tuesday evening local time, Israeli troops and tanks forced their way into the Al-Shifa complex from the south.

A fierce gunbattle in the surrounding streets reportedly resulted in the deaths of five Hamas militants. No Israeli troops were lost.

GeoConfirmed ISR-PAL.

"3 IDF armored vehicles (Namer) at the main entrance of Shifa Hospital. Picture taken from the Hospital."

31.523646, 34.444516

GeoLocated by @IsraelBreakinghttps://t.co/ybj7Qp2fXb

— GeoConfirmed (@GeoConfirmed) November 16, 2023

When they stormed the hospital’s grounds, no resistance was encountered. “No friction has been recorded so far between the troops and any of the patients or medical staff,” Israeli Army Radio added at the time.

No staff, patients or refugees seeking shelter from persistent air strikes and artillery barrages were reportedly injured in the assault.

But this may not have been what the Israeli Defence Force had expected.

Unconfirmed reports suggest its troops had been told to prepare to battle some 300 heavily armed Hamas fighters hiding there.

‘Significant findings’ in Al-Shifa hospital

After a long, quiet night, IDF public relations spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari on Thursday morning declared the raid to be a success.

“We found inside the hospital: weapons, intelligence materials, military technology and military equipment,” he said. “Additionally, an operational headquarters was located with Hamas communications means and military technology. The technologies and materials were transferred for extraction and testing by the intelligence agencies.”

Official IDF social media feeds emphasised the humanitarian element of the operation, displaying piles of boxes with large photocopied labels proclaiming “Medical Supplies” and “Baby Food” pasted on their sides. Humidicribs were also shown being offloaded by troops – though the IDF at the same time refused aid agencies permission to deliver fuel for the generators needed to power them.

Over the weekend, Hamas stopped doctors at Shifa from receiving life-saving Israeli aid. Now we’re in the hospital — it can’t stop us now. pic.twitter.com/W27gxbclrg

— Eylon Levy (@EylonALevy) November 15, 2023

“We were focused on bringing intelligence and dismantling certain capabilities that we had intelligence on,” IDF spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Richard Hecht told media Thursday. “It was something that was very, very focused, and we went in a very sort of cautious way into the hospital. There will be more information coming out on what we found during the day.”

On Friday, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant insisted the IDF had made “significant findings” inside Al-Shifa Hospital. “The operation continues and it is carried out in a precise, selective, but very very determined manner,” he added.

But the evidence presented so far is limited.

“This is the moment of truth now for the IDF to show Hamas was actually in Al-Shifa hospital,” notes King’s College London Middle East analyst Dr Andreas Krieg. “Israel so far hasn’t produced the evidence that would necessitate the raid … a few guns allegedly stacked away somewhere isn’t the evidence the IDF promised about a Hamas command and control centre in the hospital – a narrative that has been long in the making.”

But retired IDF Lieutenant General Peter Lerner defends the situation, saying: “Too many journalists jumped to the conclusion that if we can’t immediately show the entire fortress of terror to the world, then it doesn’t exist. Someone once said that patience is a virtue …”

The case for the prosecution

Israel has for weeks been attempting to build a case for assaulting Gaza’s largest hospital despite the protections offered to it under international law.

On October 28, it released an 11-second “intelligence-based illustration video” at an IDF news conference accusing Hamas of hiding under the facility.

“This is only an illustration; we will not share here the true material that we have in our hands,” Rear Admiral Hagari added at the time, saying that supportive intelligence had been delivered to its allies.

An IDF #D diagram of the Hamas headquarters it claims is under Dar Al-Shifa Hospital.

Three days later, an IDF spokeswoman narrated a YouTube presentation titled The Real Story of the Shifa Hospital Explained.

“Shifa Hospital, meaning house of healing in Arabic, is the largest hospital in Gaza City with a capacity of 1500 beds and about 4000 staff members, but it’s also one of Hamas’ headquarters,” she says. “How do we know that? Actually, this isn’t news …”

An IDF spokeswoman in The Real Story of the Shifa Hospital Explained. Picture: YouTube

The spokeswoman highlighted a 2007 incident when Hamas fighters took shelter within the hospital, and a 2009 accusation by Hamas’ political opponent – the Palestinian Authority – that it used the facility for torture and interrogation.

“This hospital is one of the headquarters of Hamas’ military wing – the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades,” she asserts. “The hospital’s energy and infrastructure is simultaneously being used by Hamas’ underground terrorist network and its leaders. Underneath this hospital … is a bunker full of Hamas terrorists.”

The IDF released an intercepted Hamas phone call to support its allegation. And the United States this week insisted it has “a variety of intelligence” confirming “Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad used some hospitals in the Gaza Strip, including Al-Shifa.”

On Wednesday, Israel announced it had accumulated sufficient evidence to strip the Al-Shifa hospital of its protected status under the laws of war. It was, insisted Netanyahu government spokesman Eylon Levy, therefore a valid military target.

The hospital above the Shifa Terror Complex has lost its protected status because of Hamas military activities.

Hamas must surrender now. pic.twitter.com/eh50sldl8i

— Eylon Levy (@EylonALevy) November 15, 2023

On Friday, two days after the attack, the IDF assured the Times of Israel that “new findings have been made indicating significant underground infrastructure in the hospitals, and our forces are working to uncover them.” It also claimed to have “clear information” proving a connection between Hamas activity in Al-Shifa Hospital and the detention of hostages.

The case for the defence

Hamas – a group condemned internationally as a terrorist organisation for its deliberate targeting of civilians – has denied Israel’s claims.

“The terrorist Zionist occupation is still practising blatant lying,” Hamas political bureau member Izzat Al-Rishq proclaimed on social media the day after the raid.

“More than 20 hours after attacking Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza, and tampering with all its departments, in search of the alleged command and control rooms of the Hamas movement, and its captive soldiers and officers, the occupation came out to the world with ridiculous theatrics. It was exposed that he brought some weapons, clothes, and tools and placed them in the hospital in a scandalous manner, telling lies and a fabricated story that no one would believe.”

An IDF diagram of where it says Hamas command centres are under Dar Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza. Picture: IDF

Reports from within Palestinian hospitals in the weeks before the attack have been erratic due to communications blackouts and intermittent power supplies. But video clips sourced from Palestinian journalists show doctors and staff denying Hamas’ presence. They also record patients angrily lashing out against Hamas for using them as human shields.

Hamas has a well-established track record of doing both: Hiding in hospitals and behind its own Palestinian citizens.

But the presence of underground facilities at Al-Shifa hospital has long been known. A series of basements were constructed by Israel beneath the hospital’s central “Building No. 2” during its military occupation of Gaza in 1983. Media reports from the time describe them as housing laundry and services facilities.

It’s not yet clear if these spaces have since been co-opted by Hamas to form its Gaza headquarters.

The evidence so far

On Thursday, the IDF detailed what it had allegedly found inside the Al-Shifa Hospital.

“An operational command centre, weapons and technological assets were found in the MRI building of the hospital,” one announcement proclaims.

“In another department in the hospital, the soldiers located an operational command centre and technological assets belonging to Hamas, indicating that the terrorist organisation uses the hospital for terrorist purposes,” it adds, saying that the IDF was “extracting intelligence” from the facility while “preventing harm to the medical teams and civilians sheltering there.”

The IDF released two videos and a set of photos from within Al-Shifa to support its claims.

Most of this appears to be from the hospital’s Prince Nayef Center unit at the heart of the medical complex.

“Watch as LTC (res.) Jonathan Conricus exposes the countless Hamas weapons IDF troops have uncovered in the Shifa Hospital’s MRI building,” an IDF social media post proclaims.

Another video released by the IDF from the Shifa hospital in central #Gaza shows a vehicle the army said it found inside the hospital, filled with weapons.

The soldier seems to suggest those weapons were used during the October 7 attacks. pic.twitter.com/d8GWFzsAUA

— Michael A. Horowitz (@michaelh992) November 16, 2023

The IDF spokesman walks through the hospital’s blast-damaged halls, pointing out where Hamas operatives had allegedly stashed “go bags”. He pulls one of these out from behind an MRI machine to display its mismatched ammunition, grenades and an AK-style assault rifle.

He then moves down a hall, pointing to cabinets where he said more bags with assault rifles and associated gear had been found.

Subsequent photos released by the IDF – along with footage from Fox News, CNN and the BBC – show a total haul of about a dozen guns, vests, grenades, a set of handcuffs, a laptop, pristine Qurans, a set of prayer beads – and a box of imported dried dates.

“These arms by themselves hardly seem to justify the military fixation on Al-Shifa, even setting the law aside,” notes senior adviser at the International Crisis Group Brian Finucane.

The jury’s out …

IDF spokesman Hecht on Thursday afternoon adopted a far more cautious tone than the earlier exultant declaration that “countless” weapons had been found.

“We found certain things,” he said. “That’s all I can say at this stage.”

Since then, the IDF says it has recovered the body of a hostage – Yehudit Weiss – in a building in a suburban block outside the hospital, along with an additional assault rifle and a rocket-propelled grenade. A shallow tunnel was also exposed beneath the footpath surrounding the complex. And, on Friday morning, the IDF announced it had discovered a white ute parked inside the hospital grounds carrying a variety of rifles, grenades and other explosives.

EXPOSED:
In the Shifa Hospital complex, IDF troops found a hidden booby-trapped vehicle containing a large number of weapons, including:
· AK-47s
· RPGs
· sniper rifles
· grenades
· other explosives

See for yourself: pic.twitter.com/TApCThR9OM

— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) November 16, 2023

“I was expecting a bit more than a hole in the ground based on what Israel was claiming. It has a big bin Laden’s Mountain Fortress vibe at the moment,” open source intelligence group Bellingcat founder Eliot Higgens posted this morning.

International media and military analysts have been pouring over what photos and footage have been made available so far.

Some discrepancies have been noted.

“No cuts, no edits – just the undeniable truth,” the IDF posted with its initial video release. This was deleted a short time later after viewers pointed to obvious cuts and edits.

The re-post was shorter, reducing and blurring a scene at the end where an allegedly captured laptop displayed a photograph of a recently rescued young female Israeli soldier (Ori Megidish).

The BBC visited the MRI building of the Shifa hospital as well. It mentions that a laptop had photos and videos of hostages. The photo that was on display (and later redacted when the IDF re-posted the video) was a publicly available image of Ori Megidishhttps://t.co/6r3zWlvx0Opic.twitter.com/5fVEErFl5U

— Aric Toler (@AricToler) November 16, 2023

Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) analysts also point out the laptop found in the MRI room was a Lenovo Thinkpad T490. This small device does not come with a built-in CD reader, and no portable version was displayed. That may indicate the bundles of CDs presented as evidence alongside it may be those provided to patients after an MRI scan.

The MRI machine itself presents another question.

The “grab bag” of weapons and equipment found there can only have been hidden after the machine became inoperable. Intense magnetism from scans can turn even a paperclip into a deadly projectile.

This may have been as recent as Sunday when the World Health Organisation (WHO) announced Al-Shifa was “not functioning as a hospital anymore” because it had run out of fuel for its electrical generators.

The New York Times’ Aric Toler pointed to two guns in a BBC report and Fox News report that appear to have been moved to different locations within the hospital.

The same two guns that appeared for the Fox News report are present for the BBC as well. These guns were not in this spot during the initial walk-through of the location by an IDF officer, which was done hours before Fox and the BBC arrived.https://t.co/6r3zWlvx0Opic.twitter.com/r2J2W4zQ1e

— Aric Toler (@AricToler) November 16, 2023

Defending the lack of evidence so far, Israeli government spokesman Eylon Levy tweeted that Israel “could pull a whole Akhnai’s Oven to prove Hamas’ war crimes”.

Appreciate this is a niche comment, but Israel could pull a whole Akhnai’s Oven to prove Hamas’ war crimes, with a carob tree, river, and inclining walls, till a Divine Voice itself comes out of the sky to announce it, and some would still say it’s all “unverified”. #frumtwitterpic.twitter.com/MT1VTBScKP

— Eylon Levy (@EylonALevy) November 16, 2023

However, IDF spokesman Hagari was facing an uphill struggle to convince viewers after recently making an embarrassing mistake in a similar evidence presentation.

In a heavily edited video “walk-through” of the abandoned al-Rantisi pediatric hospital last week, he pointed to a calendar with the phrase “Al-Aqsa Flood” (the Hamas’ code name for the October 7 terror attack) scrawled across its top. He tells the camera that the Arabic writing on the calendar lists names of Hamas fighters who took part in the attack. But those who can read Arabic point out they simply list the days of the week.

Jamie Seidel is a freelance writer | @JamieSeidel