Claims of Hamas Tunnels Under Al-Shifa Hospital Debunked
The so-called evidence Israel provided alleging that Hamas had a headquarters in Al-Shifa Hospital has been debunked, news agencies which conducted analysis of Israel's claims report. Middle East Monitor reviewed analysis of Israel's claims through a video broadcast by CNN in the U.S. CNN was shown a shaft, which an Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson said was an entrance tunnel to operation headquarters under the hospital. Wires leading into the shaft provided power to the tunnel from solar panels fixed onto the roof of the Hamas commander's house, he said. A view of the alleged commander's house was shown in the vicinity of the hospital. "We put a robot inside the tunnel and the robot saw a massive door, a door that is in the direction of the hospital," the IDF person said. He said that Hamas in particular, was using the hospital as a human shield for military operation headquarters supposedly located in tunnels underground. Other analysis of IDF footage by the BBC came to the conclusion that "Israel is either lacking evidence or not sharing it."
Even before the raid, Ashraf al-Qidra, a spokesman for the Health Ministry, said on November 14 that the hospital had repeatedly invited international organizations to tour Al-Shifa, but did not receive a response.
Seventy-two hours after the raid,
the IDF were still unable to produce any evidence to
substantiate its claim. Israeli military spokesperson Lieutenant
Colonel Richard Hecht admitted as much: "We understand that
there's a substantial Hamas infrastructure in the area, in the
vicinity of the hospital. Potentially under the hospital, and
it's something we're working on. It'll take us time. This war is
a complex war," he said.
CNN published the claim without question and the likes of U.S. President Biden have repeated that there is proof that Al-Shifa Hospital is used by Hamas as a headquarters. Similarly, speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, U.S. National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby declared, "We have information that Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad use some hospitals in the Gaza Strip, including Al-Shifa, and tunnels underneath them to conceal and to support their military operations and to hold hostages." Such disinformation will go down as another moment in history like that of the "weapons of mass destruction" asserted by George W. Bush and Tony Blair in 2002, or the U.S. fabricated videos of Iraqi soldiers killing babies in a Kuwaiti hospital in 1990.
The false story that Hamas uses civilians, patients, refugees and medical personnel as human shields is repeated over and over again to suggest that Israeli atrocities and crimes are justified in order to destroy a terrorist organization driven by hate and without any conscience or humanity.
As is also the case of the false claims that Hamas murdered men, women and children, decapitated babies and raped women on October 7 and other claims which have been debunked, it turns out that "the tunnel they claim to be a Hamas tunnel is actually an electrical wire assembly point." A hospital representative said, "We raised the wires to prevent any electrical shocks caused by floods."
The other claims made by the Israeli military spokesperson on the CNN video have also been debunked. He pointed to a calendar on the wall declaring, "This is the guard list. Every terrorist has his own shift" which again CNN sensationally broadcast without question. Arabic speakers have pointed out that the calendar simply gives the days of the week since October 7, written in Arabic. The IDF spokesperson also displayed some weapons and a computer as evidence of Hamas' military operations inside the hospital. Investigators on social media analyzed the image on the laptop and found the home screen to be a picture of a female IDF soldier. A baby's milk bottle and some women's clothes were provided as evidence that hostages were held in the tunnel.
Despite facts which refute the CNN video, CNN continues to post the video on its website. Investigators say they will persist in pouring over the footage to determine whether or not these are genuine Hamas items. Given the previous cases of false evidence, along with verified accounts of the kind of carnage and revenge seeking IDF soldiers are carrying out in Gaza, such claims are cause for doubt every time.
Hamas called these Israeli claims silly propaganda. Israeli forces have done the same in the past, the spokesperson, said, "finding" weapons in hospitals IDF forces have attacked and invaded. "We have repeated more than once and for two weeks our call on the UN and international organizations to form an international committee to visit the hospitals and check on their conditions to expose the occupation's lies and false claims because we are aware of the size of its fabrications and deception that aim to cover up its crimes against children, women and defenceless civilians," Hamas said. Doctors, health providers and hospital administrators have publicly rejected the Israeli claims as completely unsubstantiated.
U.S. President Biden, in an interview following the APEC summit in San Francisco on November 11-17, said it is "not realistic" to expect Israel to stop its ongoing war in the Gaza Strip. "Hamas has already said publicly that they plan on attacking Israel again like they did before. So the idea that they're going to just stop and not do anything is not realistic." He repeated the Israeli claims of resistance operations based from hospitals to justify Israeli war crimes of attacking hospitals. "It is not carpet bombing. This is a different thing. They're going through these tunnels, they're going into the hospital. So this is a different story than I believe it was occurring before, the indiscriminate bombing," he said.
This article was published in
Volume 53 Number 23 - November 2023
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmlm2023/Articles/MS53233.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca