2023-11-17 07:14:39
On the night of Tuesday November 14 to Wednesday November 15, the Israeli army announced that it was carrying out a “targeted operation” on the Al Shifa hospital – the largest in Gaza, located in the north of the enclave. Twenty-four hours later, the IDF posted various images online of the discoveries made in the building.
For several weeks, the Israeli authorities have assured that Hamas uses this hospital as its headquarters, which legitimizes, from their point of view, the incessant strikes carried out in the area. On October 27, Israeli Prime Minister relayed a 3D visualization showing tunnels, dug under Al-Shifa hospital, serving as meeting rooms. On a map, the Israeli government indicated the presence of a “Hamas command and control center” and several “underground Hamas complexes.”
Weapons, no tunnel
The first images revealed this Thursday by the Israeli army do not show, at least until now, such infrastructure. But rather weapons and military equipment, scattered throughout several rooms of the hospital. A seven-minute video was published on Israeli army networks. Presented as an inventory of what was discovered on site by the IDF, we see Lieutenant-Colonel Jonathan Conricus (one of the English-speaking spokespersons for the Israeli army) wandering through several rooms. It was filmed during the day, probably Wednesday. As one observer noted, Jonathan Conricus’ watch reads 1:18 p.m..
The lieutenant-colonel specifies that this video was “shot in one go, without editing” (which is inaccurate, a cut being made at 6′27″). From the first images, we can see on the wall of the entrance hall the inscription “Prince Nayef Center for Radiodiagnostics and radiotherapy” – a medical wing created in 2004 – confirming that the images which follow were indeed filmed in Al-Shifa. This part of the hospital, where the army’s discoveries are concentrated to date, is not part of the buildings considered to conceal the underground headquarters of Hamas, circled in red on the map released by the Israeli army on the 27 October 2023.
«Grab bag»
In the video, Conricus claims that what was found in this part of the site “totally confirms, without doubt, that Hamas systematically uses hospitals for its military operations in violation of international law. And what we found, I think, is just the tip of the iceberg.” For its part, Hamas described this operation as “lies and cheap propaganda”.
After observing that “all the security cameras are blocked”, Conricus walks down a long corridor, to a room occupied by an MRI machine. “If you follow me behind the machine, you will see what our troops updated just a few minutes ago.” He first presents a bulky bag, which he describes as a “grab bag” of Hamas members (in other words, a bag containing the equipment necessary to arm oneself). “[Dans cet] military equipment, there is an AK47, cartridges, grenades, and of course a uniform. All this was hidden very conveniently, secretly, behind the machine. Conricus specifies that a backpack containing a computer was also hidden there.
Further into the center, the spokesperson shows the camera two bags containing weapons, which he explains were found in a closet in the middle of a corridor in the imaging department. Then, after passing through another MRI room, “in which similar contraband was found,” he presents the contents of another bag, constituting “a complete military kit for a Hamas terrorist.” We see a pair of shoes, a tactical vest, a grenade, cartridges, as well as an assault rifle. The contents of a last bag were previously emptied onto a shelf. With, present in the image, military insignia, a bulletproof vest bearing the inscription in Arabic “Brigades Al-Qassam”, the armed wing of Hamas, a knife and a rifle. Finally, in a final room, Conricus shows a backpack, a radio, records, and a computer whose screen is blurred, and which according to the spokesperson, “contains at first glance many incriminating elements” .
A weapon moved
This passage, in which the computer screen appears, was published by the IDF. Indeed, in a first version of the video posted online by the Israeli forces, a photo was visible on the screen: we could then see the portrait of Ori Megidish, an Israeli soldier whom the army assured that he had released from the hands of Hamas at the end of October. Hamas has always denied having held him among its hostages.
Other images of the operation were broadcast, notably on the IDF Telegram channel. So a video, with a length of 1′13″, uses images already broadcast in the long version presented by Conricus. And adds an overview of an arsenal placed on the ground, on a large blue carpet and a mattress. In total, there are twelve rifles, a pistol, a knife, fourteen ammunition magazines, three grenades, three vests, military fatigues, a balaclava, a pair of shoes, weapon lubricant and two aerosols. We recognize on the carpet several pieces of equipment visible in the video of the IDF spokesperson.
A other picture shows military equipment arranged on a long table, to which are added communications devices, books and pamphlets (several of them bearing a logo that appears to be that of the al-Qassam brigades), as well as a box containing dates. Another photograph of the same room was also broadcast, this time with IDF soldiers. However, it is difficult to locate this room with certainty within the hospital. Unlike the previous photo (that of the blue carpet), the elements photographed on the table are not, a priori, visible in Jonathan Conricus’ video.
In the evening from Wednesday to Thursday, the correspondents of the BBC and of FOX News had access to this medical imaging center, in the presence of the Israeli army. In the images broadcast by the American channel and British public television, we find Jonathan Conricus, who shows journalists the documents and weapons presented in the sequence filmed by the IDF, and in particular the material found behind the MRI machines. The comparison between their different contents suggests that weapons were moved before the arrival of the journalists. Indeed, although they are taken in the same place, the images, depending on whether they are shot by the army or by journalists, do not show quite the same thing.
Thus, as we previously detailed, Jonathan Conricus shows behind an MRI machine a bag containing military equipment, including “an AK47”. However, when Fox News and the BBC film or take a photo of the back of this same machine, in this same room, we now see ammunition, a pair of shoes, and above all two weapons instead of one. One of the two rifles, a short-barreled weapon with a green shoulder strap, also appears in the IDF video, inside a cabinet in another room. And also at the bottom right of the photo of the arsenal laid out on a blue carpet.
We know that the English-speaking media reports were carried out at night, on Wednesday evening. Subsequently, therefore, to the long video shot by Conricus. Subsequently, also, to the two photographs showing weapons grouped together on the blue sheet and on a table, shared by the army, the URL of these photos (ici et To be) confirming that they were taken during the day on Wednesday, before 6 p.m. Which suggests that the weapons were placed for the shooting of journalists. The BBC and Fox News did not respond to requests from CheckNews.
While several experts have pointed out the fact that the arsenal, found – according to the IDF – on the site, was insignificant, the Israeli army once again communicated, indicating that it was in possession of “clear information” linking Hamas activity in Al-Shifa to the hostages. And to evoke “new elements” on the presence of a Hamas tunnel under the hospital, specifying: “Our forces are working to discover them.”
The Israeli press also insists on the fact that the operation would also have a “symbolic” vocation, being intended to show Hamas that the Tsahal is determined to go everywhere and that Hamas, as Time writes, “is not safe nowhere.
Early Thursday evening, the Israeli army announced that it had discovered near Al-Shifa hospital the lifeless body of Yehudit Weiss, a 65-year-old hostage, kidnapped by Hamas militants on October 7. The statement did not indicate when she was killed. The Israeli military claims that “in the structure in which the hostage was located, military equipment, including Kalashnikov rifles and RPGs, was also found.” The Israeli army also said it found a tunnel near the hospital. A video has been released showing what looks like the entrance to an underground structure. But the nature of the latter could not be confirmed Thursday evening, according to the images broadcast.
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