Press Briefing by IDF Spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari November 13th, 21:20

IDF Spokesperson, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, 13th November, Evening Statement

(in Hebrew):

Good Evening, the fighting in Gaza continues. Infantry and armored forces continue with operational activities against terror targets in the heart of [the] Shati [area]. Later on today, our forces reached the Rantisi hospital. I accompanied forces from the Flotilla 13 Special Forces Unit (“Shayetet 13”) and the 401st Brigade and brought with me international journalists. During our operation, we exposed the terrorist infrastructure embedded in the hospital. We will now expose what we saw and prove to the world how Hamas turned the hospitals into its terror machine. We will now show the world how Hamas keeps weapons inside the hospital. We also suspect, and there are signs, that some of the hostages were held on site, for a certain period of time. Israeli hostages were held in the Rantisi hospital and this is currently being under review. This is also based on, and verified by our intelligence forces. The world needs to know what is going on in the hospitals in Gaza and must take action against the Hamas-ISIS war crimes. I will now present the evidence in english.

(in English):

I just got back from Gaza, where I joined an operation inside the Rantisi Children’s Hospital.

I went to the hospital with a video camera and personally documented more concrete evidence. The concrete evidence [is] that Hamas uses hospitals as an instrument of war.

Underneath the hospital, in the basement, we found: a Hamas command-and-control center; suicide-bomb vests; grenades; AK-47 assault rifles; explosive devices; RPGs and other weapons, computers, money, etcetera. And we also found signs that indicated that Hamas held hostages here. This is currently under review but we also have intelligence that verifies it. Additionally, we found that Hamas terrorists came back from the massacre on October 7th to this hospital, among others, after butchering Israelis in their homes, executing the innocent, murdering entire families, burning babies, burning young women alive and using this children’s hospital Rantisi, to hide.

Hamas hides in hospitals. Today we will expose this to the world.

For the last week, we have been conducting an effort to safely evacuate the patients being treated there, and in other hospitals as well. Israel helped the hospital manager evacuate the Gazan patient[s], to a safer hospital. Yesterday we were informed by the hospital that the last 18 patients in the Rantisi Hospital had safely evacuated to a safer hospital.

This is because our war is against Hamas, not against the people in Gaza. Especially not [against] the sick, wounded, or the women, or the children. Our war is against Hamas who uses them as human shields.

I will now share the raw footage that we filmed a few hours ago proving that Hamas systematically runs its terror machine under hospitals in Gaza. This is the Rantisi hospital. Next to the complex, there is a school, but also there is a terrorist [complex]. [The complex was controlled by] one of the heads of the terrorist[s], [who] is one of the terrorists from the Naval Commando, is the commander of the Naval Commando Unit of Hamas. And this complex is next to the hospital Rantisi, I am talking about yards, short yards. What we found, and you’ll see in the video, [is] that there is a tunnel next to the terrorist building which has solar panels above it, next to the school and next to the hospital. We are now trying to indicate the routes [of] the tunnel to the hospital. We are investigating right now with our engineering team, but we have evidence that this tunnel goes [in] this direction [towards the hospital]. In the hospital, in the building that [is] located in red, we have revealed Hamas infrastructure in the basement. We are still [conducting] searches on other floors of the building. And this operation is still [underway].

(Shows video)

This is where the tunnel is being dug next to the school and next to the hospital. They are building those tunnel[s] specifically next to this sensitive location. A robot is being [inserted] down [into] the tunnel. You can see an electricity panel and the wires going underneath to the tunnel. It comes from the solar energy in the house to maintain energy [in] the tunnel. Instead of this energy, you see this, this is a cover[ed] tunnel, which has a ladder, [going] more than twenty meters down and then we have a door, the robot found a door. [It is nothing other than] a terror tunnel. We are still conducting [an investigation of] this tunnel, but all its infrastructure indicates this is a terror tunnel built next to a hospital, and next to Rantisi.

This is Rantisi hospital, a children’s hospital. This sign says it is for children with cancer. In this building, you [will] see the terror infrastructure. Now I am going to show you.

This is the tunnel.

This is Rantisi hospital, in the basement [of] the building I’ve shown you. Hamas has created a location inside the hospital [that] will be disconnected from the rest of the hospital. Inside this room there is an armory with grenades, vests, bombs, RPGs. In a basement [that] was supposed to be a basement for children to hide in, Hamas took all [the] area under [its] control and conducted [its] war against Israelis, from this hospital. [This is] serious gear that [put] the patients inside the hospital [at risk]. These are explosive. These are bomb vests that you see in the film here for terrorist[s] to hold a bomb vest on them - in a children’s hospital, next to hostages, as we presume.

This is a motorcycle, like [those] you have seen on the day of the 7th of October. It also has a bullet inside it and underneath it is something we think is part of a hostage’s head [band].

They brought the motorcycle inside the basement with a hostage, presum[ably]. This basement also leads to a place where we presume [they held hostages], [due to the fact there are] signs hostages were being held. On this chair we saw a rope, a chair, a cloth and a [poster] of the [World] Health Organization who gives money to this hospital. This is a war crime. And [we also saw] a baby bottle above it [the poster]. This is in the basement. No babies should be in the basement. This is a war crime. This is a crime against humanity. And we also saw an improvised toilet nearby. You don’t build an improvised toilet in the basement unless you want to build infrastructure to hold hostages. You [can] also find some baby stuff over there and we are still investigating everything. We brought our forensic teams [who are] on the way to the hospital to investigate all the evidence that we have.

They built a small kitchen next to a room that was hidden. This room got improvised ventilation from the outside and we assume that this area and this room was either for terrorists staying there or for terrorists and hostages and we will show you the signs that indicate that.

Nobody puts curtains behind a wall. Why do you put curtains when there are no windows unless you want to film something, unless you want to create a place [which] nobody knows if it’s a basement or [an]other place. And there, there is this list with days, which mark the days from the 7th of October and has the name that Hamas gave to the operation, the operation of Al-Aqsa, of the Mosque of Al-Aqsa. It has the dates, the numbers of the days that followed by, I don’t know exactly what it indicates, [or] when they [left] this area, but you have to remember when they evacuated the hospital with the patients, they might have left with the patients, they might have run away through tunnels and we have signs that they had hostages with them. It’s still under investigation, but there [are] enough signs to indicate that.

I was there. I was thinking when I was there about babies, hostage babies, Israeli hostage babies, women, children. This is Hamas, [a] barbaric terrorist organization. This is Hamas using hospitals as human shields, as terror machines. This is not the last hospital like this in Gaza and the world should know that. That is a crime, that is a war crime, that is a crime against humanity, that is against international law. Who[ever] gives money to these hospitals, who[ever] shares this hospital and embraces this hospital, is helping Hamas’ effort. We are trying to shift the Gazans to a safer area in the south and reveal those hospitals as terror machines. The world should know and the world should not forget those crimes against humanity done to Israel. We will free our hostages from Gaza and free Gaza from Hamas for the sake of the people of Israel, for the people of Gaza as well, and [for] the world.