The Shifa Hospital: Live Updates Regarding All Terrorist Infrastructure Located

​“You can see even from open-source reporting that Hamas does use hospitals, along with a lot of other civilian facilities, for command-and-control, for storing weapons, for housing its fighters… this is Hamas’ track record, both historically and in this conflict.”
U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan

Background regarding the Shifa Hospital

The Shifa Hospital is located in the heart of Gaza City and is the largest hospital in Gaza.

As previously explained, Hamas has chosen to embed one of its terrorist command and control centers underneath the hospital, risking the lives of the 4000+ staff members and 1500+ beds.

Hamas took over the Gaza Strip in a violent coup in 2007. Since then reports in the international media have occasionally surfaced regarding Hamas’ use—or exploitation—of Shifa hospital. Since then Hamas has shamelessly operated within and underneath the hospital, hiding its operatives and storing its weapons within the hospital itself, as well as in an extensive network of tunnels dug under the hospital. 

What are our troops doing in the hospital and why is this operation necessary?

Our troops entered the Shifa hospital on November 15th, beginning operations based on precise intelligence and searching for and targeting Hamas operatives and infrastructure only. The IDF sent in elite forces who were specially trained for this operation, including medical teams and Arabic speakers to minimize harm to uninvolved civilians. It is essential for our troops to search the hospital for Hamas infrastructure, intelligence, weaponry and operatives, as part of the greater effort to dismantle the terrorist organization and bring all abducted persons home. 

You want evidence—We get it. That’s why we made sure to get everything on camera.

Here’s what we’ve found in the hospital’s complex so far:

• Documentation from the hospital’s security cameras from October 7th, 2023, between the hours of 10:42 and 11:01AM, in which hostages abducted from Israeli territory are seen surrounded by armed Hamas terrorists. 

In the documentation, Hamas terrorists can be seen forcibly transporting hostages, a Nepalese civilian and a Thai civilian, who were kidnapped from Israel.

• A fortified terror tunnel underneath the hospital complex. The tunnel shaft was uncovered in the area of the hospital underneath a shed, alongside a vehicle containing numerous weapons including RPGs, explosives, and AK-47 rifles.

Footage from inside the tunnel, filmed using two different technological assets:

the entrance and movement in the terrorist tunnel, from asset 1:

The descent into the tunnel from the technological asset 2

• explosive devices in the physical therapy ward,
• An interrogation room in the cardiology ward
• A tunnel shaft located near the Qatari Building of the hospital:

• An AK-47, cartridges, ammunition, a terrorist vest and grenades hidden in an MRI room.
  Countless AK-47s, additional firearms and ammunition in a hospital closet/storage room.
• Obstructed security cameras
• Hamas terrorist ‘grab-bag’ (full military kit) containing a grenade, ammunition, vest, Hamas uniform and a standard AK-47. 
• An additional ‘grab-bag’ in a medicine cabinet.
• a room with technological assets containing extensive intelligence, along with military and combat equipment used by the Hamas terrorist organization. 
  
  These items can be seen uncovered in the Shifa hospital by IDF international spokesperson, LTC (res.) Jonathan Conricus:

Display of weapons found in the hospital and shown in the video

• an operational tunnel shaft
• a booby-trapped vehicle containing a large number of weapons
  
  Attached is a video and a photo of the operational tunnel shaft located on the grounds of the Shifa Hospital:

Attached is a video and a photo of the above-mentioned vehicle inside the Shifa Hospital that contained weapons:

In addition, our forces located the bodies of two hostages in the buildings surrounding the hospital. 

The bodies of 65-year-old Yehudit Weiss and 19-year-old Corporal Noa Marciano, both hostages who were abducted by Hamas on October 7, were located and recovered from structures surrounding the hospital’s complex. 

In the structure in which Yehudit Weiss was located, IDF troops also found military equipment including AK-47s and RPGs.

The indisputable evidence of Hamas’ current use of the Shifa Hospital for terrorist purposes opens the floor to many questions, the main one being: why is Hamas exploiting the refuge place of the sick and wounded?

Why is Hamas Using the Shifa Hospital as HQ?

Hamas has total disregard for the most basic human decency, positions its terrorist infrastructure adjacent to, in, or under civilian areas, redirects resources meant for civilians toward its own terrorist objectives and intentionally puts the uninvolved in harm’s way. 

This is exactly what Hamas has done in the Shifa Hospital—it uses the hospital’s electricity and oxygen supplies to sustain a network of underground tunnels, stores weapons everywhere from medicine and supply rooms to MRI rooms. 

Hamas does this knowing the IDF goes out of its way to distinguish between civilians and terrorists and will be more careful regarding targeting terrorist infrastructure within a hospital. This isn’t the only hospital where this issue presents itself—The Rantisi and Al Quds Hospitals, for example, are also suffering under Hamas’ unjust exploitation.

This cowardly method has been sadly effective for Hamas. When civilians are inevitably and tragically injured or killed, Hamas takes advantage of their death to incite hatred and criticism against Israel among the international community. 

Hamas uses the death of Gazans as a weapon in a larger psychological war that aims to undermine the IDF’s legitimacy to operate. Hamas jeopardizes the safety of Gazans with armed terrorists walking the hallways of the hospital alongside patients.

This has been going on for years—what changed now? Why must we operate in the Shifa Hospital? 

This exploitation by Hamas has been going on for decades. The IDF did not take on the threat posed by the hospital in previous, largely aerial, operations. Those operations aimed at  containing Hamas’ capabilities rather than eradicating the terrorist organization as a whole. 

However, the atrocities committed by the terrorist organization on October 7, 2023, left no room for doubt—Hamas cannot be subdued through sporadic operational efforts, it must be eliminated for good for the sake of both Israeli and Gazan civilians. This means its terrorist infrastructure, including in the Shifa hospital, must be rooted out. 

In order to do that in the safest way possible for the civilians who were unable to evacuate from the hospital, while ensuring we eliminate the terrorists, dismantle the terrorist facilities and expose the tunnels in the vicinity of the hospital, it was clear our troops had to conduct a careful operation within the hospital’s complex. Therefore, overnight (Wednesday) our soldiers began operating in a specific part of the hospital, strictly targeting Hamas operatives and facilities. 

How is the IDF minimizing harm to civilians?

During the war against Hamas:

•  Phone calls and text messages have been sent to Gazans explaining the situation at hand, emphasizing this war is not against them but against Hamas and instructing them to evacuate south of Wadi Gaza knowing the majority of the warfare will take place in northern Gaza where Hamas is most prominent. 

• Thousands of leaflets were released over Gaza, containing the same information and including a map of safe evacuation routes south
• Daily content by the IDF Spokesperson in Arabic has been shared on social media and media interviews advising the Gazans to evacuate south and explaining the situation thoroughly. 

While operating in the Shifa Hospital in particular:

• IDF troops opened routes from the hospital and facilitated the evacuation of patients and staff from the hospital.
• The IDF is extremely precise in its operations within the hospital and has specifically sent in soldiers who are Arabic speakers as well as trained medical teams. 
• The IDF maintains contact with the Shifa hospital staff and together with the COGAT coordinates the transfer of aid including medical supplies, food and water. (incubators, baby food, 4000+ liters of water 1,500+ ready-made meals have been transferred so far.)