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The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Thursday that troops were combing through each floor of each building at al-Shifa hospital in Gaza in an ongoing search for Hamas command centers it claims are based in the complex.
An unnamed IDF official told news agencies that information and footage “pertaining to the hostages abducted from Israel” by Hamas was found on “computers and other technological equipment,” at al-Shifa, without elaborating further.
Troops had already found weapons, “intelligence materials” related to the October 7 Hamas terror attacks and “command and control centers,” the official said.
“The operation is shaped by our understanding that there is well-hidden terrorist infrastructure in the complex,” the IDF official said.
“Hamas has persistently worked to conceal infrastructure and cover up evidence,” the official said, adding that the search is being carried out “in a discrete, methodical and thorough manner, based on ongoing field assessments and informed by questioning taking place in the field.”
Hamas has denied operating out of medical facilities.The Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza has said the Israeli operation has destroyed medical services in the hospital. Hamas is considered to be a terror organization by the US, the EU and other states.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) has said the Israeli government has not “provided any evidence” of “harmful acts” being carried out on the hospital premises, which would legitimize a military operation at the expense of hospital operations.
“Doctors, nurses, ambulances and other hospital staff must be permitted to do their work and patients must be protected,”
HRW’s UN Director Louis Charbonneau told the Reuters news agency.
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