Israeli soldiers found Hamas weapons and combat equipment at Al Shifa Hospital in the Gaza Strip during a search on Wednesday, Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said.
At the same time, the military released a video it said showed some of the material recovered from an undisclosed building inside the large hospital complex, including automatic weapons, grenades, ammunition and bulletproof vests.
Hamas, which is fighting Israeli forces inside Gaza, dismissed the announcement as “lies and cheap propaganda”.
Israel invaded the Palestinian enclave last month and vowed to destroy Hamas after the Palestinian group launched a surprise cross-border attack on southern Israel on October 7.
The military has focused its operations on hospitals across northern Gaza after long accusing Hamas of setting up large command and control centers beneath medical facilities in an effort to avoid airstrikes.
Israeli troops forced their way into Al-Shifa overnight and spent the day searching specific locations inside Gaza’s largest hospital.
“This property in Shifa hospital, just like in Rantissi, proves that the hospitals were used for military purposes for terror, in direct contradiction to international law,” said Hagari.
Israeli soldiers entered the Rantissi Pediatric Hospital on Monday and later released a video showing what it said were weapons that Hamas had stored in the building’s basement, Reuters reports.
