JERUSALEM, Nov 19 (Reuters) - Israel published video on Sunday of what it described as a tunnel dug by Palestinian militants under the Gaza Strip’s biggest hospital, a focus of its search-and-destroy missions against Hamas in a war now in its seventh week.
The IDF built a network of tunnels for a bunker under al-Shifa hospital back when they occupied Gaza.
TLDR of Newsweek Article:
Fact Check: Did Israel Build Bunker Under Shifa Hospital?
The Ruling: True
Multiple sources have corroborated that a bunker or basement was built at Israel’s discretion in the 1980s.
It remains unclear whether Hamas operates the space beneath the hospital as a major military headquarters, even though the IDF has presented evidence of weapons stashed in the hospital.
To be clear, I personally think a concrete basement and a bunker are two different things, but without more details it’s difficult to know what the reality is.
I also find it annoying that the IDF video has multiple cuts and jumps, rather than showing directly from how you get to this tunnel from the hospital proper.
It makes it incredibly difficult to compare it to the building plans from then to see if this tunnel is indeed new or not. Which is maybe on purpose by the IDF on how they made the video?