Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak recalled in an interview with CNN that Israel built the tunnels under the Al Shifa hospital, where the Israeli army claims that Hamas would have located its command center, but he still cannot prove despite the fact that it has been days controlling the health center. "Israel built the bunkers under the Al-Shifa hospital... Hamas is using these bunkers, originally built by an Israeli builder decades ago, when we ruled Gaza," says Barak.
During the interview with journalist Christine Amampour, the former prime minister explains that he does not know to what extent these bunkers are used as the main command center, but that they are certainly used by Hamas. "We built them to make more space for the hospital," he says.
Three weeks ago, the Israeli military released a detailed 3D model of Gaza's Al Shifa Hospital, showing a series of underground facilities that it said were part of an elaborate Hamas command and control center under the center of largest medical care in the territory.
However, days after taking control of the hospital, the military has still not provided evidence of the existence of this supposed command center. Despite this, he has published videos of weapons allegedly seized inside the hospital, a tunnel that runs through the complex and videos captured by surveillance cameras that appear to show Hamas militants dragging hostages through the hospital corridors.
What Israel finds – or doesn't find – could play an important role in its efforts to drum up international support for its war against Hamas, launched on October 7 in response to a bloody cross-border attack by the group.
Gaza's hospitals have played a central role in the competing narratives surrounding the war. Hospitals enjoy special protected status under international laws of war. But they can lose that status if they are used for military purposes.
Israel has long claimed that Hamas uses hospitals, schools, mosques and residential neighborhoods as human shields. In particular, it says Hamas has hidden command centers and bunkers beneath Al Shifa's sprawling grounds. The United States says its own intelligence corroborates those claims. But Hamas denies the accusations.
Israel says other hospitals are similarly used for military purposes and has ordered the evacuation of several Gaza hospitals, including Al Shifa, as it continues its ground operation against Hamas. The UN and other international organizations say these evacuations have endangered patients and overwhelmed remaining hospitals in the besieged territory.
With Israel already facing growing international criticism for its offensive, failure to discover a significant Hamas presence could increase pressure to stop the operation.
The Israeli military has released videos showing AK47s, ammunition and other military equipment it says were found in the hospital's MRI unit. He also claims to have discovered a Toyota pickup truck filled with weapons in a hospital garage. The vehicle appears to be the same type used by Hamas militants during the October 7 raid.
On Sunday he posted a video of a 55-metre tunnel in a hospital courtyard. The underground structure was heavily fortified and led to an explosion-proof door with an opening that Israel said was intended for use by Hamas snipers.
It also released security camera images of suspected Hamas militants escorting what Israel said were two hostages – one from Thailand and the other from Nepal – who were captured in the October 7 cross-border attack. One video showed a group of men forcefully dragging their hostage through the hospital's main entrance and down a hallway. The other showed a group of men, including at least one gunman, pushing a motionless man on a stretcher down a hallway. In both videos, hospital workers could be seen watching. The videos were supposedly recorded on the morning of October 7, coinciding with the time of the attack. But the faces of the two alleged hostages were blurred, making it difficult to verify the authenticity of the videos.
The army also released photographs of what it said were two military jeeps stolen from the Israeli army. Photos showed jeeps parked at the hospital complex on the morning of the attack. “At this point the truth is clear: Hamas wages war from hospitals, it wages terror from hospitals,” said the Israeli army's chief spokesman, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari. "Everyone who cares about the future of humanity must condemn Hamas."
Hamas downplayed the images, saying it had been offering medical treatment to the men in its custody. "We put our fighters at risk to ensure wounded prisoners the best possible treatment in hospitals in the Gaza Strip," the militant group said in a statement.
Osama Hamdan, a senior Hamas leader based in Beirut, acknowledged that Israel could find a tunnel “here or there.” "We do not deny that there are hundreds of kilometers of tunnels in and around Gaza," he said at a news conference. But he said Hamas does not use hospitals for militant activities.
Israel has not said where the Al Shifa tunnel leads or given details about what it was used for. He also hasn't yet shown anything like the images of underground bunkers and conference rooms he showed in that October 27 illustration.
Hamdan, the Hamas leader, scoffed at the Israeli findings so far. "The Israelis said there was a command and control center, which means the issue is more than just a tunnel," he said.
Israeli military officials say those initial illustrations were “conceptual” and should not be taken literally. They have also promised many more discoveries as their troops continue the painstaking task of clearing a complex spanning more than 40,000 square metres. "It's going to take time," said Lt. Col. Richard Hecht, another military spokesman.
