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In an operational update, on November 19, 2023, the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF), along with the Israeli Security Agency (ISA), discovered a sizeable 55-meter tunnel (terrorist tunnel) that was found ten meters deep under the Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza.
In a statement, the IDF on X (former Twitter) shared a video wherein the tunnel contained a firing hole and a blast-proof door. The IDF said, “The tunnel entrance contained various defence mechanisms, such as a blast-proof door and a firing hole.”
False Allegations on IDF
The Israeli Defence Forces on November 18, 2023, denied that they demanded the Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City evacuate within an hour and added that it only accepted the requests of the medical centre director to make a safe route for those who wished to live, an Israeli media agency reported. This morning, the IDF acceded to the request of the director of the Shifa hospital to enable additional Gazans who were in the hospital and would like to evacuate to do so by the secret route.
The IDF further stated that they had, in fact, proposed any requests for medical evacuation would be provided by the IDF, according to the Israeli media agency. At no point did the IDF order the evacuation of patients and medical teams, and it, in fact, proposed that any request for the medical evacuation would be facilitated by the IDF, the statement added.
Al-Shifa: Death Zone
The Al-Shifa Hospital, which is the largest hospital in Gaza, has become a focal point of the ongoing Israel-Hamas War. The IDF claims that the hospital is being misused by Hamas as a base. However, the Hamas and medical staff have denounced the claim made by Israel.
Earlier on November 19, 2023, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said that the Shifa Hospital had become a “death zone” as it announced plans to evacuate the medical facility. The WHO warned that the nearby facilities were already overstretched and that an urgent and immediate ceasefire was needed, given the extreme suffering endured by the people of Gaza.
On November 18, 2023, hundreds of people fled the hospital on foot on the orders of the Israeli Army, according to the director of the medical facility and the report of an international media organisation. Columns of sick and injured, mostly amputees, were seen leaving with displaced people, doctors and nurses as loud explosions were heard around the complex.
Meanwhile, the United Nations and Palestinian medics evacuated 31 pre-mature babies from the hospital, adding preparations were underway for them to enter nearby Egypt. They were taken to a hospital in Southern Gaza of Rafah, where they were receiving urgent care in the neo-native Intensive Care Unit (ICU).
Human Shields and Bases
Israel’s President Issac Herzog has said that his country is not targeting hospitals in Gaza and has asserted that Hamas has placed command and control centres under the hospitals, and they are shooting and killing Israeli citizens from there.
He said, “For weeks, we have been telling the world that Hamas is cynical and uses residents of Gaza and the patients there as human shields. He also said that the Israeli Defence Forces are making sure that none of the patients, the doctors and the crew or operations have been stopped.
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