Israel ha discovered un fortified tunnel, 55 meters long and 10 meters deep, under al-Shifa hospital of Gaza City. According to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), this infrastructure is used by Hamas fighters and is believed to be the access to the main command center of the pro-Palestinian group. Hamas militiamen and the hospital management denied the accusations, which were instead confirmed by US intelligence.
The discovery happened during a large military operation in the structure that aimed to identify the Hamas operations center, which according to Israel would be located right under the hospital.
The IDF has posted a video of the discovery on social media stating that this constitutes “further evidence” of the hospital's use of patients as “human shields”.
“For weeks we have denounced Hamas' cynical use of Gaza residents and Shifa hospital patients as human shields. This is further evidence,” he writes on X, the Israel Defense Forces.
The entrance to the tunnel
The entrance to the tunnel, according to Israeli soldiers, is equipped with various defense mechanisms, including a shatterproof door and a shooting hole, with the aim of hindering the entry of enemies. From the video, published on November 17, you can see the entrance to the tunnel, a circular hole in the ground, containing two ladders of three and seven metres.
The Israeli army He hasn't gotten into it yet inside the tunnel for fear of possible traps.
“We found a command and control room on floor -2, but once again we have to show – and we will do it again, it's just a matter of time – the connection between the tunnel network and the hospital,” he said Mark Regev, senior advisor to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the BBC.
According to Regev, there is a “network of Hamas tunnels connecting missile launch locations, weapons depots and other military sites. And at the center of it all is Al-Shifa hospital.”
In Al-Shifa hospital no hostages were found until this moment. If they were present, Hamas militants are believed to have removed them through underground tunnels before Israel began the attack.
It's about hostages, closer agreement
Si continues to negotiate the release of the hostages in the hands of the militiamen. The parties are still distant but there is optimism that the negotiations will be successful.
"We are closer to an agreement with Hamas on the hostages. There is no agreement yet but the differences have diminished,” said the American deputy national security advisor Jon Finer in an interview with CBS.
There is also cautious optimism from Arab sources, with the Prime Minister of Qatar, Mohammed ben Abdelrahman Al-Thani, who declared that once an agreement was reached on the release of the Israeli hostages kidnapped by Hamas, only “minor” practical issues.
“The challenges that persist in the negotiations are much smaller (…) they are mostly logistical, of a practical nature,” said the Qatari prime minister at a press conference in Doha together with the EU High Representative of Foreign Policy, Josep Borrell.
